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July 21, 2018

Independence Pass - 7/21/2018

Today, I decided to ride over Independence Pass for lunch in Aspen. Ended up riding about 330 miles over roughly 12 hours. I discovered that Aspen has a big street fair every Saturday in the summer where they shut down a couple of roads in downtown Aspen and it's sort of a street fair where you can walk around and eat lunch and buy all sorts of snacks like Palisade peaches from the street vendors.

Then, when I went back across Independence Pass, I ran into a couple of knuckle-heads at the top of the pass. I knew right away that they were some people I'd need to talk to, as they had a lot of gear on their bikes, indicating that they'd ridden MUCH further than I had to get to the top of Independence Pass. Turns out there were about 4 of them riding together from places as far away as Iowa and Wisconsin. We ended up eating lunch together in Leadville at the Silver Dollar Saloon. Like, I love how people drive halfway across the continent and somehow know the restaurants in Leadville better than I do, when I live only 2 hours away. In any event, it was fun riding with them, and swapping war stories about life on the road, rolling across North America, as they'd also been as far as Alaska, and hit some trails/roads that I missed somehow..

Posted by Rob Kiser on July 21, 2018 at 11:23 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 4, 2018

Colorado Mountain Passes

For some reason, the Continental Divide is not well documented in the state of Colorado and, as I've been riding around Colorado this summer, I realize how little I know about the path the divide follows. So, I'll try to document some of the passes in Colorado while I'm thinking about it, and whether or not they do, in fact, cross the Continental Divide.

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Colorado Mountain Passes that cross the Continental Divide:
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Boreas Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Dirt road between Breckenridge and Como on the border between Summit and Park County. Elevation 11,493′.
Georgia Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Dirt road between Breckenridge and Jefferson on the border between Summit and Park County. Elevation 11,585'.
Loveland Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on U.S. Route 6 on the border between Clear Creek and Summit counties. Elevation: 11,991′.
Hoosier Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on Colorado State Highway 9 on the border between Park and Summit counties. Elevation: 11,542′.
Berthoud Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on U.S. Route 40 on the border between Clear Creek and Grand counties. Elevation: 11,306′.
Webster Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Dirt road between Montezuma and Grant on the border between Summit and Park County. Elevation12,103'.
Rabbit Ears Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on U.S. Highway 40 between Steamboat Springs and Kremmling on the border between Grand‎ and Routt counties. Elevation 9,246'.
Muddy Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on U.S. Highway 40 between Steamboat Springs and Kremmling on the border between Jackson and Grand counties. Elevation 8,772'.
Fremont Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on Colorado Highway 91 between Leadville and Copper Mountain Ski Resort on the border between Lake and Summit counties. Elevation 11,318'.
Tennessee Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on U.S. Highway 24 between Leadville and Minturn on the border between Eagle and Lake counties. Elevation 10,424'.
Willow Creek Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on Colorado State Highway 125 between Granby and Walden on the border between Grand and Jackson counties. Elevation 9,683'.
Independence Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Paved pass on Colorado Highway 82 between Aspen and Leadville on the border between Lake and Pitkin counties. Elevation 12,095'.
Hagerman Pass. Crosses Continental Divide. Dirt road between Basalt and Leadville on the border between Lake and Pitkin counties. Elevation 11,295'.
Jones Pass. Crosses Continental Divide between Empire and Silverthorne. Dirt. Elevation 12,454'.


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Colorado Mountain Passes that don't cross the Continental Divide:
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Vail Pass. Does not cross the Continental Divide. Paved pass on I-70 between Vail and Copper Mountain Ski Resort on the border between Eagle and Summit counties. Elevation 10,662'.
Mosquito Pass. Does not cross the Continental Divide. Dirt pass between Leadville and Fairplay on the border between Lake and Park counties. Elevation: 13,185'.
Kenosha Pass. Does not cross the Continental Divide. Paved pass in Park County on U.S. Highway 285. Elevation: 9,997′.
Guanella Pass. Does not cross the Continental Divide. Paved pass in southwest Clear Creek County between Georgetown and Grant. Elevation: 11,669'.
Trout Creek Pass (9,346'). The pass sits on the southern end of the Mosquito Range on the border between Park and Chaffee counties on U.S. Highway 285 near Antero Junction.


Shrine Pass
Argentine Pass
Rollins Pass. Ends on the Continental Divide. Dirt road from Moffat Tunnel up to the summit at Needle's Eye Tunnel.
Corona Pass
Eisenhower Tunnel

Posted by Rob Kiser on July 4, 2018 at 11:06 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink