So i may have neglected to add some interesting details last night as to where we stayed. We rolled into Rico at around 3:30. It is a small town, with about a 1/2 mile of store buildings, some of them vacant, a school, fire department, and a couple of hotels. No campsite. We were excited to get there early and set up camp, make some wonderful pad thai that had been sent from home (we are very excited).
Come to find out, Rico didn't have a campground... We sat under the gazebo outside of the playground to try to figure out what to do. We were totally willing to go ahead and camp in the park (soccer field to be exact), but we looked around and noticed that everything was bear proofed. (we couldn't even figure out the garbage cans either, at first). And that is when we decided that we should probably get a hotel since we had so much food in our panniers. (i bet bears like beefaroni, too) One of the two hotels had no vacancy, and we couldn't get in contact with the last who owned the other ( she left a number on the door). I asked the fire department, we tried calling churches. Nothing.
So, not knowing else to do, we decided to get food (at least tea, we were freezing). On our way to the café, we noticed the hotel door was open, the lady had returned. Lindsay went to inquire. It was our only option at that point, so we decided to go for it, and she gave us the grand tour.
Rico originated from the silver mining that flourished in the area in the 1870s. There were about 23 saloons at that point, which made Rico a popular town along the railway that was built from Ridgway to Dolores (it was not easy to build the tracks because of the mountains). The owner of the house that we were standing in, now a hotel, was a successful silver smith. The house was absolutely gorgeous. It was old, and the owner tried to recreate the atmosphere from 125 years ago, with many old pieces if furniture, artifacts if you will, including old stoves. The ceilings were high, the walls ornate. There were chandeliers in every room. There were also two kitchens, from an addition i believe, and many bathroom with old showers. The lady who now owned the hotel, Susie, was very sweet and absolutely adored the place. She currently lived in Dolores (38 miles away) as she was her 90 year old mother's caretaker, and had plans to eventually live in it while renting out rooms to people (there were maybe 10 bedrooms). So as she is showing us this beautiful place, which we are just trying to take in, she told us that she had to return to Dolores after she vacuumed, and the place would be ours... All to ourselves. she gave us the key. She was very trusting, obviously, even after a couple couches had been stolen and the people that she let stay there the night before failed to leave money for her after she told then whet the key was. We were very grateful that we had such an amazing place to stay that didn't involve snuggling with hungry bears. And then nonchalantly, out of no where, she says, "oh by the way there are spirits in the house.... They are kind though." I think i choked briefly on my breath, and glanced at Lindsay to see if i could read what she was thinking. Her eyes were a bit wider than normal. We asked if there was any common activity and she definitely didn't hesitate to say, "oh yeah, here follow me." She led us up the steep, narrow, winding stairs to the room we were supposed to stay in. She said "you will see up here.." She lost her train of thought mid sentence and went on to say "this was the whore room." At this point, i was thinking good lord, is this really happening and is she serious. I studied her for a moment and realized that she was not trying to pull our leg, or scare us. I think she was trying to be honest and open, but was just slightly scattered in approach. She went on to tell us about her son, and more about her life (she had an elk farm and camels in Dolores). Then she sent us to find hot springs near and get some food as she finished her cleaning and left to go back to Dolores.
We left the hotel, and neither of us really knew what to say to each other. We both kind of cracked up about the fact that we were offered a place that we had all to ourselves and didn't think that there would be a catch....That it is haunted. We couldn't find the hot springs, so we ate dinner at a cafe across the from the hotel, and just kept looking over at the dark windows, and started freaking ourselves out by thinking of scary movies, and seeing if we could see any odd activity from the windows. We decided that we would be on the buddy system and escort the other person to the bathroom, etc, not that we were in danger but if we were going to be spooked we wanted to be spooked together.
