On Thursday last week, I headed up to our place in Breck, just off route up Boreas Pass at about 10,200'. Despite a late arrival, I did slip in a hour ride up Boreas, to Bakers Tank, Mountain Pride and back down the Iowa Mill Road and out Baldy Rd.
Friday morning, packed up and got a bright and early start at 9:45, which is my earliest start yet.
My goal was Michigan Creek Campground on the road to Georgia Pass in Park County, via Boreas Pass, Como, and Jefferson. It is about 30 miles, and gets to go over Boreas at 11,300', with most of the riding above 9500'
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| Summit Cty out and back again - Day 1 route |
It is about 7 miles and an 1100' vertical climb up the steady old railroad grade of Boreas, the road was a bit damp, which kept the dust down, and not to many cars on a Friday morning.
Nice stop at the top where the storm gods made me use my rain gear and hide from their fun for a wee bit on the lee side of the old railroad car at the summit of the pass. But as is common for the area, the rain was a passing moment.
I was feeling in my bones that things were going my way on a sunny day. I had about 12 good miles of down hill to Como, and looking forward to lunch about 1 PM at the old depot.
Alas, alas, the Fates conspired against my happy plans. About 3 or 4 miles from the pass, I had just run through some water, and I felt regular, repetitive spray hitting my calf. At first I thought it was just a wet spot on the tire from the water hitting me, but it continued,.. Strange. Stopped for a what ended up being a superficial check, saw nothing, and kept riding. However, my spray stuck with me, so I stopped for a more serious look. Sure enough, I was not being sprayed with water, but with green 'Slime' from my tire. Closer inspection revealed a nail buried to its head into my tire. Sure enough, my first training repair. Lucky me I get to practice with more of my gear!
Well I extracted the nail, and not a tiny one at that, with a weathered old square head camouflaged between the knobbies of my brand new tire and tube (less than 20 miles on it). I will give slime its due, it slowed down the leak so it was just a gurgle while the nail was embedded. Well its has got to come out, and when I removed it, a virtual Mount Vesuvius a vulcan green lava came a spewing out. The nail was about 2 inches long, and square, which up here in mining country means it is probably very old. Ahh the tales it could tell on its journey from over a hundred years to intersect my journey, and change that feeling I had on a sunny day. Of course, it also started to rain.........
So off comes the trailer, off comes the rear wheel, off come the tire. New tube or patch .. Decisions, decisions. I decide to patch, since the tube is a slime filled one and perhaps that can help in the future. Find the hole, not a small pinhole this one, and put a quick patch on it. Pump it back up and install on bike. Looks good to go and holding air.
Time to reattach the trailer, so I move the bike to a nearby tree to be upright, 15' away. I awkwardly drag the full loaded trailer over and go to connect, first side is in and retention clip is latched, then go to affix the other retention clip, when, to my dismay, it is no longer there! Nothing is attached to the trailer. What the heck? I cannot proceed with a partial trailer attach, it is simply way too dangerous. Well I only moved the bike and trailer 15', its probably on the ground in between. But nooo, 40+ minutes of scouring the area, and no retention clip and strap. Well fortunately I had a spare clip that came with the trailer, buried in the BOB bag. Of course, it is on the bottom with the other seldom used (hopefully) repair goods, but it is there. It works. Pack everything up and heading back down the road on a sunny day.
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| The "not so sunny day" nail |
Rather than take the RR grade all of the way down, I save a mile or so and take the more interesting road to Selkirk Campground and then out along north Tarryall Creek ( an apt name for my afternoon, I must say) and out the county road to Como. Ahh, the Depot is there a 100 yards off the main road. I stop to read the sign, slightly faded but say lodging and eats, and there are 3 or 4 vehicles down there. so I ride down. It is not clear which of the several doors to enter, but one has a sign on it, So I walked up to read it, all a whilst there is hammering and construction noises coming from the north end of the building. It becomes clear that my lunch spot is no longer active. A friendly british sounding gentleman comes out to meet me and we chat, apparently the establishment is been defunct for 2 or 3 years, though he is gracious enough to let me fill up my water bottles. We chit chat about about the divide route, and the race that is active in this area on that very day. Apparently the leader was on a 13 days ETA to finish the 2800 mile race this year. He say the closest place with food is in Jefferson, though closes mid afternoon. I have enough to get to camp, and head off to his well wishes.
