Day 27 – It was a close shave up the mountain
Day 27 (May 28th)
Distance 63.89 miles
I said some unchristian things in the mountains today.
The day went as follows:
Leave Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado.
Climb 2,000ft to Willow Creek Pass at 9,683ft.
Come down the other side and set up camp in Walden, Colorado.
To add a bit more detail:
I was battered by hail storms on the way up. I was battered by hail storms at the top. And I was battered by hailstorms on the way down.
In fact, today is the first day I’ve felt in a bit of danger. Once I made it to the top I could see the darkest clouds coming my way so I hastily started my descent. Shortly after that the weather came in as a mixture of snow and hail and it went dark.. The point where I really felt in danger was when my hands weren’t my own any more. I couldn’t feel a thing and eventually had to pull off the road still way up in the mountain. Using my hours of Bear Grylls viewing I took my frozen gloves off and put my hands under my armpits. It was so painful warming them back up, I could feel them throb and ache!
A break in the weather appeared at which point I made it down the mountain like a rocket. I was close to the point of setting up an emergency camp as I had no signal to make an SOS call.
30 miles later I made it to Walden and got a hot drink from the petrol station. The bloke could see how drenched and cold I was so told me I could have it for free. Another kind human encounter.
I survived my moment of panic and can understand how people get caught out up the mountains.
Yours in cycling,
Dan