After 3 wonderful days in The Pad, it was time to leave. We cycled through Breckenridge, of where we have such great memories from the times when we went snowboarding there, and started the climb to Boreas Pass. A nice climb, not very steep and with a lovely scenery. When we arrived at the top, it started raining but fortunately it didn’t last long and we could find shelter on the porch of an old cabin. The scenery was beautiful up there.
After the descent we entered a slightly hilly and barren area. The sky around us turned darker every minute and there was lightning in the distance. We hoped we’d stay dry, but we didn’t. About 25 km/15 miles before Hartsel, where we wanted to go, all hell broke loose. Big, sharp hail bangered on us. We were happy we were wearing our helmets, they protected our heads. But the only thing between the hail and the skin on our arms was our rain jacket. The hail hurt our arms so much that we had to stop to wait it out. Days later there still were bruised visible on our arms. There was no shelter, so we just had to stand there at the side of the road and wait out the weather. When the hail finally turned into rain we got back on our bikes to ride to Hartsel as fast as possible. When we arrived there, we were wet and cold.
Hartsel to is no more than a few houses and a restaurant/bar. We were glad we made it and went straight to the little restaurant. Cyclists can camp behind it, but we didn’t really look forward to that because of the bad weather. So we asked if we could sleep inside somewhere, like in the church or community center. They said that wasn’t allowed because they had had problems with cyclists making a mess, but after speaking with the president of the communtiy center they allowed us to sleep there. But we couldn’t tell anyone. We most have looked very miserable, but also reliable, because they had just refused other cyclists. And also the cyclists who arrived later that evening weren’t told that they could also sleep inside. But they probably didn’t ask either… We had a warm and peaceful night inside while it rained and thundered outside.
The next morning we were told by a few guys in the restaurant that the road was almost impassable. They had just come over it but had had a lot of problems driving on it with their big pickups. The road was very wet, muddy and slippery. Because it was supposed to start raining again and we didn’t want to get stuck in the mud again, we decided to ride to Salida on the paved road. We rode in the sunshine through a pretty valley and after just 1 it was mostly down to Salida. When we arrived there we decided to book a hotel room and we didn’t regret that because there was another big thunderstorm at the end of the afternoon. So this is what they mean by monssoon season…
