With early nights come early mornings and we were out of the cabin and on the bikes before 6am. It was an extremely cold start with the overnight frost forming a crunchy layer on my bike bags. The Wahoo read 1 degrees Celsius as we began to climb and I was glad for the thick winter gloves I’d been carting through the desert. It was extremely beautiful as the sun rose over the snow capped mountain peaks. The climb up to Indiana Pass was in two sections with first a climb up Stunner Pass, followed by a short descent and then another push up to the high point of the route. The botched gears were holding and climbing was fine but every time the road levelled off my legs were left spinning with very little forward momentum. 

 

Everyone felt a great achievement getting to the top, even if the sign to mark the summit was no longer there. Lovely flowy gravel descent off the top before rejoining the paved road for the final ten miles into Del Norte. At this point the road flattened out leaving me to frustratingly spin the final section at about 8mph. But extremely relieved and happy that the bike got through the day and I could make it into town. Headed straight to the bike shop to be reacquainted with various people seen on the trail. It seems New Mexico was pretty tough on everyone’s equipment. Really helpful guys in the shop who fixed the gears and my rear wheel, as it turned out I’d also broken a spoke somewhere along the way. They also had cleaning stuff out front, so I could give my bike and bags a good hose down. 

 

I’d plumped for a rather pricey hotel before finding out there was free camping in the park and a donation based bike hostel. But it felt a good opportunity to have a full reset. 

 

Really nice vibe about Del Norte - in fact, the whole of Colorado so far. Everything seems geared about being active outdoors. It also seems noticeably more affluent than much of New Mexico, which may have something to do with it. Got a beer at the brewery and a pizza to eat at the hotel. I was planning a rest day in Salida but having had the whole afternoon in town and a hotel stay, I’m feeling pretty fresh. So will assess down the road.