Start - Rockrimmon home - Elevation ~ 6450'
End ( and high point) - Wye Campground off of Gold Camp Road - Elev ~ ~ 9800'
Low point - Fountain Creek and 26th Street - Elev ~ ~6100'
Elevation Gain - ~ 4200'
Mileage - 29.80 Miles
Day started with a 500 foot climb over Orchard Valley Drive to exit my neighborhood, and then an easy 8 paved miles down to Fountain Creek, the beginning of the sustained 20 mile climb to the campground.
Gained Gold camp road after about a mile or so, including the dreaded switchback on 26th street. Pavement petered out right about 4.75 miles from Fountain creek, making the day half paved and half dirt. Gold Camp road is an old railroad grade used to haul ore down from the Cripple Creek mining district for processing at Gold Hill in Colorado Springs in the 19th century. It was later abandoned and turned in a tourist scenic drive for about 15 years early in teh 20th century before being turned over to the forest service. While a railroad, Teddy Roosevelt took a tour on it and was so amazed by the scenery he is said to have uttered that the "scenery bankrupts the English language". It has been a fair number of years since I had been back in this area. While not as pristine as it once was 100 years ago, indeed there are some wonderful mountains, outcropping, vales and vistas to be seen from Gold Camp Road.
A couple miles after losing the pavement, the old railroad grade is closed to automobiles, and as such is rarely maintained. Good by wash board, hello ruts, sand and gravel. All in all, a good training section for those 8.6 miles. In total I got to ride through 4 old railroad tunnels today, which is pretty cool. Had to cross over one closed caved in tunnel, was a bear with the loaded up BOB.
Here is the roaring stream that was my reward for navigating that tunnel.
I stopped a number of times to hydrate, eat, rest, absorb. I'm learning about how to park the loaded bike + BOB combo, as at 75 pounds, it needs effort to man handle it, much better coax it gently from the start. Getting started rolling again is another skill developing, haven't yet tipped over, but there have been a few close calls.
I arrived at the campground about 5 PM, about 7 hours after leaving with about 5 hours of that riding. A fine Colorado rain and hailstorm welcomed me for the next 1/2 hour. Mother natures gift to the earth and I gave me a chance to used most of my gear that first night !
I averaged about 4.5 mph on the gravel portion of the road, all climbing. Not a bad proxy day, with greater than 4000 feet of climbing, and a reasonable distance, though will need to get to longer days on the tour.
