Today we rode from Hartsell, Colorado, US to Salida, Colorado, US. Sunny weather with little clouds. Road conditions included some paved roads and good gravel roads. Highlights of the day include a very good a long downhill, and the town of Salida.

Riding statistics: on Monday, August 29, 2022, day 29 on the route, it took 09:35h (05:05h moving time), between 07:27 and 17:03, to cover 81 km (50 miles), including 785 m (2576 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 16 km/h (10 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 47 km/h (29 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 30 °C (86 °F) with a minimum of 5 °C (41 °F) and a maximum of 43 °C (109 °F).

Totals: So far, it took 8 days, 14 hours, 37 minutes, and 20 seconds of cycling time to cover 3039 km (1888 miles), including 35332 m (115924 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.9 km/h (9.3 mph).

Streets Terrain Satellite Topo

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Leaflet | Map data: © OpenStreetMap

When we got up this morning, we were happy with our decision to stay in the barn. There has been a hard wind and rain during the night. Despite the sun already rising, it was cold, even inside the barn. Fortunately, inside our tents it was all good. We did not set an alarm for this morning because we are expecting a shorter day and wanted a good night of sleep. Despite having not set an alarm we were both awake quite early. At 6:30am we were already packing our stuff and making us ready to leave the barn to get a breakfast in the Highline Café & Saloon in Hartsel.

The town center of Hartsel (only a few buildings) was only a 10-minute bicycle ride. In Hartsel there should have been a convenience store as well, but it was closed since August 1st. That was a bit of a bummer, fortunately, we still had enough supplies to make it to Salida today. My knee was still an issue, still painful, but I could use it already a lot more compared to yesterday. It helped that today would be short and not too much climbing. We both enjoyed the breakfast. There were locals enjoying breakfast too, and we saw a couple of other bike-packers. They had stayed the night in the yard behind the bar.

We left Hartsel on a quiet paved road. The sun made it a very nice morning to cycle. Not much later we took a turnoff onto a gravel road, which we would have to follow for over 30km (18.5 miles). The road traversed through a hilly country with sometimes patches of forests. The road surface was OK, sometimes a bit too much wash boarding to our likes, but all-in-all a great ride. During the first part of this road, we still saw houses and cabins. Most of them not even finished, others a big mess. There were also many acres for sale. Somehow, it seemed that this area started to attract people at some time, but for some reason it did not work out. During our breakfast we also heard similar stories from the locals about hard times selling properties. There was also a lot of junk at some properties. For example, I saw (probably) a big RV upside down and completely smashed. Maybe by very bad weather, I can’t think of any other cause.

This first section of the road went through a landscape of green hills. Not the same as in Wyoming with only sagebrush, but really green vegetation. However, there were almost no trees, only a few sections of land that contained trees. Gradually the scenery changed to more rocky mountains with bigger forests. I do like to see the bigger mountains although it means cycling effort had to increase. Fortunately, I was able to do so despite the knee issues.

In the afternoon we had a long hill to climb. The road circled through mountains and forests. The road condition was not always great. At a certain location construction was being done to improve the unpaved road so it was rideable by vehicles again. I had to walk a few small sections because of my knee, but I wasn’t the only one. On top we had great views and took our time for a short break. We even saw a coyote. During our break we met a couple from British Columbia, Canada, who were riding the GDMBR as well.

After our lunch we put on some more layers because downhills could be cold even though the weather was excellent. The downhill did not disappoint. The gravel road condition was OK, and we had spectacular views of the area, include a massive mountain range at the other side of Salida.

After the 15km (9.5 miles) downhill, where we hardly had to pedal out bike, we were in the town of Salida. We went to the city center, parked our bikes, and walked around to enjoy downtown. Salida is again a great little city with a very nice downtown. Many old brick buildings, of which some of them still have very old advertising paintings on the walls outside. We asked for a good restaurant, and someone recommended a pizza place / brewery place. They made their own pizzas, beer and sodas. We decided to share a medium (14″) pizza, and it tasted great. We decided to stay at a cheap motel for the night because coming nights would be primitive again. During our pizza session, we reserved a room with two queen beds in the Circle R motel in Salida.

After finishing our pizza, we walked to the Safeway to get food and drinks for the next days. With full bags we cycled to the motel, which was a 15-minute ride. We decided to first cleanup ourselves, then do laundry, and then go for snacks at the nearby gas station. It was warm at the motel room, and we enjoyed cold drinks, ice-cream, and chips.

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