Day Five – Central City CO. to Hotchkiss CO. - Miles: 324
We rode back through Central City to start the day and made a couple of quick stops to improve on the pics we took the day before. We had Main Street Restaurant on tap for breakfast and we arrived before their opening at 7:00 and found a line waiting to enter. We considered finding another place but we later learned that would have been a huge mistake. Perhaps the best food and service for the trip. I had a scramble and some grits and Steve chose an omelette and hash browns; very good. We had to jump on I-70 for a brief time before exiting at Georgetown and heading south on CO 381. The steep climb up the hill was briefly interrupted to take a quick pic but we barley got off the bikes. As we continued on we saw a Moose on the side of the road enjoying his breakfast and caught him on my GoPro but others had noticed as well and traffic was beginning to snarl so we too advantage and continued our ascent with no one in front of us. CO 381 was a new for road us and although it was not a major road it was well maintained and we enjoyed it. This led us down to US285 and down towards Buena Vista. Just short of Buena Vista we made a stop at the Collegiate Peaks Overlook and rode back beyond the main area to a very secluded spot for some good scenery and hydrated ourselves while taking some pics. We continued on through Buena Vista and started up CO82 better known as Independence Pass. I'm not sure how many times I have ridden over this pass, but it is always a great ride. When we reached the top there was no one in front of us so we easily decided to keep going and enjoy the ride downhill. Before we knew it we were in Aspen and stopped at the Aspen Brewing Co for some lunch. The food was average but their beer was very good. We were sitting outside and the weather was perfect so it was hard to leave but we had a lot of riding yet to do. We continued on CO82 and rode through some really nice areas like Snowmass before reaching Carbondale. There we went south on CO 133 along the Crystal River where we have also travelled many time in the past. We stopped along the river in our traditional spot and stretched our legs before continuing down into Hotchkiss. We arrived to Hotchkiss fairly early so we could check in and secure some supplies for the evening and then shed most of our gear for a leisurely ride down to the North Rim of the Gunnison Canyon. This was our third time going to this Canyon overlook and staying in Hotchkiss but it is such a nice area we set the destination knowing we weren't seeing anything new. Hotchkiss has a really nice hotel that well run and has always been a nice place to stay. After our visit to the canyon we walked across the street and got some burgers to carry out and sat outside in the hotel garden and just relaxed.