This route does have almost 5 miles on hwy 285, which is paved and a busy route to and from Denver. It is very friendly for making good time, after I clear the first small hill to Elkhorn road (divide route turns there). I think I averaged 20 to 23 mph on that section to Cty Rd 35.
Then it is gravel road for 3 mile on Cty Rd 35 to the Michigan Creek/Georgia Pass road. It goes through some lovely and lush ranch lands for several miles before gaining the trees about 5 miles in. As my training camping rides are wont, it started raining just as I entered the trees. I hid for a bit, and then decided to push on to the campground, later than I had wanted on a Friday afternoon.
Of course the campground was essentially full, and the rain picked up to a bothersome level, so I hid out a bit under the eaves of the outhouse. A couple of guys came by interested in the bike and trailer and offered to share their camp spot. They were brothers up from Denver but originally from N Dakota via Minnesota before, so we had some common bonds right off. I told them I would look for a dispersed campsite but would be back if unsuccessful.
So up the road a bit after the rain slowed down, and found a closed road just 0.25 miles up the road that ran next to Michigan Creek. Another lesson learned; bikes can go where cars cannot. So I found a nice primitive backpacking like site just above the roaring creek, Set up camp, cooked dinner, hung food.
Time to avail myself of the ""amenities"" in the campground, and got invited to join the brothers for a beer around their fire; Daniel and Andrew, each with about 5 or 6 year old child. It was cool to see fathers out with their young ones in the woods, enjoying the out doors, playing with smores and fire stick. Brings back memories.
Day 2
Plan is to take the relatively good road to Georgia Pass and then down the 4WD roads back into summit county via the South Swan River valley.
Days starts with a 6 mile climb from about 10'200' to 11'600'. This is steeper than the old RR route of Boreas. Thank goodness for tunage, as Dengue Fever helped me grind away. Today, yesterday is being felt, the altitude is being felt, the steeper grade is being felt. Numerous stops to rest, get the blood flowing happily again, and to take in the views and take pictures.
So where are all of these picture you may ask. Well, that is a good questions, one I summited Georgia Pass and was getting ready to start down, the SD card in my phone went belly up. So no pictures to show the flowers, vistas of South Park, my primitive campspot, No music to jam to on the way down, no electronic maps to help decide at unmarked junctions. So I only have a few picture from the route out from Georgia Pass to Hwy 9.
As i said it is a 4wd road on the Summit County side. And evidently late June is an "early" high country ride, as evidenced by the 2 shots below. It is pretty steep in these areas as well
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| 200 yards below Georgia Pass - Its rideable with a trailer! |
After the snow gave way to just water, the road became a stream for about a half mile.
It was very interesting riding as I was kinda 'surfing' down the tire ruts, with water helping me more or less glide over the rocks, helping the rocks roll with me ( if I had only had Led Zepplin on!). Surprisingly rideable, No crashes, though I did tip over and step out of the bike once in slo motion.
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| Is it a road, or a stream? only your bike adventurer will tell! |
Those two shots were by no means the roughest sections, just examples of the water and snow. Made it down the roughest stuff. After a little dilemma at a downward fork, each with a notable creak crossing, I attained much more mellow roads smoother, more flowy, not nearly as steep. I am cranking forward to the Highlands and then Hwy 9. but lo, what is this in front of me????
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| The Swan River has a mind of its own this year. You can't fool mother nature. |
Good gravel road after this, soon to be paved, and then to the paved bike path along Hwy 9 back to breck.
Too pooped to tackle the climb from town back to condo after just 22 miles, so the cavalry rescues me at the ice rink for a shuttle back home and some deck R&R with the 10 Mile Range on the horizon.
So over all a good trip, met some good folks, took the trailer successfully down some surprising rough and steep routes. Also had number of challenges leading to teaching moments and better preparation for trip, and added healthy respect for towing a trailer at altitude and at a grade. Hopefully by the time I get back to this sort of altitude in Colorado, I will be in prime touring shape.
