{"id":170,"date":"2023-06-23T20:36:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T03:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/23\/day-6-hartsel-ranch-to-salida\/"},"modified":"2023-06-23T20:36:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T03:36:32","slug":"day-6-hartsel-ranch-to-salida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/23\/day-6-hartsel-ranch-to-salida\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 6 Hartsel Ranch to Salida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I woke up to the mist rolling over the river. It was a chilly morning but beautiful<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We packed up and rode into Hartsel for breakfast. Hartsel is a cowboy town as indicated by this notice in the bathroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yee Haa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We started the journey and passed a field of buffalo, or they could have been bison. Ask anyone from Birmingham the difference between a buffalo and a bison and they\u2019ll tell you that you can\u2019t wash your hands in a buffalo \ud83d\ude02. When Brummies say words like bison, the \u201ci\u201d sounds like an \u201ca\u201d. Get it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buffalo or Bison?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yesterdays ride was the easiest so far, today\u2019s was by far the hardest. More prairie land but this time we had a strong headwind all day. County Road 53 is an unpaved road with a variety of surfaces from packed hardcore, loose gravel and dry mud. The upshot is a very bumpy ride. Mike commented that you know the road is bumpy when the cattle grids are smoother than the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

County Road 53<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two days of this bumpy surface led me to my song of the day. To the tune of Rawhide \ud83c\udfb6Rollin rollin rollin, man my arse is swollen, gotta keep on rollin, rawhide \ud83c\udfb6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still amazed at the amount of open space and how little cattle you see. It\u2019s just so vast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind was brutal. You could see it whip up the loose road surface in the distance and watch the dust cloud come hurtling towards you and give you a good sandblasting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Vast Prairie <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After about 30 miles we finally found a slightly sheltered place for lunch. I excelled with lunch today. Bread rolls filled with crisps followed by a peanut and caramel Payday bar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunch Spot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After lunch we started a 5 mile climb out of the prairies and into the Aspen trees, still into the wind. Parts of this climb were 17% gradient but the scenery was stunning! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Climb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Summit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After reaching the top we had an 11 mile downhill to the town of Salida, our destination for the night. We managed to find available rooms at the Gateway Inn and, since we were completely exhausted, decided to treat ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you zoom in and look to the right you can see a deer chomping through some scrub. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a couple of beers and an obscene amount of food at the neighbouring Mexican restaurant, we called it a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tough day, another incredible day and I\u2019m still smiling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we rode 51 miles and climbed 2,972ft <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke up to the mist rolling over the river. It was a chilly morning but beautiful We packed up and rode into Hartsel for breakfast. Hartsel is a cowboy town as indicated by this notice in the bathroom. We started the journey and passed a field of buffalo, or they could have been bison.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalbrummie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}