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July 3, 2022
Ptarmigan Pass
So, today's ride looks something like this.
Today is Sunday, July 3rd, so you wouldn't really think that the traffic on I-70 westbound going down Floyd Hill would be backed up, but you'd be wrong.
I wanted to see what Ptarmigan Pass was like. Brian and I did it a long time ago...crossed the creek above Red Cliff and came up through a creek bed to eventually emerge on top of Ptarmigan Pass. But Brian's not interested in riding anymore for whatever reasons, so I figured I'd check out the section of Ptarmigan Pass above Camp Hale (assuming it's open, of course).
Forecast shows rain, but I figure I can eat in Leadville and duck out of the worst of it. So I take I-70 west to Copper, and take Colorado State Highway 91 south over Fremont Pass and down into Leadville.
It starts to rain, so I stop for lunch in the Golden Burro cafe. I'd planned on this, as there was rain in the forecast, and I wanted to explore some around Leadville, but planned on just eating lunch waiting for the rain to pass.
After lunch, I decided to go and check out Turquoise Lake, Camp Hale, and Ptarmigan Pass.
So, first, I rode around Turquoise Lake. This was the lake I always saw on Monday mornings when I was flying out to LAX or ONT (UCLA, UC Riverside, Cal Poly Pomona) or SFO (UC Berkeley, UC Office of the President on Lake Merritt), etc.
I did a loop around Turquoise Lake, then headed out of the town of Leadville on U.S. Highway 24 going north. Went over Tennessee Pass and down into Camp Hale. At Camp Hale, I ran into a guy on an ATV. Told him I was going to go check out Ptarmigan Pass. He said that it was kind of rocky near the summit, but shouldn't be too bad. So, I led the way, and he followed me, and we rode up Eagle County road 702 to Eagle County road 747 to Ptarmigan Pass. Then, we turned around, and headed back down the way we'd come up the mountain, but this time cut off onto Resolution Mountain Road (Eagle County Road 751). We went some distance up Eagle County Road 751, but at some point, stopped and returned back down to Camp Hale the same way we came up.
Then, I rode home in the reverse of the way I came up. So south over Tennessee Pass on U.S. Highway 24, back through Leadville, north on Colorado 91 over Fremont Pass. Down to I-70 at Copper Mountain. Then east on I-70 to Floyd Hill. It rained on me pretty much from Copper to just east of the Eisenhower Tunnel.
So, for my pass bagger update, these are the passes I did today:
Eisenhower Tunnel
Tennessee Pass
Fremont Pass
Ptarmigan Pass
Posted by Rob Kiser on July 3, 2022 at 11:33 PM
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