DAY 14 – Mugrage Campground to Boreas Pass camp (100miles)

Although Kremmling is a couple of miles off route, it offers good GDR services and is worth the detour for a big cooked breakfast. Several miles out of Kremmling we meet Josh again. I can’t believe it. Nothing can break this man. He camped up only a few miles short of the campground and was in Kremmling at the same time but at a different restaurant.

On the climb up Ute Pass the dirt turns to pavement and I start to be overcome by tiredness. Despite my heart rate being quite high on this climb, I can barely keep my eyes open and am swerving around. I wonder if this is the start of things to come, so refuse to stop. Rocks start to look like soft pillows and I so need to be horizontal. Bruce slowly disappears up the climb as I fight with my eyelids. Eventually the climb tops out and I pull in to deal with my feet as I wait for Matt and Josh. The consistent pedal stroke pressures on long pavement climbs really aggravate my left foot problems, so I do what I can to relieve the pain with my magic roll of strapping tape. Hopeless! Two roadies pass me as I'm doing this and give me a very strange look when I give them a nod.

Josh, Matt and I roll into Silverthorne and enjoy a gas station meal on the pavement outside. Good times. Navigation from here to Frisco is tricky, but we eventually discuss the map instructions with enough hot girls out mountain biking (thanks to the girl in a Heineken top) to find the cycle track to Breckenridge. On the cycle track the local roadies pass us by and give us the well perfected arrogant blanking when we say ‘hi’. I find it hard not to chase them down but Matt pulls me back.

The only thing on my mind when we reach Breckenridge is getting a meal fast. The three of us dive in the first steak house we see to eat as fast as we can and get back out for more miles before dark. The climb out of Breckenridge is pavement to begin and the gradient is slight. The higher up the pass we go the easier it gets and I find myself flying along as the temperature is falling in the late evening. Eventually it’s lights on and we push for the top of the 11,482ft pass in the dark. In the dark the descent gets very cold quickly, and at the 100 mile point for the day we set-up camp at the side of the road in a nice sandy glade. A great camp spot and I sleep well in the cold air my sleeping bag was designed for.