Days 19-20: Salida area to Denver

Posted by: Arin 

Up until this point of the trip, we hadn't had any falling snow. That was about to change, however, as we continued a steady climb past Buena Vista and Fairplay. Small bits of snow fell on is periodically, stopping and melting on our arms and bags. Layers of clothing were coming on and off all day, as we got hot and cold depending on the terrain. After two mountain passes, we reached Jefferson, CO. As we stopped to snack and put on more clothes, a man came up to us and said there's nothing else for 12 miles, along with a big mountain to climb right ahead of us. It was already 6, so we pulled off on the first road we saw that had national forest access. It was a dirt road, slightly uphill, with probably the worst bumps I have ever had to ride over. We struggled for about a mile before turning off the side of the road to camp in the middle of a field. It was just about 6:30 when we got there, so we made camp first. It was actually the first time we've staked our tent down. The wind was ferocious. 

After camp was set up, we sat down to make dinner consisting of penne with marinara sauce, instant mashed potatoes, and a can of okra, tomatoes, and carrots. Just as we finished making dinner, a flurry of snow hit us. The ground was white almost instantly, so we gathered up all our food and stuff we didn't want to get snowed on and hurried into the tent. What followed was a 13-14 hour tent session. We woke up around 8, but didn't leave the tent until maybe 9:30.

The spot we slept at was above 9500 feet and the high temperature was 39 that day, so it was tough to get moving. We ate cold oatmeal in the tent and packed our stuff up as quickly as possible so we could get moving and stay warm. That turned out to be impossible; even through two pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves, my hands and feet felt instantly frozen. The dirt road we had come up the day before was just as excruciating as the first time, but we finally made it out of there. Snow was falling on and off, and we started our climb up to the pass. Did I mention how cold it was? Not even a long uphill could warm us up. At the top of the mountain a police car was blocking all traffic, but he let us through. We found out later that a semi had crashed and taken out some live power lines. From there, we turned downhill and got even colder. A cafe on the side of the road promised more warmth than we had, so we pulled off the side of the road and went in. My feet still felt like blocks of ice, but after an hour or so inside the cafe along with some coffee and cookies, I got feeling back.

At the cafe, someone told us it was pretty much all downhill to Denver. They lied; the next 20 miles were up and down, with steep climbs up to 2 miles long. We had to constantly stop to put on and take off clothes. Finally, a long descent led us down the mountain to a big flat area where we could see Denver and the surrounding cities. It was still 20 or so miles to our friend Hanie's house and it was still cold! Apparently losing 4000 feet of elevation doesn't mean that much here. We finally made it to the city, but Hanie wasn't home, so we hung out at Sunken Gardens park for a while. She called us 30 minutes later and we headed over to be treated with an awesome pasta dinner. We hung out with her and her boyfriend Daniel for a while before passing out in the spare room.