The steaming black Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad locomotive whistled at dawn Wednesday in Chama, N.M., as Ride the Rockies cyclists began their fourth day by ascending Cumbres Pass alongside the narrow-gauge tracks.
The 2,000 cyclists quickly left the locomotive behind, climbing up across the state line, despite a head wind, through forests and into green meadows – mesas and mountains in the distance still splotched with snow.
A boy on the side of the road fired a squirt gun at cyclists on the steepest part of their ascent, annoying some – “Like we need another obstacle,” one breathless cyclist muttered – and delighting others, who shouted “Squirt me!” as temperatures rose with the sun.
After gaining the summit of Cumbres Pass, the cyclists opened up in high gears through rolling ascents and descents under a wide blue sky. Some reached speeds topping 40 mph.
Down the road after climbing La Manga Pass, riders dove into a sometimes-twisting 2,500-foot descent toward Antonito and eventually Alamosa.
Pounding it home through the windy San Luis Valley left many sore. The day’s 83-mile distance was “20 miles too long” for Debbi Worcester, 49, of Golden. “But I love to climb … and the reward of coming down,” she said. “You are in nature, wind in your face.”
– Denver Post staff writer Bruce Finley
“Los Caminos Antiguos”
Colorado 17, the road that cyclists followed Wednesday into Antonito, is the same route followed hundreds of years ago by Spanish settlers and American Indians. Many of the roads through the San Luis Valley are “ancient roads” that now link towns such as Mosca, Blanca, San Luis, Manassa and Romeo.
Details: 719-379- 3500 or loscaminos.com
A homey museum
Mormon missionaries dispatched to colonize the San Luis Valley in the late 19th century helped create towns such as Sanford (pop. 750) and Manassa (pop. 1,000). Today at Sanford, a homey museum developed over the past 25 years features high school graduation photos, historical documents, a doll collection and other reflections of local history.
Details: 719-843- 5207 or 719-274-4024
Hometown hero
At the park in the middle of Manassa stands a bronze statue of boxing great Jack Dempsey. And behind it sits the one-room log house where Dempsey lived until he was 10 and his farmer father moved the family to Creede hoping to find work as a miner. The house is full of photos and other memorabilia donated by the Dempsey family and locals.
Details: 719-843- 5207
