A day for sailing – Day 23

Date: Sunday 29th August   

Route: Near Cowdrey, Colorado – Kremmling, Colorado 

Distance:  83 miles 

Total climb: 3210ft

Net climb: -590ft

Today was to be a training run for tomorrow’s Hoosier Pass, the highest point on the route. We set off in high spirits, having avoided any wolf attacks in the night. A stint into some wind took us to Walden for a second breakfast. We then stocked up on food for the panniers to keep us going to the top of the Willow Creek Pass (9,627 feet), which was expected to be the key challenge for the day.

This expectation had not accounted for the headwinds we encountered to the base of the climb at Rand. We fought with great effort and limited speed to reach this rest point, to find a Yacht Club in town – amusing in the context of its location and our sailing into the wind. With the Yacht Club closed, we paid a visit to the veritable treasure trove that was the Rand Store. After browsing the book selection, we opted for some relaxation on the gliders in the shop, Jay taking on some further provisions before the climb. He claims the homemade chocolate truffles were among the best he has ever had.

The climb was relatively straightforward, being around 1,000 feet up from Rand, and provided a return to the tree-lined mountains after days spent on the plains. We met the RV and Team Heagney at the summit for lunch, where they had just met a group of hikers travelling from Mexico to Canada. After lunch, the day was spent racing down towards Kremmling, dropping 2,000 feet. We passed hot sulphur springs at, erm, Hot Sulphur Springs, and rolled through a canyon that looked like the inspiration for the runaway mine train at Disney World.

A pie stop was needed in Parshall, visiting the roadside bar for a ‘death by chocolate brownie sundae’. It was here that some of the locals warned us about a section of road for tomorrow, which was nicknamed (rather distastefully and worryingly) ‘The Coffin’ – for its narrow nature and the driving style of most motorists. Since we have had similar warnings in many stop-offs along the route, we treated this note with similar credibility – worthwhile taking extra caution, but likely to be exaggerated.

A rapid last 12 miles downhill finished the route for the day. We needed a good night’s sleep before the mighty climb tomorrow.

FP