We awoke the next morning snuggled between four wheelers and packed up quickly to try to make it to the top of Indiana Pass before... afternoon when there would be a greater chance of thunderstorms. We snacked on bars as we headed up the gravel road alongside the river and were passed by some weekender families on ATVs. We stopped quickly at a campsite for Ziven to use the bathroom because the Red Bear Porta Potty was not up to snuff and I refilled all our water from the spigot next to the river. We then slowly plodded up the gravel road as it gradually climbed all morning. We stopped at a series of lodges and cabins you could rent and there was a small store where we thought we could find coffee or more substantial food. The lady at the counter was very kind and showed us her fridge full of soda so we stocked up on sweet treats and she got to show off her Square POS system which she loved. We kept pedaling and eventually wound up in Platoro, an old mining town with a few establishments, mostly hotels and lodges for ATVers and other vacationers. We stopped at the first cafe/restaurant who said they were not open yet so we headed to the recommended coffee shop where the owners sat in the living room-esque cafe. We got some lovely ice coffee drinks and cookies to liven up our morning and headed to the next lodge where the cafe owner promised we could find real food. We were a little worried by then because the cafe owner had cautioned us about the large amounts of snow at the top of the pass, having heard from other town people and seen it herself a few weeks ago going into Del Norte. We asked about the road condition and she said it was very rough and unpleasant. Ziven picked up on the fact that this might be an opinion formed by a car driver and not a gravel biker and asked if a sedan could handle the road. Of course, she responded, it’s the main route from here to Del Norte. We were relieved that she seemed a bit out of touch with our criteria for good and bad roads and pushed off towards the lodge. There, we ordered chicken nuggets and ate them quickly, eager to get on with the climb but glad for the fuel. Next to the picnic tables were the airstreams that Jeff and Gary had mentioned as the last form of shelter before Indiana Pass. We started the climb and enjoyed the beautiful views of the lake and valley below as well as the unusual colorful mountains ahead. The climb was fairly uneventful besides being passed by many ATV and off-roaders presumably going from Del Norte to Platoro for a picnic. We stopped for various snack and soda breaks thanks to the lady at the souvenir shop before Platoro. Near the top we ran into some other bikers, a pair of students who had just graduated college and were doing the route from Steamboat Springs to Abiquiu. They admired our set up and I admired how skinny their tires were and how speedily they were descending the none too smooth surfaces. We eventually said goodbye and pushed on, and found the snow that the cafe owner was talking about. Except her news was completely out of date. Don’t believe everything you hear from the locals was the lesson of the day and it would be a recurring theme throughout the ride. There were snow banks, yes, but they were quickly melting and could 100% be bypassed by going through large sections opened up by ATVs and cars. We made it to the big, flat top of the pass and pedaled around the beautiful views, stopping again for another soda and snack break. There was more climbing but we couldn’t see how that was the case until we turned a corner and descended a thousand or so feet and immediately started to reclimb them.

We finally reached the actual summit of the pass at around 5pm, much later than we expected. The silver lining was that I finally finished a truly annoying audiobook, Braiding Sweetgrass, which I had originally chosen as a way to think about nature differently while being in nature continuously but ended up being quite repetitive… if I had had to hear about “reciprocity” for one more chapter I would have chucked my phone off my bike. No shade to the author, as it may be a good book to read and not listen to. We quickly took a selfie of us at the high point of the Great Divide Route, peed, and started the descent. We (aka I) had been nervous about this descent because of our previous big descent down Polvadera Mesa, but I was pleasantly surprised at the smooth gravel that allowed us to catch up on some of the lost time. We descended for quite a while, pausing to take in a truly awful looking Superfund sight that sat on the backside of the pass. We kept descending and eventually the scrubby bushes were replaced with pine trees as we neared our destination. Ziven was worried about me at the deep gravelly corners so he would zoom ahead and wait for me to supervise my handling. Call it Chekhov’s gun, but as he photographed me going around a bend I soon found myself sprawled in the gravel, still clipped in, with Ziven standing above me tsking. I had slid out and was totally unhurt, though I could not unclip from either of my shoes to stand up. After struggling for a bit and posing for Ziven’s silly picture, I eventually extricated myself and we kept going. We wound down until the forest ended and popped out on a paved road that felt enormously smooth. We whooped and raced each other, going Mach 10 and being chased by little dogs belonging to cute farms along the road. We then traversed a wide swatch of farmland and intersected with the main highway going through Del Norte, Colorado. From Facebook groups and other internet intel, we knew to keep an eye out for the bike hostel right across the street from the intersection and so we popped over to see if we could stay there. We spotted Will, who had somehow accidentally avoided us all day by staying at the campground before Red Bear lodge and then beating us to the pass that morning. We greeted him happily but then he broke the news that the hostel has no space. The owner's wife came out and she was very apologetic, letting us know that it was totally overrun and people were already sleeping on the floor. She tipped us off that the hotel downtown gave a discount for bikers so we called them and secured a decently priced room. We bid farewell to our friends and set off to our new digs. After checking in and stowing our bikes in a funny holiday decoration storage room, we stashed our bags in our fancy historic hotel room where Susan B Anthony had once stayed and then zoomed off to the restaurant across the street before it closed. We got big burgers and milkshakes from the restaurant and tried not to waft our scent all over the place as we had yet to take a shower. After A delicious dinner, we cleaned ourselves up, did some laundry in the bathroom sink, and cozied up for an early night.