Lake City is a great base for hiking and we considered spending one of our bonus days here. Last night as we were setting up the tent, showering, and getting set for eating Cannibals, a group of seniors was sitting around the fire pit and I was dying to join them. But we have two high passes to cross today and we’re concerned about thunderstorms while at high elevation. Today’s weather is 40-60 percent chance of rain throughout the afternoon, while tomorrow is 60–70. Either way, keeping rain gear accessible.
We haven’t made too much progress in our morning routine. Set the alarm for 6, immediately hit snooze, set off around 8 to an incredible bakery I’d spotted yesterday, and still didn’t hit the road til after 9 am.
Clear lovely morning, cute mountain strip.
It was hard to leave this town. There was a ride that is probably amazing, the Alpine Loop, which would have been pretty challenging on our stiff loaded bikes, and hiking up Uncompahgre (i.e. a 14er). A guy we met at the bakery had done this the day before in his Altras though he sort of wished he’d had hiking boots.
I think this was the Lake in Lake City (Lake San Cristobal).. we only saw it from above.
The entire distance between Lake City and Creede is supposed to be 50 miles so this seeing this sign after a couple hours of climbing was disheartening.
Summit Number One!
Past Slumgullion... into weather.
We pulled over into a hiking area and met a guy who had been hiking 100 miles (so far) with his three dogs. He said they rest during midday if it’s too hot, and all the dogs have little booties to protect their paws.
Between the two passes we descended a bit — maybe 1000 feet — and then climbed again. We met some roadies who were on a supported trip where they have a “passport” and tick off the 10,000+ foot paved passes they climb. Didn’t sound like they did all 41 in one trip or even one summer. This group was getting shuttled between the passes, so after finishing Spring Creek Pass, they’d get a lift to the bottom of Wolf Creek Pass which is a couple days away for us.
Peak number two, still mostly dry, but colder. Photo by Road Weanie With Van Support.
Mainly downhill from here... and cloudy
.... and rainy. This descent seemed to take forever, and then there were a couple more hours of rolling terrain. My feet were wet and numb. Why didn’t I pack my boot covers????
Until a day or two ago we had never heard of the town of Creede, but after reading some guy’s account of how this was his favorite Colorado mountain town we decided to head there. Unfortunately we were arriving during a music festival, plus it’s a tourist destination on its own, so all the hotels were full. We (mainly I) were cold and miserable and holed up in an ice cream shop for a while, hoping the owner would take pity on us and offer us his couch. He didn’t, but he eventually told us about a place we could pitch our tent on the outskirts of town. Meanwhile a woman hanging out at the shop, who worked at the local theater (and also failed to offer us her couch) told us how to sign up for the wait list for the production of 9-5: The Musical! that was being performed that evening. So we set up our tent, hit the vape pen, and had an evening at the theater. As it turned out this wasn’t local community theater but a professional repertory group, and the performers were pretty good. Not convinced this is a great show (how many empowerment ballads does one show need??) but I’ve never seen the movie either.
Our free camping site. Ice cream guy did say there are sometimes bears wandering around, so we left our food in his shop.
Next morning, nice and dry, tooling around town.
At the top of the town is a road to the mining sites. We didn’t go too far... just enough to grab some scenery, and we also did the audio tour at the underground mining museum.
As we were about to head out of town, the skies opened up so we we lingered for a while longer, drank coffee milkshakes, stared at our phones. It was interesting to hear Ice Cream Guy talking about the bears, especially after the intensity in the Lake City RV camp. Here, there are no bear-proof garbage bins, and this guy just leaves his dumpster open to avoid a huge mess. He says the bears prefer caramel ice cream, and sherbet. Bill asked if he’d considered getting his own bear-proof trash bins, but he said then the bears would just make a mess of the neighbors’ garbage. Hmmm.
Finally we decided to go about 20 miles to South Fork, rain or not... just because we were falling further behind schedule. We want to save some free time for later, in case my leg ever feels well enough to hike. (See Desert RATS blog... ugh I crippled myself earlier this summer.)
Much of the ride to South Fork was beautiful, along the Rio Grande. We knew there were camping options on the way up the next pass but the weather started closing in so we decided we’d stop at another highway-adjacent RV park.
It was a dark and stormy afternoon.
By the time we got our stuff set up the skies had cleared once more so we decided to cycle to a nearby BBQ joint.
Welcome to our restaurant! Bang, bang.
During the night there was a great thunderstorm... really fun from within a dry tent.
Look below for link to next installment!