August 18
Day 6
For the numbers people:
30 miles
896 ft elevation climbed
Despite sleeping at 10,000 ft, the night was warm for a change. A very welcome change! The sun slept in longer than Dale but iwhen it woke up with the rest of us, the sun revealed a deep blue sky full of high wispy clouds as far as the eye could see. We boiled water for our usual breakfast of oatmeal on the porch of the community center. In a very neighborly manner, one of the town members volunteered to return in the morning to help us get drinking water from the well. Mark showed up not long after we started breakfast to help us get water. Mark was one of the long time residents. His dad moved there. He was full of stories and possibly a little lonely because he kept telling stories to whoever was listening. He tried to help us get the well water working but the old pump wouldn’t kick on. After a few pictures on the porch with Mark, we waved goodbye and rolled down the hill past houses, some lived in, some on their way to being a future ghost town. We watered up from a hose behind the post office. Good cool sweet water. In a tiny town, no one worries about a few visitors, they in fact welcomed us beyond description.
Starting each morning by trusting our little GPS, we rode off into the sunshine destination unknown. When was the last time you ever did that?
I think the book description of Riding from Como to Hartsel really sums it up. ‘Right in the middle of Colorado, the developers somehow haven’t reached the beautiful valley you’ll ride through.’
And it was.
We ate lunch under a pine tree. Tuna packs on flour tortillas. we even had some cheese packets. Payday candy bars for dessert. Bernhard, a seasoned European eater, said ,”hey this is pretty good”. It’s not easy to get compliments from a German.
Except for a short ride down a narrow shouldered highway, with cars whizzing by, the day was a postcard ride with gradual rolling hills.
We almost made to our destination town of Hartsel when we recognized the cabins for rent that we had read about. Desperate for a hot shower, we pulled in looking to negotiate a price. We poked our heads into the ranch house. The door was open but no one was around. The place obviously was recently remodeled. There were a dozen cabins surrounding the ranch house. We scouted all over and not finding anyone, we settled into the leather covered chairs in the ranch house. I heard a few groans of appreciation of the oversized leather seats compared to the tiny bike saddles we have been riding for the last week. Jeff and Ron fell asleep almost instantly. After no more than fifteen minutes, the caretaker rolled in. There was a big discussion on our options with a very fortunate ending.
A. Shower only $10 each
B. Shower and camping $30 each
C. Rent one cabin with two beds $500. Three of us would sleep on the floor.
We chose B which turned out to be a jackpot. Let me explain why. When the caretaker showed us the camping spot down by the river, it started to rain. He said if we want to get out of the rain, we could use the barn.
Well the barn had been remodeled too into a wedding reception area with concrete floors some leather oversized chairs and plenty of space for us to roll out our sleeping bags. After a warm shower, we ate our dehydrated camping dinner by a lazy river flowing by the doors of the barn and ginormous dark rain clouds. It was a five star setting for a $30 price.
Feeling like Rockefeller, we ‘popped’ another $15 for a hot breakfast in the morning.
The sun is just going down for its rest but the Olds are one step ahead tonight.
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