After an amazing nights rest we woke up, ate eggs and said our goodbyes. As we were leaving, Jackson, Jesse’s son, told us that he was a expecting us to have ridden on a tandem, he seemed a little disappointed to find that we each were riding our own bikes, but it was a good laugh! We set off down the bike path from Dillon and rode up and up and then down a short descent into Breckenridge. After 30 minutes of Matt dealing with Post Office shenanigans, Brett discovered the glory of peanut butter on blueberry muffins. We left town and climbed up Borealis Pass. The leaves were finally beginning to change and the views were amazing. The descent was fun and as things flattened out we followed a handful of nice gravel roads before turning onto a stretch of paved highway. A short storm was coming our way and we pressed on a couple miles to a convenience store. During that time something went off in Matt’s Achilles and he was barely able to stand. Luckily we tapped into the science of K-tape, which instantly helped. We cruised along a series of washboarded gravel roads until sunset. We still had aways to go as the path suddenly turned into a hard, steep climb. It got dark as we spun our way up the climb and shortly after summiting, we saw the lights of Salida. We donned our headlamps and started down. It was pitch black outside the illumination of our awesome Dynamo headlights and every few minutes a new corner would reveal the lights of Salida getting closer. Fueled by hungry stomachs, we crushed the descent. We soon found our way into town, and smelled our way into an open bar and feasted on Beer and Burgers. With no rooms available in town and the nearest campsite miles away, we opted for stealth camping down by the river. Sleep came quick.
Day 27: Dillon to Salida
