Breckenridge

After leaving Steamboat we celebrated Independence Day by riding 110 miles to Breckenridge, which was one of the longest and most challenging rides of the trip. It was an exciting day because we actually entered the Rocky Moutains. We started first by riding over the first pass at about mile 18 called Rabbit Ears because of two huge boulders in the distance that stand up and actually look a lot like rabbit ears. It was a pretty consistent 6-8% grade for a seven mile climb. Steamboat is at an elevation of 6,728 and the elevation of Rabbit Ears is 9,426, so we climbed 2,700 feet in seven miles. At the Rabbit Ears Pass we crossed the Continental Divide for the first time.

For those not familiar with grades: 9% is the steepest we encounter on the trip and from the ground basically looks about straight up- you get winded just walking up it for a short distance, 11% is the steepest professional riders will ever climb according to our cycling coach (in Europe because their road grades aren't regulated like ours are in the US), and 18% is unrideable.

After the climb there are about seven miles of rolling hills, then 20+ miles of pretty good downhill. Crossed the Continental Divide again when flying down the mountain. Then it was gradually uphill for the remainder of the ride into Breckenridge. They were basically rolling hills, but the net was uphill and we finished at an elevation of 9,600 feet.

Perhaps the hardest part of the ride was the climb up to lodging, the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (BOEC), which is a camp for people with disabilities. BOEC is at the top of a huge hill in a winding neighborhood. So each time we went around a corner we thought the BOEC would be right there, but instead we just kept climbing and it kept getting steeper. It's actually become a joke among the team that lodging is always at the top of a hill, and this was among the most challenging finishes both because of the climb and the fact we had already done 100+ miles.

After the ride we had a dinner sponsored by Bruce Rogers, who did the first Journey of Hope solo in 1987 and was a later a founder of the private equity firm KRG Capital in Denver. We went to the Country Boy mine in Breckenridge, which was a working mine up until World War II. We got a tour of the mine and an idea of what it was like to be a miner in the 19th century - the conditions were absolutely brutal. It made riding a bicycle across the country look like a joke. After the tour we had a catered dinner of BBQ chicken with cornbread, beans, potatoes, and apple crisp, all of which was delicious. Probably my favorite meal of the trip so far.

After dinner a bunch of us walked to downtown Breckenridge to check out the Breckenridge Brewing Company. Downtown Breckenridge was packed for the Fourth with people all over downtown and a free pops concert at an outdoor ampitheatre next to a little river that ran right along Main St. Breckenridge seems like a very cool little town and I'd love a chance to come back and have some more time to check it out.