July 23rd: Frisco – Georgetown, 65km, 973m climbed

Autor: Tim Goodall

We hard a hard day ahead of us today so we were up early for tea and coffee. Hotels don’t offer any food because of covid and there was nowhere open offering a breakfast. However, we still managed to dawdle over drinks and managed to be late setting off and then lost more time at Walmart and Safeway stocking up on supplies to get us over Loveland Pass. It took a while to find the cycle route around Dillon reservoir but we eventually got rolling st a respectable pace. It was around 20 km over lumpy terrain before we got to the real climb and then it was 16 km of 5% gradient to get to the pass. At 3300m we arrived at the Arapahoe Ski Lodge and went into the cafe for a break. They weren’t taking any more orders for food so it was root beer floats for John and Mark and ginger ale and a snickers for me. Not the best lunch for hard climbing but it was the best we could do. The storm clouds were building over the valley ahead of us and we could hear the thunder as we arrived at the top. We quickly put on rain jackets but we were too late to avoid a soaking on the way down. By the time we had dropped 400m we were at the I70 interstate thoroughly chilled, wet and dirty. From the I70 on ramp we had to take the bike trail through several kilometers of woodland before it changed to the Frontage road paralleling the I70. The Frontage road is probably the main road through the mountains from years ago and, while not in very good condition, enabled a speedy decent right into the middle of Georgetown. After we had checked in at the Georgetown Lodge the first priority was a hot shower, a laundry session and then dinner.

Tomorrow, Mark heads back to Idaho and John and I head off to Iowa to do a stage of the RAGBRAI – Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (the Register is a newspaper).

We are heading towards those mountains in the background.
Dillon reservoir dam.
Dillon yacht harbour
The view from Arapahoe Basin ski resort. Some big clouds coming after us.
We are st 3500m and looking at the last section.
There is the storm already over the valley where the I70 is.
Been there, seen it, done it.
The Georgetown Loop railway as seen from up on the bike path. Built between 1880 and 1884, abandoned in 1938, resurrected in 1984 and runs daily through the summer for tourists.

30 Gedanken zu „July 23rd: Frisco – Georgetown, 65km, 973m climbed“

  1. Tanja Goodall Antworten

    Sounds like a really tough day to me. What a pity you got wet on the way down. I hope you got something decent to eat and drink in the evening after all that hard work :-).
    Love, Tanja

  2. David Rynenberg Antworten

    We’ve enjoyed following this epic cycle tour, reading your detailed, interesting and often amusing blog and seeing the wonderful photos. We’ve even had the maps out to see exactly where you are!! Time to start planning another one for next year.

    David and Sonia

  3. Editht Antworten

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