We got back to the hotel and decided that we should stay downstairs, and called the owner to make sure she was ok with it (we didn't want to make "anyone" mad), and her initial response was, "of course, but why? Did something happen?" Didn't help our current state of freaked out. We wisely chose a room with a bathroom attached to it, and enjoyed a nice shower, and crawled into bed, shutting the doors to the rest of the hotel. 10 minutes later, the shower faucet started dripping, so Lindsay got up and made sure the faucet was turned all the way off, we tried to forget about it. This happened twice. A half hour later, we were loudly giggling about something while we were blogging and all of a sudden Lindsay's eyes got huge and she pointed to the bathroom, and i became quiet to hear that the shower had turned partially on... Way way way more than a drip. As suddenly as it started, the running water stopped. Yes, we were totally freaked out. We sat there in silence covering our mouths, and then tried to pretend that it never happened, saying nothing to each other, getting back to our blogging.. No big deal, right? Within a minute, the water turned back on again. We were pretty much paralyzed. Knowing that there was nothing that would harm us, we finished our blogs and tried to forget what happened, and were desperately hoping that nothing else would happen that night, or when we were packing our things up in the morning. Sleep didn't come that easily our soundly for us though.
It was a rocky night's sleep, but we got through it without any more blunders and hurried to eat and get or of there this morning, nut only because we were ready, but because we had a long day of riding to do.
We had started our ascent to 10,220 feet the day before, so we knew that it was up hill from the beginning of the day. Our muscles immediately felt as though they had checked out in Dolores, as the burning was quick to start and they were very fatigued, not to mention we were easily it of breath. We were at about 9000 feet, so it would make sense that we were more tired than usual, but just like the day before we felt as though we had never climbed before, or at any elevation higher than sea level. By mile 1.7, we had stripped off our long sleeve shirts and pants as the sweat was pouring out of us.
We made our way up the rest of the mountain, one hill at a time, and it was exhausting. About two miles from the top, there was road graffiti that read "shut up legs," which was so perfect and true. We had to block out what our legs (and lungs) were telling us and keep going, knowing that the summit was getting closer and closer.
The summit was gorgeous, but so cold. The scenery is incredible in Colorado... The mountains are large and majestic, covered in pines, or they were large rocks protruding into the sky. You can't be frustrated at how far you have yet to go, how cold you are, how steep the hills are or how tired you are because of the peacefulness and tranquillity you find when you look up. Not to mention, the people are extremely nice.
After our first summit, we descended, for a bit and pulled off at a scenic overlook to get a bite to eat. It was also the meeting point of a local biking group that was about to climb what we had just finished (...for fun) one of the ladies came over to talk to us, and see what we were doing. Unfortunately, we were extremely hungry and as we were taking were simultaneously eating cashews as fast (and politely) as physically possible before we cracked into our tuna. As more members showed up, they came over and marveled at our bikes, especially at the load we were carrying and the distance we have covered in 3 weeks. It was very touching. They were incredibly nice. One couple gave us fruit, and it was so so so delicious.
One more summit. Again, we were exhausted, even at 9,000 feet. 12 miles down the hill was Ridgway, where subway was waiting for us, 61 miles into our trip. We had thought that Montrose was only 17 miles away at that point, but we were mislead...26 instead.
They were the best 26 of the day, and i am pretty sure that i feel in love with biking all over again today. I don't know where we got the energy, but we did 26 miles in one hour and 20 minutes, with an average speed of 19 mph. This is a speed that is usually maintained by road bikers, who have light bikes with no gear, not after 60 miles with 60 lbs. The pavement was smooth over the flat terrain with a few rolls here or there. I'm not sure where we dug this out of, but it was exhilarating, in every sense.. It was liberating. This is what cycling is all about, the feeling of flying, of gliding along the landscape. Descents are rewards for the effort of climbing, but that is as different joy. In addition, on the descents you have to worry about maintaining control in the wind, around corners with cars and trucks, braking to maintain sense of control. But when you can reach this speed (which may nit seem far to many people) on the terrain tonight, you are in total control and it is almost effortless. You are free.
Another big day tomorrow, but after tonight I'm really looking forward to it
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