Yesterday, we passed through a lovely Rocky Mountain town that Jordan and I liked so much, I thought it deserved a special post. The town is named Ridgeway, Colorado. For starters, it’s located in a beautiful valley surrounded by a rugged and dramatic ridge line (hence the name). We approached the town descending from Dallas Divide Pass (just under 9,000 feet), which allowed us to really enjoy the sweeping views and fall foliage. Once we entered the town, we stopped at the highly rated local taco joint, GNAR. While waiting to order, we chatted with a friendly couple ahead of us in line. Turns out, the guy was a hardcore cyclist who had recently participated in a 500 mile trek in South Africa. When he heard that we were crossing the whole USA, he insisted on buying our lunch. He said he wanted to make sure we came away with a good impression of Ridgeway. Well sir, mission accomplished. Next, we hit up the local coffee shop where I enjoyed a lavender infused cappuccino and a huge chocolate chip cookie. We next stopped by the bike shop to pick up some spare tubes and degreaser. While there, the shop owner recommended that we make a pit stop to the local hot springs before leaving town and heading on to Montrose. We had heard about the hot springs from other folks in town we chatted with, so we decided to check them out. I’m so glad we did. There were several springs scattered through a well-kept garden area. You could choose which spring pool to soak in depending on your preference for how hot you like the water. We spent a few hours exploring the different pools and chatting with the locals. Did I mention this was a clothing optional situation? I’ll just say we weren’t about to get any of our biking attire wet!
After leaving Ridgeway we headed down the mountain to Montrose to spend the night in a local RV park. We had dinner at Colorado Boy pizza, which was recommended by several of the lovely people we met in Ridgeway. The pizza was delicious and we enjoyed a nicely-hopped IPA to end the day. I’ve got to say, I really want to find a way back to this area in the future. Ridgeway in particular seems like the kind of place I’d like to live long term.
Today, we faced an annoying complication on our route from Montrose to Sapinero. A 5-mile stretch of US Route 50 was under heavy construction. We’re talking blasting through rocks, with only a very rough, one lane gravel path for cars to move. Bicycles were not permitted to cross this section. As a result, we had to be ferried by Mike across the construction zone. This amounted to about 10 miles of being driven to account for the construction zone and congestion at either end. While it’s annoying that we were not able to bike this small stretch, I take solace in the fact that we biked an extra 50+ miles on the first day of the trip around the San Francisco harbor area even though the official route would have had us just take the ferry. I’ll say it’s a mulligan and not a black mark on our overall accomplishments.