Day 4 - Westcliffe to Lake City, CO

We left Westcliffe at 8:00 with clear skies and warm temperatures. Forecast suggested rain at midday and late in the day in Lake City.

Westcliffe is a nice little town in a large lush valley. This appears to be a ranching community with large ranches spread throughout the valley. One thing that stuck us was the number of homes for sale. We could not drive down a road without seeing one or several homes for sale. Not sure why?

Leaving town we saw a heard of Buffalo. See pics.

The Hayden Pass fire has been burning for about a month in the area and we were unable to take a planned route to Cotopaxi, CO. We detoured this ~20 mile section of trail by taking Highway 50 to Cotopaxi and re-joining the Trans America Trail. 

From Cotopaxi the trail was mostly graded dirt and gravel road to Salida. In Salida we spotted another group of three riders doing the Trans America Trail. We would see and speak with them two more times before the day had ended.

Shortly after Salida, we took the hard split to the Agate Creek Trail. This 8 mile trail was one of the longest hard single track trails we have done, ever. The trail ranges from 12 to 24 inches in width and is strewn with rocks and roots and numerous creek crossings. This was a very fun trail, but tiring and very technical.

From Agate Creek we took highway 50 to Sargents, CO and had lunch and filled up with gasoline. From Sargents we had 90 miles to our destination in Lake City, CO via the traditional Trans America Trail. The 90 miles were fast gravel roads through picturesque green valleys and meadows with beautiful creeks and rivers.

We were rained on a couple times during the day, but never a hard rain. We saw lots of wildlife along the way including mice, gofer, chipmunk, fox, deer, and rabbit.

Lake City is a tourist town with a population of 8,400. The town is very busy now with campers and folks who want to explore the outdoors via hiking, biking, Jeeping and ATVs.

Our maximum elevation today was ~11,800 feet

The following are pictures and video from the day.