July 22nd: Frisco – Boreas Pass – Frisco: 63km, 653m climbed

Autor: Tim Goodall

We were up early to a wonderful clear blue sky and a Main St. devoid of vehicles because overnight parking is banned! What a great idea.

The plan was to ride through Breckenridge and up the Boreas Pass road to the top. Mark was missing this ride out to spend time looking at Breckenridge and meet us there about lunchtime. There is an excellent bike path on an old railroad route to Breckenridge and, though it was uphill, we made good time without all the baggage. We made a breakfast sandwich stop in the centre of town and then set off to find the pass road. Based on map detail I thought it was a dirt road but the first 7 km were asphalt then it turned to dirt and was a lot worse than the Colorado River Road. Covered in washboarding, holes and rocks sticking out of the surface it was a rough ride. With 4 km to go the sky darkened and the rain came down and it did not look as though the weather would improve so we turned round and rolled back down. We had done 7 km on the rough surface with the same to do back down and we didn’t fancy a further 8 km to the top and back in the rain.

The ride down the rough section was slow but once we were back on the asphalt the last few kilometers were quickly covered and we met Mark as planned. Lunch was cake and tea/coffee at a bakery after which we had to move on before the bad weather from Boreas Pass descended on Breckenridge. As we rode the bike trail back to Frisco I could see, in the bike mirror, the sky getting blacker behind us. Fortunately, it did not reach as far as Frisco until the evening when we had a big thunderstorm, heavy rain and a double rainbow while we were having dinner outdoors. Our table was the only one with sufficient cover that we could stay outside while everybody else rushed off for an indoor table. Now we are all in bed steeling ourselves for tomorrow’s ride over Loveland Pass at 11990 ft which is only 105 ft lower than Independence Pass that we did on Wednesday. We will be starting from a higher location than Aspen so it should be a bit easier.

Early morning in Frisco Main St.
Fishing in the Blue River.
Blue River valley looking at the Ten Mile Range.
Breckenridge ski slopes
A mighty old snow plough…
and locomotive.
Somebody is having a house built into the side of the mountain with that view.
The Boreas Pass railroad, built between 1880 and 1884 was abandoned in 1937 and this water tank was restored in 1958.

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