Even in a lovely bed we were awake at 6.00 am, no lazyness here. Things packed and breakfast eaten, today we had fresh blueberries. I wonder how our blueberries are doing at home, all gone by now I would think.
A goodbye to the Inn owner, who is from the UK as well, he came over 16 years ago after leaving the army. We were off at 8.00 am.
A ski resort with no snow
Today is split into two halves, the first is all uphill, no flat, no down just up. The second is all down right into Como our stopping point.
Getting higher
The road follows an old train track bed hence its nice steady (but relentless climb) the first 4 miles are on pavement then it changes to a hard packed track. Just keep plodding along singing a song (the less said about singing the better).
We passed some lovely Aspen trees along the way, it has been said before but it is truly a thing to behold. Then we stopped next to a huge water tower, carefully restored, this topped up all the water tanks on the trains on their way up and down the pass (they were all steam as the pass was completed in 1881).
All that plodding paid off (singing a song never pays off). We were there the highest Divide Crossing on the whole route Boreas Pass 11481 ft above sea level (3500 metres or 2.2 miles above sea level). Don’t get me started on the reduction in available oxygen (increased ratio of puffing / blowing to breathing normally).
The top, who would have believed it?
We did stop and have our lunch here and chat with a few different people who were impressed with the effort to get here. Even though it was actually quite an easy pass to cycle up (but we never said that to them though).
To descend we put windproof clothing on and down we went, the track this side was not as good, lots of washboarding (I hope you remember what that means) and very rocky in places. There seemed to be a lot of cars on this part, they were courteous but seemed unaware of the volume of dust they kick up when the pass us.
As we continued down we passed a lot more Aspens and the valley views were spectacular.
And.
The road then returned to pavement as we entered Como, this is a very small town of random houses gathered together for winter warmth! There is a post office in the Mountain Man Gallery. It was here we got permission to camp next to the old schoolhouse (now a villiage hall) and some water (which tastes absolutely awful).
Camping at Como
Like many towns we pass through, at one time it was a very important rail access point and its population numbered in the thousands, but is now less than 100.
We are camping at 10000 ft tonight our highest yet. Pasta is on the menu once again.
Cycle Travellers 