Before I hit the road this morning, I had some unfinished business. I had to met Rosemary’s donkeys, Ginny and Paco.
Then, I tried out her “e-bike”. That was pretty cool. It gave me all sorts of ideas. Ideas of pitching my Fuji. Wait. That would be wrong. For the purpose of this trip anyway. I need to ride this tour using my legs and gravity. Nothing else. But in the future, who knows.
So I said good bye to Rosemary. She is a really nice person and was a great host.
Now it is on to Paonia and some lunch. Paonia is a pretty cool little town with a lot of character. It was only 11 miles by back roads from Hotchkiss so I would need to get a plan for the afternoon. I went over to the Forest Service Ranger Station to sort out the camping option for this evening.
The options were to stop at Paonia Reservoir or pushing up toward McClure Pass. I decided to see what the reservoir option liked liked. Once there, it looked pretty bleak. The water level was so low that the reservoir was just a muddy shoreline. Plus, the campground had no water. I decided to rest there for an hour and then start heading up McClure Pass around 4:30. It was about 12 miles to the FS Campground just below the summit. I got there about 6:00. It was full but one of the campers said I could share his spot. That was welcome news and it worked out fine.
I chose to ride through Colorado so I could ride through their mountains. Maybe I should be careful of what I wish for. These are serious mountains. At least so far, McClure Pass was reasonable, but I would have 2 more miles to tackle in the morning.
We will see how that goes, but not until after a night’s sleep.
Hey Greg! I’m glad you got to meet Rosemary and to do a bit of glamping… that was a great setup on the porch. She’s my favorite cousin. Sorry about the flat tire…at least it was near civilization!