At around 6.00 am some spots of rain began to hit the tent so we said that must mean a later start and set a snooze (by snooze I mean just roll over and go back to sleep). We only have 12 miles to do to Heaton Bay Campground via Silverthorne. Of course it never works out that way.

Just before we packed up the tent Blue River Campground

Our “late” start was in fact 8.00 am once awake you just have to get up (don’t you?). Again everything was perfectly dry, the rain had passed over quickly, after a mild night.

Straight on to Highway 9 following it all the way to Silverthorne. It is very busy but has a very wide shoulder so it is not too bad cycling, apart from some roadworks for extra interest!

It did threaten rain on and off all day with only a few spots managing to land on us (I could say it was down to the high speed we always travel at but that is a paper thin lie).

As we neared Silverthorne that welcoming library sign lept out, here I found out the location of the best coffee shop in town (in fact I was offered a lift there by the gentleman behind me). When we got to the coffe shop I actually got a nice cup of tea (surely not tea in a coffee shop!), the gentleman from the library (also a cyclist) joined us for a chat as well.

At the bottom of the dam

It was way too early to stop so onwards we went, following an excellent cycle path (in fact the rest of todays cycling was on this path). We now had 12 miles to go. The initial zig zag zig zag etc etc etc out of the town to the top of the dam was steep, once there the views were impressive.

At the top of the dam

Then it continued to Frisco, another lovely town. Once again we were paused trying to work out the best place to get an early lunch when a car pulled up, driven by another cyclist who gave us directions to the best bakery in town where we did in fact have a very nice lunch.

Lunch in Frisco

Then 8 more miles slowly gaining height to 9400 ft all on cycle paths, into Breckenridge.

Janet pretends to be a gibbon on the lovely cycle path

Someone had mentioned the Fireside Inn (there are no campgrounds here it is far too nice a ski resort fot those!) We duly tracked it down,  easier said than done sometimes,  here we got a room. Janet even had a dip in the hot tub and came out very relaxed with a vague pinkish glow. The total of 18 miles today was not what we expected to do but it was nice.

Inside

Outside

Then it was off to do a little shopping, we need 3 days food for the next section. On our return to the Inn, we had just walked through the door and the skies opened, it started to pour with rain not on us though.

The collection of 4 towns, Dillon, Silverthorne, Frisco and Breckenridge have been the first ones that we have though it would be nice to live here, a lovely area.