Leadville
I got an early start, said goodbye to Mark. I went downhill from town on the highway until a county road right hand turn. It was bright, cold, clear. Leadville is an interesting place, I guess it was a super fund site. Very industrial, the town seems kind of depressed. Lots of evidence of old mineral extraction, kind of high, cold and lonely. The road took me through some dry ranch country and then I started climbing on dirt. I went through a very pretty forested area with some very nice looking campsites, it seemed very remote, but then I would come across campers, people in vans and cars and trailers. I continued to climb on this road until finally I got to the Colorado trailhead, after about 12 mi. I could see Mount Massive and Mount Elbert. Classically, segment 11 went straight up for a long time, so I hike-a-biked. Had a nice chat at the top with a guy doing a few segments on foot, then I did a really nice descent. For a while it was classic mountain biking, I saw some creatures, the pedaling was fun, very enjoyable. I climbed again and then started a really fun descent down to Twin Lakes. It felt like something from Tahoe; sagebrush, ponderosa pines, the geology of the rocks and soil were very familiar. Twin lakes single track was okay, basically fairly level single track around these two bodies of water, kind of 3/4 of a circle. On the far side it got rockier and the soil was a different quality, grayer. Lots of weekenders and older folks doing day hikes. Suddenly, true to form, the Colorado Trail needed to go straight up a divide so I pushed and pushed and pushed. Over that divide I went into a series of successive divides, nice descending, but a lot of work. A final, hot section had a steep push to a breathtaking view, Cross Creek Valley. I shot a video. That descent was amazing, almost as good as the views. Stopped to talk to an older couple on the descent. They made sure I knew the pronunciation for the next town, "Byoonah Vista." Arriving at the bottom I was at a dirt road and the end of the segment, I went left. It was hot, the road was flat with a little bit of climb and I was tired. But I had made good time, it was still early afternoon. climbing a rise I felt and heard a weird noise from the front and realized that the King Manything cages had slipped down, come loose. My multi-tool didn't have the right kind of flathead screwdriver to properly tighten them, it only has a weird, pointed hybrid thing that is somewhere between a phillips and a flathead. I was able to loosen them, raise them back up to where they needed to be on the electrical tape, noticed that some of the felt pads were falling off, that were there to protect the surface on which they're clamped, snugged them as best I could and continued on, that took a good 20 or 30 minutes in the hot sun. Rolling again, I reached the road, a right turn, downhill, but a very flat downhill would get me to Buena Vista, 17.5 mi away. I figured I would be there before dinner time but it was a lot of work, it wasn't really downhill and there was a lot of pedaling, and a heavily loaded mountain bike does not move quickly. I was working hard, trying to get the bike to go downhill and I realized I was bobbing, I looked down and my rear tire was going flat. I saw a large gash and something white sticking out of it. I used my Leatherman to pull out a piece of bloody bone, 1" by 1/2". It left a pretty huge cut. I wasted a 25 gram CO2 trying to get a Dynaplug to seat, it just blew CO2 in the hole, the plug never even detached from the tool. Then I used the old standby, Genuine Innovations bacon strips and a bacon strip tool. I put three plugs into the slit and was able to inflate the tire with a hand pump. That took a good half hour. Finally moving again I had a long grind with some downhills, but they didn't feel like downhills, and some uphills. Finally, getting nearer to town, I texted with Mark and he said that he had a room at the Motel 8. I found the Motel 8 but he wasn't there, texted him and he was at some bar with Jake, of course. He came to the motel, let me in, I showered and changed and we went looking for food and drink. We ended up at Eddyline Brewery, it was good, and I destroyed a cheesesteak and some beers, Jake joined us. We met Bex and Joey, a woman and man who are having a great Colorado Trail bikepacking trip. They parked their bikes in the same rack as we did and we exchanged some stories. I later noticed a post from her on Instagram, because I was following the hashtag #ColoradoTrail, and so I commented, said "hey I saw you at that bar." She followed me, I followed her. Some annoying guy named Johnny started to talk to us too much and I finally had to get away. It was starting to drizzle and we all got on our bikes, Mark, Jake and I. Mark seem to be in a much better mood, he had done a nice ride and had met up with some older guys on gravel bikes, and they showed him an old railroad route to Buena Vista through some tunnels. It seems like we find Jake everywhere. Jake led us over to South main Street, a really neat spot. I guess some pro kayaker with a lot of family money had developed it. Hard to describe but a little bit Bohemian, some varied architectural styles, a park, some businesses, and evidence that it was growing. We played around on the pump track nearby, and then went to Black Burro Bikes. Matt and Lindsay, the owners had just got back from a shop ride and there were a few guys hanging out. It's a neat shop, they pour beer and sell bikes and fix bikes. Lots of neat old bikes hanging on the wall. Matt is a true bike nut, we had a long conversation about old bikes. Very passionate guy. He said he could help me with a new tire and some tune-up the next day. We drank beers, some special beer from Vermont where Jake is from, I was pretty buzzed at this point. Then we rode back to the motel, saying goodbye to Jake in a drizzle. He had some sort of Warm Showers room. The forecast for Thursday was rain all day, so we planned for our first zero day.
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