Platoro, Colorado

I woke in the middle of the night, and couldn't get back to sleep for a while. The light from the toilets was also annoying me, so I put my Buff over my eyes...and didn't wake up until after 7! Makes a change from the 5am starts when I wake with the dawn.

 As we were packing up, a hummingbird came and flew nearby. We rode down to the convenience store to buy breakfast.

The ride started easily enough, on a nice smooth dirt road. We saw deer, ducks, horses and cows. Lots of people riding horses and fishing.

We met a man touring the Divide route from Del Norte to El Rito.

Then a few km further on, we met the race leader Jefe Branham(pronounced "Jeffey").  

Jefe Branham. leading the racers to Mexico

He said that he hadn't seen another competitor since the first day, and that he just couldn't maintain the pace for a record-setting time. He also said that touring was the way to go...I get the impression he was sick of suffering.

 We climbed up to a saddle and descended down the other side...and promptly encountered some road works. From there on, the road was much rougher.

 

 My heart-rate monitor had died so I put it away. I know my body well enough to keep my heart rate under control.

The road just kept getting rougher, and continued climbing. Pete was struggling, and got a bit grumpy. Not surprising...riding these roads on a fully-rigid touring bike must be hard work!

We stopped briefly for food only 7 km from Platoro. Then the constant climbing flattened off...only to be replaced by a stiff headwind. It just never gets any easier!

We finally arrived in Platoro after 40 km of riding. Despite being a short day, it was still hard work.

The lodge we're staying at is a bit primitive. There's no cellphone signal or wifi, but there is a good bed and a shower.  I took the loft.

 Not much headroom but a great bed and a wonderful place to recuperate. Only thing is I have to crawl into and out of it because of the limited headroom.

Apparently the lodge is only open from June until October -- there's so much snow around that the town basically shuts down over the winter, and nobody lives here at all.

A few people have tried to stay during the winter. One woman went crazy, another person would stay up here to write books, and one man stayed over with his dog...in the spring they only found his dog, starving, but the man had disappeared and was never found. It's a very remote place.

We went for a walk around the township. I saw a groundhog, or what Gay calls a "whistling pig", and we went to the cafe which sold army-surplus supplies. I managed to buy some thin polypro gloves and a shirt, so I look like a forest firefighter rather than a hobo!

Gay flushed about half a stream-bed full of grit from Pete's water filter. It works great now.

We had dinner at the cafe, and found they had wifi. Very happy to be able to send and receive emails again.