July 11- Silverthorne to Fairplay, Colo.

An eventful day.

As soon as we left our motel this morning, we were on a bike path which wound around the buildings, parks, and creeks of Silverthorne. The path then connected to the top of the Dillon Reservoir Dam by a cleverly designed series of quick switchbacks in the path which took us up 200' in no time without too steep a grade.

As we rode along the dam we passed the first other tandem bike we've seen on the whole trip, but it was lying beside the path with the man sitting and holding his head. We stopped to see what help, if any, we could provide. He had a sudden onset of a terrible headache and couldn't move his head or neck. His wife had called 911 and was up beside the road waiting for the paramedics. The ambulance crew came and took him to the hospital; his wife felt able to ride the bike alone back to their hotel in Dillon before joining him. We don't know how the story turned out. The couple was from Iowa; I hope his problem was simply altitude sickness- Dillon is at 8700'.

The bike path took us all the way up to Breckenridge, where we stopped for a break and a treat of latte and fresh doughnuts.

When we were ready to leave Breckenridge, I noticed that the front tire was deformed. It was the narrow, high performance tire I'd put on as a spare until I could connect with the replacement tire I ordered to be sent ahead- two days down the line. When I took the tire off the rim I could see that the sidewall was weak and suspiciously likely to give way if I continued with it.

How were we going to avoid being stuck in Breckenridge for several days? There are several bike shops in that town, the first since Montana, but our Bike Friday uses small hard-to-find tires. The first shop we tried had none. The second had none, but the kid in charge offered to make phone calls around for us. Sure enough, one shop called Mountain Wave did have a couple of 20" tires. We rode a few blocks there, and were helped by John George, the owner there. While we chatted about our adventures so far, he mounted the new tire on our rim, wasn't satisfied with the fit, took it off and scrubbed it with soapy water to make the bead seat more firmly, and reinflated the tire for us. When it was all done, he amazed us by not accepting anything for the tire or his labor. "A contribution to the cause". An extraordinarily generous rescue from a bad situation. We'll have to find a special way to repay his kindness, besides passing it along.

Leaving Breckenridge at last, we began a 10-mile climb to Hoosier Pass, at 11,540' the highest point on our entire route. The first few miles were a mild 2-5% grade, but we were covering miles faster than gaining elevation, so we knew there was difficulty ahead. Sure enough, the last four miles were a series of switchbacks with a grade up to 10-12%. Let's just say we stopped often. In one case we had stopped before a sharp right switchback, and spent all our energy getting around that curve. Finally reaching the top we got a picture and our lunch snack. Quite a few people up there wanted to hear our story.

From the top it was a quick and enjoyable 5-mile descent to the town of Alma, North America's highest incorporated city at about 10,500'. Then another 6 miles of mostly downhill took us to our destination of Fairplay, where we settled into the charming old Hand Hotel, originally built in 1931 and recently restored as a comfortable B&B.