We were slow leaving De Norte this morning as we could see a dusting of snow on the hills above town so we decided to wait till 8am to call the Forest Service to see if we could get an update on how much snow had fallen in the hills - they did not help - the guy on the phone was just like "yeh... looking out the window here there is a bit of snow on the hills" - NOT helpful!!
We decided to just go for it anyway, as this was our biggest pass of the Great Divide Route & we all felt we would be disappointed if we did not at least try.
The going was slow for the 18km leading to the 20km climb. The actual climb up to the pass - the weather had again clouded over & about 3/4 of the way up there was snow settled on the side of the road, all the puddles were frozen & snowflakes were falling.
The wind was chilling - one of those really cold winds that just cut right through you.
We stopped for a short while at the top - the snowflakes were still falling.
We rugged up for a small descent and passed a huge mine - one of the biggest in the USA that has badly contaminated all the streams & rivers in the area & they are now spending lots of $$ trying to clean it up.
The day was getting colder & colder & we finally arrived into camp about 6pm.
Our hands & feet were freezing, so we got a campfire going & stood around drinking hot chocolates.
There was only 1 other RV in the entire campsite & the people arrived back just after we arrived.
The lady, Sharon, came over to say hi & we had a chat - they were from Arkansas & they had been there for 2 weeks as her husband is a bow hunter (uses Bow & arrow to hunt) & it is the season to bow hunt Elk at the moment.
About 10mins after she left she arrived again - obviously feeling sorry for us being so cold she invited us over to there RV to warm up & have some dinner...ahhhhh perfect!
We could not turn down an offer like that so we pitched the tents, spruced ourselves up a little & headed over.
We had lovely sandwhiches with fresh fillings - home smoked pork, avocado, tomatoes (home grown), lettuce, cheese, pickles - lovely!!
After dinner the sweets came out - biscuits, chocolate bars...yum! we were very spoilt.
Had a early night as we were all very tired from our big day of climbing & crawled into our tents just as the snow started falling again....
DISTANCE: 69.4km
AVERAGE: 12.1kph
RIDE TIME: 5.44hrs
ASCEND: 1570m
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1 comment:
Good old US hospitality in Action! The snow and cold sounds interesting - must be hard work? Is it still nice and warm during the day?
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