Today I will be crossing the highest point on Indiana pass which is 11,940 feet. I went out fairly early before 6am, but it was still pretty dark outside. I think that a combination of lower latitude and 44 days since I started the trip have made the days shorter. Anyway, I went to the gas station convenience store and got a hot coffee and waited until there was a bit more light outside.
The climb uphill started almost immediately after leaving town, although not very steep. The first 10 miles took me through some of the beautiful farm lands outside of Del Norte. I love the morning parts of the rides the most. The pavement ended and the climb uphill started almost began in earnest. A couple guys on e-bikes came up to me and we chatted a bit. One was a three wheeler recumbent mountain bike where the rider had to use his arms to crank the bike. I assume he was handicapped in his legs. They were doing parts of the GDMBR and had a support vehicle along. Still pretty amazing that the guy on the recumbent was doing this. Later on a guy on a regular mountain bike came up to me pretty fast from behind. He didn’t have a fully loaded bike like mine though. He said that he was riding with the other two guys, and slept in a bit longer. He said that he had raced the Tour Divide earlier in the summer and came back to ride parts of it again with his friends. He said his name was Dan, and that triggered me to ask him if he was “Dirty Dan”, the guy who has done that race 5 years in a row, and finished this year in 8th place, and the first American. “Yep” he just said. I followed the race on the Internet, and I know he had a horrible crash that totally destroyed his helmet, and probably saved his life. His saddle broke in the Great Basin, and he had to ride a couple hundred miles without it until he got a replacement in Steamboat. Pretty incredible! We chatted for a while until I told him to catch his friends, since I was already in oxygen debt trying to keep up.
“Dirty Dan”
I was told that there would be a couple hike-a-bike sections on the climb, but I never put a foot down except to rest a bit. I do think Dan inspired me to ride a bit harder to the summit. There however was no official sign for the summit, which I found a bit disappointing. I finally did stop for lunch on the way down at a Superfund cleanup site at the Summitville mine site. There had been a lot of mining at that mountain that released a lot of toxic waste into some of the streams. We were warned not to take any water anywhere near that area for a reason. Pretty sad to see that happen. A few probably got very rich at the expense of other people and animals.
The Summerville mine and the damage done..😢
The rest of the ride was very scenic as I would soon be leaving Colorado, and entering New Mexico as my final state. The small town of Platero would be last camping spot in Colorado. I pulled up to the campground office and met Dan and his friends once again. He did point out the sections ahead on the map where I would need to watch for the infamous Peanut butter mud if rain was in the forecast.
Later on Hamish, Jess, and Sean came in the campground. Luckily there was an Amish run food truck there that had some amazing food for dinner. We all ate well that evening.
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