Day 24 & 25

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Day 24:

Road closures for a Sunday event forced us through Montrose suburbs. Gave us a chance to observe new houses on subdivisions. All nearly identical but nice, & for a fraction of Auckland prices. Less regulations perhaps?

After locating our self plotted route we were soon on excellent adventure riding gravel tracks. Unfortunately Google & the local rancher had a different interpretation of legal roads & we came to a locked gate & a no trespass sign.

Working around this blockage on our GPS we went up another gravel road but this was locked off also - probably the same ranch! Back to the last turnoff and we were on a county road heading for our route a longer way round to Silver Jack Reservoir. Here we followed a gravel road before turning off onto a single track which afforded spectacular views & great riding. albeit at slow speed. Another locked gate detoured us up a different short single track to join the original road we had turned off some kms before.

This road headed for the Ski Resort town of Tulluride. On this road when stopped for lunch we met a motorcyclist coming the other way who informed us our planned route Tulluride down to Silverton was one way - the wrong way for us. Deciding after consulting our maps & GPS there was an alternative, we continued on. Descending down down down, bouncing off rocks & ruts, passing lots of Jeeps & side by sides plus a few motorcycles we then went through a tight gnarly cutoff with large rocks, streams & jump ups before joining the Imogen pass.

This was the hardest rockiest steepest pass we had negotiated which seemed to go on for ever before reaching around 3900m or 13114 feet. My bike was gasping for air & Ian had to remove the airbox cover on his to reach the top. Down the other side it seemed to descend for ever. After a stream crossing or two we eventually arrived into Tulluride - this ski town has amazing ski runs up the mountains on each side. Leaving Tulluride we gassed up then turned off over the Ophir Pass (rocky, rutty, steep but short) & then into Silverton.

After checking into our motel we had dinner before revisiting the bar (same bar tender owner from 2 years ago) which is the source of the name Pharkalls. In the bar we met a couple from Detroit over West for a wedding driving their new 450hp Chev Corvette Convertible which we had spotted in the street earlier. He is in the automotive industry in Detroit working for a company specialising in developing Ai for autonomous vehicles. Interesting discussions.

250 hard kms today.

Day 25:

Easy day planned after yesterday with 150km loop North from Silverton to Cinammon Pass, then back through Slumgullion Pass (which is all seal) with a turn off cross country on the Trans Continental Divide Trail back to Silverton. The plan worked well in the early part of the day & as we headed up Cinammon Pass. This pass is easier than many other passes but still reaches 3800m & still requirs concentration to pick a good line between the rocks.

Being holiday season the Pass was very busy with side by sides, motorcycles & Jeeps both ways & the odd traffic bottleneck holding up progress..

As we were making good time we decided to coffee in Lake City before heading South through South Slumgullion Pass which a sealed twisty highway. Turning off onto our plotted route the Continental Divide trail, we were immediately on a rough rocky narrow combined walking trail which is also approved for Motorcycles & atvs. After around 20kms of this bouncing around we came to a point where no motorised vehicles were allowed. Retracing our bumps a couple of kms we took a different trail after consulting our map, GPS, talking to some hikers & tossing a coin. This track got us back to the highway after 10kms of steep downhills with sliding loose rocks. Back down the way we had come in we were soon back on Cinammon Pass. This time i had some woozy side effects from the altitude & took it easily all the way back to Silverton.

230 confused & frustrating kms today.

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