The day dawned cool and clear – not a cloud in the sky, although it got pretty cold last night. After coffee and oatmeal I hit the trail at 9:00am, mostly downhill to Summitville, the EPA Superfund Site (old mining operation) and ghost town. The few buildings left are in a slow state of collapsing – someone ought to restore the place before it disappears!
I was running low on water, and my maps warned of drinking water in the area due to contamination from the mining operations, so I bummed some water from some RVers, they could not believe I came from Yellowstone! I can’t believe it, either. Then I met a day mountain biker from Kansas, he was pretty excited to meet a Great Divide rider and even took my picture. I got his email address and I’ll email him the link to my web blog.
I lunched at Skyline Lodge (burger + fries) and had an easy afternoon ride through the Conejos River basin. At Gold Pan, a small mercantile in Platoro, I met Mandy, another cycling enthusiast, her boyfriend and his dog. They offered me some pizza which I readily accepted (even though I just finished a big lunch at Skyline Lodge!). When you offer a cyclist food he/she will invariably accept – it’s a rule of the road!
To finish the day I traveled another 20 miles mostly downhill on heavily washboarded roads, camping along the Conejos River at a primitive site. I took a swim in the river with my cycling clothes on to wash them, hoping they would dry by morning.
