Antonito to Salida

On our way back from Aspen, Max and Luke dropped us off about 18 miles from our route. We camped that night in the flat and dusty San Luis Valley, and biked the 18 miles up into the mountains. We managed to stay on the route for about 25 miles, through Platoro, over Stunner Pass, and then we had to exit again, back down and out of the mountains, before we hit snow again. Unfortunately, this meant we missed the highest point of the entire Continental Divide--Indiana Pass, at 11,900 ft. It would be a long while in Aspen if we waited for that to melt.

Smoke from the wildfires in Arizona meant a heavy haze covered the valley and the mountains for the first four days back on the trail.

Finally a pass we could do! The snow line, we heard, was around 11,000 ft.

On the down side.

These mountains are filled with minerals. The fiery red of the mountains attracted prospectors in the late 1800s, who felt that iron oxide was a clear indicator of gold in these mountains.

Unfortunately, the heavy metals contaminate all the rivers and creeks in the area. This sign was informing us that a metal nail would dissolve in these acidic creeks after only eight months! Sadly, we had already been drinking this water, and would continue drinking it for the next day.

After Stunner Pass, we followed the Alamosa River back to the valley. Along this stretch, we saw our first bear! He was a little, cinnamon black bear who stood up to get a good look at us before heading back up the hillside.

Ice coming out of the mountainside!

We spent the entire third day of biking in the flat valley, which ended up being a good thing because we were in a town with cell phone service when Cate turned to me and said, "I think I have an eye infection." As she said that, a big fat droplet of pus was leaking from her eye, so I had to agree. She called an eye doctor, who drove from an hour away to treat her pink eye. Thankfully it didn't spread to her other eye or to me!

In Del Norte, our map indicated we could stay with a bike-friendly couple, but Cate called and he was on a bike ride, his wife was on a bike ride, but they had another friend, who was on a bike ride, but his wife was probably not on a bike ride. Each of the three bike riders was doing a different portion of the Great Divide trail! Anyway, Joanne let us stay in her extra house in Del Norte, and we really appreciated the shower and sleeping inside.

When we left Del Norte, we had a day of all uphill, leading up to Carneros Pass, back in the mountains. We started out on a rough road that seemed to be the place that Del Norteans brought their dogs when it was time to "put them down"-- i.e. shoot them and leave them in the desert. 

It was a relief to get off this road and follow a canyon up into the mountains. We got to our camp for the night about three miles short of the top of the pass, and had just picked out the best campsite when we heard a car pull up. It was a sheriffs car, with the lights on. This was very confusing, since we rarely see vehicles at all, and all are exclusively trucks or SUVs--not police sedans. He pulled up to us quickly, rolled down the window, and asked, "Excuse me, are those your bikes back there?"

As we were the only people in the campground, and wearing our bike clothes, it would have been difficult to claim, "Oh no, we have no idea whose bikes those are."

He said, "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask you to evacuate."

I think the young deputy expected us to be impressed by the importance of his job when he told us to leave, but we really didn't have anywhere to go, so we just stared at him.

"There's a wildfire near here, and we are evacuating everyone in the area."

Since we had been riding through smoke for the past four days, this seemed like an ok reason to tell us to leave our home for the night. "Where should we go?"

"Anywhere! You just have to get out of here!"

This was just a ridiculous thing to say--the poor young deputy's sense of self-importance won over his reasonableness. "We're on bikes," we said with a heavy amount of sarcasm, "we travel at about five miles an hour. You need to tell us where we can go... safely." 

He sent us up the pass farther, telling us that the wildfire was about five miles back down the way we came from. When we asked if there was a way we could get more information, he gave us his personal card. We didn't have cell phone service for another three days.  

Before he left the area, he set up this yellow tape-- "Sheriff's Line Do Not Cross"-- across our path... we had to cross it.

Do Not Cross-- but HOW ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO EVACUATE?!!

Biking in a smoky haze after the deputy evacuated us.

At the top of the pass! A longer day than expected. 

So we went over the pass that evening, and then went down another five miles past it and camped by the side of the road. Three RVs pulled up to warn us about a wildfire in the area, but they didn't know anything more than what the deputy did, so... not much at all. We decided to relax until Bambi and the other creatures of the forest began running by, so we finally enjoyed this stream-cooled beer.

Thanks for canning IPAs!

The next day we got into camp really early because we had done eight miles the day before. We sunbathed and wrote stories to share with each other.

A real campsite! We were still the only people here.

We had a beautiful day the next day. We camped only two miles before another pass, and after that we had about 45 miles of downhill through very beautiful countryside.

What a pretty day!

We stayed that night in Sargeants, a town of 18 year-round residents that nevertheless has "all services"--post office, grocery, a place to stay, and a restaurant, all in one building! Timichi Creek Trading Post was a pretty nice place. We camped by the creek, had a beer at their bar, and hung around long enough for the owner to come and talk to us. He mentioned that the pass we were planning to do the next day was probably still snow-covered. But, he said, we could go find out! He sent his son and the manager of the store to take us and some PBRs to the top of the pass to check out the snow level. On the way up, the sun was setting and we saw many herds of elk near the creek. At the top, we discovered only one snow drift that we could easily walk our bikes through! We were pretty excited to be able to stay on our route, and it was a beautiful area. 

Leaving the small town of Sargeants--for the second time.

Self-timer fail.

Continental Divide again!

Totally doable.

Just kidding, we went around through this snow drift. Six days previously, the snow line was three miles from the top! Good thing we went to Aspen.

From the top, it was all downhill into Salida. A very nice couple of days.