Post 21, Sunday 10 July, from Breckenridge, Colorado

Dear all

I am starting this sitting outside a public "laundromat" - it must be decades since I last used one....

Breckenridge is a vibrant ski resort but busy too in the summer. The owner of the B&B where I am staying tells me the resident population is 3,000, but in the ski season it swells to 30,000. No wonder it has a prosperous and kempt air (and has masses of - not-cheap - restaurants).

Smart streets and Restaurants

Yesterday's ride, from Guffey to Fairplay, was the most unbelievable day of cycling. I can't imagine it being any better..... Stunningly, breathtakingly awesome scenery.

Snow on the high mountains

That said, though, I met a young TransAm rider - Angus, from San Antonio, Texas - going east, and shared with him my delight at the sheer beauty of it all. He told me it get's even better as I head further north. Hard to believe - can perfection be improved upon?  (Incidentally, he is passionate about cycling, and told me he just wants to carry on riding; perhaps S America next... He is 20, less than a third my age, and may he fulfil his dreams!)

The wide Platte valley

Looking down the South Platte valley

The long and winding road

How can I describe the beauty of yesterday?  For most of the day I was above 9,000 feet, crossing the broad basin of the South Platte River.  It is perhaps 10 to 20 miles wide, with mountains all around, and the highest ones streaked with snow.

Could cycling get better than this

This is ranching country, and close to the river there was lush pasture, with cattle, horses, and - twice - buffalo (I had been hoping at some stage to see these ponderous ungainly beasts).  And beyond the pastureland the grass stretched away, short and brown-dry, to the (180 degree or more) panorama of mountains in the distance.

Cycling progress was slow, though - there were just too many photos needing to be taken..... (On which note, an apology; I discovered a zoom facility on my blackberry, but as my Art Editors back in the UK were quick to tell me, the picture quality with the zoom is seriously degraded. Lesson learnt.)  It was slow also because of the relative lack of oxygen at that altitude, and even at the moderate gradients I was puffing. Absurdly, the Jerry Lee Lewis rock number "Breathless" started spinning round my head....

A rest after a big climb

Fairplay, where I stayed last night, started life as a mining town, but has survived boom and bust and continues to prosper.  I stayed in the Fairplay Hotel, I think the first hotel proper - i.e. with a dining room that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner - I have been in the whole trip.  (It was a huge contrast with the very basic log cabin I stayed in in Guffey the night before, which had no electricity or running water, and had an outside privy!) 

The cabin which was my home in Guffey

One attraction in Fairplay is an area depicting a reconstructed western mining town, formed a few decades ago by renovating some existing buildings and transplanting others.  They call it 'South Park City' and it was fascinating to wander round...  One fact I picked up was that during the town's peak prosperity, no fewer than three narrow gauge railway lines - operated by different companies - served the town and its mines.

A reminder of what Fairplay was about

South Park City, Fairplay

Today's cycling lacked yesterday's stupendous beauty, partly because there were no similar vistas and partly because it was more cloudy.  But it was memorable for the physical challenge of climbing to 11,500 feet, to cross the Hoosier Pass.  The gradient was never more than 6%, but the sheer length of the climb - 12 miles, and 1,500 feet altitude gain - plus my Jerry Lee Lewis-style breathlessness, kept my climbing speed at 5 mph or less!  But there was a good sense of achievement when I got to the top.  And when I told the gentleman who kindly took my photo there that I was ultimately bound for Seattle, his immediate response was, "Holy Cow!".  So that made me feel even better....

11,500 feet up!

 The reward for the climb was a ten-mile, 2,000 feet, descent to Breckenridge.  (But I am glad I had the sense to put on for it several extra layers of clothing.... one can get very cold very quickly descending at altitude.)

Now I have the luxury of four days of not cycling, because I am leaving my bike here to go to meet Julia and Ben who arrive at Denver International Airport tomorrow, and then with a hire car we will have a few days in the Rocky Mountain National Park before coming back here on Thursday.  I will resume my ride on Friday, and for the next three days they will follow me like a support vehicle (but no, I will not get them to carry my panniers for me!), and we will spend the afternoons and evenings together before they fly back to England on the following Tuesday. 

Just two more notable names for the collection, both because they stretch my imagination.  Yesterday, towering above me to the east, was "Thirty Nine Mile Mountain".  And today I saw on a map the forbidding-sounding "Never Summer Wilderness".  Both encapsulate for me the sheer grand scale of these mountains.

So, I now sign off for a few days, but will come back to you all before the end of this coming week.

With deep appreciation for the interest you all show in my "loopy adventure",

Best wishes, Ken