This morning we treated ourselves to coffee and breakfast at Cutthroat Cafe for coffee and breakfast 🙂

While there we spoke with a guy who told us about the Iron Horse Classic, which he did years ago. It’s a bike race where riders attempt to beat a steam engine from Durango to Silverton: 50 miles with 2 mountain passes.   A lady at that same table even gave us hugs as we left.  We really enjoyed this breakfast; very nice people, great food, and they’re open at 5am so you can get breakfast and still hit the road early.  We highly recommend it!

Route 285 south of Bailey made for much more enjoyable pedaling, as we entered into Pike National Forest.

We were happy to no longer be riding alongside weekend traffic, and the route was more scenic than the segment from Conifer to Bailey. Still a narrow shoulder in spots, but that didn’t diminish the fun of climbing Kenosha Pass, our first major mountain pass in Colorado.

While on top, we met some mountain bikers who were going to ride a section of the Colorado Trail; it looks like an awesome area for riding!
On the west side of the pass, we descended into the high country plains, which were absolutely beautiful!  I got my first flat up there, the result of two pieces of wire through the tire in separate places.

Next we crossed Red Hill Pass to the valley on the other side (referred to as South Park).  At the top of the pass, we climbed up a sandstone formation for a nice view before dropping into Fairplay.

We continued south towards Buena Vista on 285.  It was a slight downhill, but a headwind cancelled out any benefit of the hill.

Meanwhile, we were watching storms to the south and crossing our fingers that we wouldn’t need to ride through them.

Our wishes did not come true, though, and we got doused.  We sat out the worst it at an RV park called Campground of the Rockies.  After it settled down, we had one last climb before a 10mi descent into Buena Vista (in case you were wondering – the translation is true).

Near the bottom we pulled into a scenic overlook and had dinner, then finished the descent and settled down at our campsite.

Trip stats, to date (Day 58)

• Bailey, CO to Buena Vista
• Daily mileage: 73.0 ;  Trip total to date: 3,577.8
• Daily riding time: 6hr 32min;  Trip total time: 308hr 47min
• Daily ascent: 4,260ft;  Trip total ascent: 169,059ft
• Flat tires: Rachel – 1; Chris – 1