For some reason we didn't wake up too good this morning. We didn't end up getting moving until around 7:30. After having some oatmeal we packed up and and then headed over to the main building to take a shower. The shower was so refreshing and definitely helped me wake up a little since I wasn't feeling to energized this morning. Before heading out of town, we stopped at the Post Office to mail some stuff home that we no longer needed, like all of the maps from the states we've already ridden through. When we were leaving Idaho Springs we saw a sign that said the elevation of the town was 7,650 ft, which is the highest we've ever camped. Not too far out of Idaho Springs we passed a few old gold mines which was pretty cool. After we'd ridden about 10 miles, we made it to the little town of Dumont where we stopped for a quick break. Joe also realized that his crank was really wiggly and so we went to Starbucks to find where the closest bike shop was since we knew the crank wouldn't last long the way it was. To our surprise we found out that there was one about a mile away. The bike shop was called A Culture of Speed and they were so helpful. Not only did they put new ball bearings in Joe's bike, but they fixed the jumping gears on my bike (apparently there were no ball bearings at all in one of the "pully wheels" on my derailer) which also stopped my gears from squeaking; and the fixed us up with all new brakes so we were set for the mountains. Santiago, the mechanic, was amazing. He also gave me some pointers on breaking, which is great because I do that a lot when I go downhill! Harry, the owner, was also super helpful because he suggested and explained how we might go about getting sponsors! We had a great time while we were waiting for our bikes to be spruced up, and there was even a really cute puppy named Uno to play with. A big thank you to the bike shop for giving us such a great deal! Also another big thanks goes to Jake Adams for the donation towards bicycle maintenance, it was SO helpful in getting our bikes equipped for more miles! After spending a couple hours at the bike shop, we headed towards Empire. It was amazing, riding my bike was almost like riding a new one. The gears were so smooth and there wasn't any drag like there was before. When we made it to Empire, we figured we should probably have lunch since it was already almost 3pm. There was a little bar in town that again had some tables out front, so we went in to ask if we could use their tables. While there, we saw some mountain goats on the top of the mountain behind the bar which was kind of funny because they were almost like statues because they barely moved. We decided to get a drink so that we felt better about using the tables and bathroom, and plus we were thirsty anyway. Joe got a beer and I got a soda, even though neither of those are great for keeping us hydrated, they were a nice treat. While we were making our mac and cheese it started to pour. We could see that it was snowing up on the top of the mountains too. But, by the time our food was ready, the clouds had gone and it was sunny again. For the rest of the ride we continued to climb. When we left the bike shop, we were unsure if we would be able to make it to Winter Spring since we knew we had some huge climbing ahead of us and it was still about 30 miles away. As we kept riding and it got later and later, we knew that we probably wouldn't make it because we figured it would be another 2 hours for us to get over the pass. For part of the ride it began to rain again, right around 5:30. At that point we were pretty sure we wouldn't make it to Winter Spring like we had planned. There wasn't a whole ton of daylight left and we were both feeling funny because of the elevation. Joe said he had a headache and I was feeling a little dizzy while riding even though we had been drinking plenty of water. It was still raining when we decided to take camp instead of continue to climb. Right before the first switchback there was a picnic area that even had an outhouse. We quickly set up our tent and got everything in the tent. We decided to hang our food for the first time just to be safe, so we worked on finding a good place for that too. While I was setting up everything in the tent, it stopped raining and again the sun came out. It is incredible how fast the weather changes in the mountains! Since it was sunny, we explored a little around the picnic area. Our tent is right near a cliff that had a waterfall below. The whole area was beautiful. Joe talked to some family and found out that we were at an elevation of about 10,000 feet!! As we go higher into the mountains we are always reaching new elevations that I have never been at before, or camped at for that matter. Not long after we had the tent set up the sun came out again, so we decided to have a little dinner. We cooked up some baked beans and snacked on crackers with pb. After everything was cleaned up and the food was hung, we got back in our tent, just in time for it to start to rain again. We only rode 22.79 miles, but we both know that we wouldn't have made it up and over the pass to Winter Park before dark, so it was good that we stopped when we did.
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