that was indiana pass?

the climb up and over indiana pass sucked about three hours from my life. while the average slope is around 5%, the upper values constantly touched 10% and more.

it is perpetual pedaling and the higher one climbs, the more rewarding the climb, right?

pfffft.

in fact, i had no idea i had climbed indiana pass until i looked at my “real life” divide map in the morning. there was no alert, no signage; nothing that tells you “good work man, you made it over indiana pass, now go brag and enjoy whatever you have left, cuz it’s all downhill from here.

figuratively and literally.

you pedal, you rest. you hydrate and after topping out at around 11,600 feet, your mind accelerates and hones in on the belief that there is justice in bike riding and heck, “i deserve a nice downhill…like equal to the uphill parts.“

but then, it starts raining and the downhill chunk is worse than the uphill chunk and with it’s annoying beeps, your roam alerts to another climb up and around the mess that is summitville, and it starts to rain harder and the streams looks like whole milk and never mind that summitvillie is a massive epa superfund site because you are on your bike and you are fucked.

but, you keep pedaling because there is no alternative.

most of the trees on the steep valley walls surrounding summitville are dead. building exoskeletons bear testament to the once-upon-a-time vitality of the valley, but the streams run white and with toxic off colors; the rocks stained by millennia of geology and decades of human abuse.

gold and get rich pioneers. that’s the history of summitville, all the way to platoro. some of the streams have signs warning “do not drink”, and well duh…if water is running a shade of red and trout regulations are notably missing, next stream please.

i made it up and over indiana pass and the road smoothed for the final 600’ of descent and the rain let up and i pulled into a forest service campground called “stunner creek”, evidently because the number of prospectors that died from historical disease and flash flooding was “stunning” and the latrine had no toilet paper.

now that was stunning.