The air was clear in the morning, a little thin because of our elevation, but totally clear. This would not be the case for the rest of our day. We had been reading about wildfires in Utah over the past couple of days in anticipation of needing to enforce our no riding conditions for air quality as we moved further West. Little did we know that our first encounters with wildfires would be on this day. It made for an interesting end to the ride and really gave us perspective on what happens in these natural events and disasters that are not nearly as frequent in our homes.
The ride through the mountains was also spectacular!
Ride Overview
Mileage: 61.2 miles
Elevation: +3,719 ft. / -4,068 ft.
Points of Interest: Copper Mountain, Clinton Gulch Reservoir, Fremont Pass, Leadville, Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, Twin Lakes
Tales of the Trail
The way out of Breckenridge led us onto bike trails almost immediately which is always a sign for good things to come. The temperature was chilly though! It was a tough call on what to wear for the ride, but those who dressed a little on the warmer side were thankful they did after most of the ride to the first rest stop was covered by the shadows of the mountains and trees making things quite cold. How much we were expecting to pull out the warm weather gear again, I don’t know, but this was also colder than I thought it would be. The ride down the trails looking at the pine trees and seeing the backdrop of the massive ski mountains was really incredible. The entrance to the rest stop, which was just a Conoco gas station, even had its own trail and bridge crossing the Tenmile Creek and overlooked Copper Mountain. As if we hadn’t already had days in some of Colorado’s best mountains, this was adding even more.
Leaving that first rest stop and heading towards the second, we had to climb up Fremont Pass which would be the highest point of elevation on the day. The climb from the rest stop to the summit at 11,330 ft. was over 10 miles, but most of the elevation gain was covered in the first 7. For all of those on the road, this was a huge effort and a ton of energy burned meaning that refueling was important when we stopped next. Before then though, everyone stopped at Clinton Gulch Reservoir where the view out to Fletcher Mountain was too beautiful to ride past. Look at all the smiles on our faces (cover photo too)!
In Leadville, where we refueled our bodies, was where we saw the start of the Willow Wildfire which was already growing so much by the time of writing this journal entry that it is going to be very hard for crews to contain. Just as we saw it though, the fire was in one relatively confined area with clouds of smoke rising up. The wind direction was fortuitous for us because it was blowing the smoke exactly off trail and towards the Northeast. Had this not been the case, the day might have had a much earlier ending. Instead, we got to ride on and make it on two wheels to where we would spend the night.
Over this last stretch, we saw Mount Massive and Mount Elbert, the latter being the second tallest mountain outside of Alaska in the United States. On the Southeast side of Mount Elbert, we took a turn to the West and towards the Twin Lakes where we would be spending the night camping. At Whitestar Campground, we unpacked our bags and set up our tents (not before the van had gone to the next campground up the road and already started setting up… haha… silly Cole… it was kind of a miscommunication too…). This was our first camping night!
Apart from some learning in setting up the tents that we have and getting the camping stoves running, we had a really nice evening on the campsite. Some went to explore while others relaxed at the site and talked about the day or just looked off at the mountains beyond. When we all came back for dinner, we were in great frames of mind having spent even more time than usual in and amongst nature. Then, as the sun was setting we retreated into our tents and sleeping bags and hoped that the forecast of 30-degree temperatures during the night would not hit us as badly as our imaginations would dare think.
Tomorrow should also be a great day as we go up Independence Pass (not too long from Independence Day either).
