Safe Return Doubtful

61 miles (98 km) – Total so far: 1,929 miles (3,105 km)

Don and Denise were great hosts. They were loading up to visit their daughters the following day with furniture for there new student house, and there were a couple of helpers around. At 7 we had a couple of beers and a bratwurst barbeque with the incredible view from their house in the background. Denise too me to see where they all work, constructing ecological greenhouses, some photos below. Their house was 5 miles out of Pagosa Springs, and a couple of miles up a steep gravel road into he hills. A wonderful place to live.

They had a busy day of driving, so I left before anyone was up. Pagosa Springs is a vexing town for the newcomer on bicycle. It stretches for about 6 miles, and the ‘historic’ downtown is about 100 metres elevation lower than the rest of it. It is a tourist attraction of course, with the deepest hot springs in North America, and several ski resorts close by. Downtown was lively this morning also with a real mixture of people. I chatted for a while to a couple of cyclists just about to ride up Wolf Creek Pass, to 3309 metres, a climb of 1100 metres. My day was just slightly more climbing.

There’s nothing between Pagosa Springs and Chama, just some tremendous scenery and a ghost town. It was holiday traffic, but not as busy as roads in previous days, and with the exception of a couple of RVs the motorists were fine.

It was the ride of the Three Little Devils, christened by me. Three sharp uphill bursts, then lots of ups and downs. The screenshot if from Doogal. A good tool if you’re looking for an elevation profile of what you’re about to ride. Maybe you’d prefer not to know, that way it could be a nice surprise. It actually is surprising that you can climb more than 1100 metres in a day like this. The riding is amongst the best of the course so far though, and that’s despite the traffic. Entering New Mexico the forest is replaced by alpine meadows, but the mountains surround throughout, it really is a splendid ride.

Arriving in Chama which is my highest overnight on this course, and I went straight to subway for a bit of late lunch. It’s the Saturday of Labour Day weekend and I thought ahead and emailed a couple of campgrounds. The boss at Little Creel replied and told me he would fit me in somewhere. These RV parks aren’t great when they are busy, but at least this is cooler, and has shade, and is next to the river. Also, he has not charged me, which is a fine gesture.

The view from where I was staying

Leaving the house just after 7 am

Centre of downtown Pagosa Springs

Pagosa Springs about to get busy on the Saturday morning of the Labour Day weekend

Out of town and straight into dramatic Colorado scenery

At Chromo – I’ve been through a number of these ‘ghost towns’ now. Even the two cars have been left.

Chromo, a fairly recent ‘ghost town’

This is my only crossing of the Continetal Divide on this course. Four years ago I rode along the Divide, or as close as possible, and crossed it more than 20 times

Storytime:

Tubby’s Golden Lantern

One Christmas, I think in 2012, Nigel planned for us to visit New Orleans just before New Year. It was always Nigel and Sandra’s favourite place, and after hearing so much talk about it, I was really keen to visit. Jeremy and Gill came with us, though they took the plane, where as we undertook a road trip, that was with Lily as well. It was to be an educational trip for her, at 2 years old, and she was great on the long car journey and visiting around the city. There were many highlights, we ate at some wonderful restaurants, we walked for hours around the sights of the Big Easy and soaked up the atmosphere. We ate the city’s treat, sugary beignets at an outdoor cafe with a fountain that fascinated Lily and we took sensible opportunities to grab an afternoon beer.

One afternoon Jeremy, Nigel and I were presented with a rare opportunity by the girls, they wanted to shop, we would like to go for a beer for an hour or two? We jumped at the opportunity, and after one at Touché, I will let Jeremy take up the story from here:

As I recall, the ladies were shoe shopping which allowed Nige, Andy and I to nip off for a couple of beers. To our delight, we took a right on Royal Street and there it was a pub. Didn’t notice the name or rainbow above the door and hastily walked in and ordered some local refreshments.

After a few minutes I noticed that rather than the NFL play off game being televised, I was watching My Fair Lady on the tv! Now not that it’s an issue when most of the patrons are males, including the bar man, but when they’re drinking fufu drinks with pink umbrellas admiring our presence. The alarm bells start ringing!

During our conversations, we find out that their jobs range from hairdressing to drag queens etc. Nige comes back from the bathroom with a funny look on his face to explain there are pictures of. A Asked men, mainly below the waist surrounding the urinals. One gentlemen was kind enough to dry hump me as he squeezed by my stool.

We drank up and thanked everyone for their time. Outside we peered up and to our alarm, realized our fate before it even happened.