Rocky Mountain Cycling Club
The Club for People Who Love to Ride!

Hardscrabble Self-support Tour

Ride: This is a two-day, self-supporting tour, starting in Colorado Springs; looping through Florence, Wetmore, Silver Cliff, Westcliffe, Hillside, Cotopaxi, Texas Creek, and Florence; and climbing Hardscrabble Pass. Self-supporting means that all food, clothes, and tools are carried on the bike. No cars will be used beyond getting to Colorado Springs.

When: Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 28, and Sunday, May 29, 2005

Leader: Sheridan Garcia

Starting Point and Time: Colorado Springs at the Safeway at 6520 South Academy Boulevard or the northwest corner of South Academy Boulevard/State Highway 83 and State Highway 115 on May 28, Saturday, at 9:00 AM

This is a fun two-day, self-support ride with reasonable daily mileages of 64 and 98, with one pass, and over moderately easy terrain.  We meet in south Colorado Springs at the Safeway on Academy Boulevard and State Highway 115 on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM.   

On Saturday, we ride on State Highway 115 for 38 miles to Florence, where we have our first rest stop at the Pour House Coffee and Café on Main Street.  They hold bragging rights not only for the best coffee in Fremont County, but they have a life size replica of the prehistoric coupé from the Flintstones cartoon.  I’m dating myself, but when self-supporting, one can take time to be an inquisitive tourist!   We then ride 11 miles on State Highway 67 from Florence to the State Highway 96 junction at Wetmore, which begins the gentle 15-mile climb through the Wet Mountains over Hardscrabble Pass at 9,085 feet.  There are four switchbacks and one false summit, but once on the top, the view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range is breathtaking!  The downhill into the old mining town of Silver Cliff opens out into a wide basin with an impressive panoramic view.  We spend the night at Yoder’s Country Inn and Restaurant.  Yoder’s is owned by a local Mennonite family, so the rooms are Spartan, clean, and comfortable. The adjoining restaurant has the best homemade blueberry pie ala mode I’ve ever eaten.  

On Sunday morning, we’ll pedal one fast mile down to the neighboring mining town of Westcliffe for breakfast at the Breakfast Hut; the local grocery is close by, so we can stock up on riding provisions for the day.   We begin the day by turning north onto State Highway 69, also known as the Frontier Pathway National Scenic Byway.  We’ll pass the historic Beckwith Ranch, built on land registered on an 1874 land grant signed by Ulysses S. Grant.  We cycle past Hillside and Cotopaxi for an easy 25 miles to the US Highway 50 intersection at Texas Creek, where snacks can be purchased, and where we might see the smallest hummingbird that migrates to Colorado: the Calliope.    US Highway 50, which parallels the Arkansas River Valley, is a scenic 26-mile ride past the Royal Gorge. The adventuresome spirit can take a short, three-mile detour along the top of a hogback formation called Skyline Drive.  We’ll drop into Canon City for lunch before we ride 12 miles to Penrose at the intersection of State Highway 115. We then head north to Colorado Springs for the final 35 miles, which we traveled the day before.  We’ve biked 162 miles in a part of Colorado that is biker-friendly, has beautiful terrain, and has minor auto traffic.   

If you are interested, contact Sheridan Garcia for more information.