Road Painting

 

We woke up in Silverton Colorado, in the Triangle Hotel. Our room at the triangle has no air-condition and one would not think that it would be unconformable hot up at 9000 ft, but it was, and it made for a very restless night. Opening the window after midnight finally made the room a bit cooler.

Surprisingly outside at 5 am the temperature was 37, and the bikes had frost on them.

In the morning we walked up the road to a local coffee shop, and much to my surprise I discovered that this establishment Coffee Bear not only made espresso they made it with Kaladi Trieste.

The barista had not been to Kaladi Koffee academy as she did not know what a Longo was, or even a doppio, but she knew to put the water in before the shots, and I ended up with a pretty decent espresso beverage.

The breakfast was not as good as the koffee. The breakfast burrito was more like a breakfast panini, and the outer part was quite tough and tasteless. I will never know if it was better than the “Breakfast Pizza” offered back at the triangle hotel, I was just glad to have had some breakfast before riding “The Million Dollar Highway”

Now in Alaska we are very familiar with ‘Million Dollar” items. We used to have the famous “Million Dollar” Outhouses up at Turnagain Pass. They were state of the art outhouses when installed, but froze up solid in the winter, and there was never enough money to maintain them, so several years ago at a cost of probably two million they were torn down and replaced with concrete structures that so far have proved impervious to vandalism.

Perhaps our most famous Million Dollar item is our famous Million-dollar bridge. The original bridge to nowhere.

The Million Dollar Bridge

The bridge was originally part of the Copper River Railroad, that was abandoned when the Kennecott mines closed. Up until the 64 earthquake you could drive over the bridge and get to nowhere. The bridge was damaged in the quake, and it wasn’t until the 80’s when it was restored to where you could once again drive over it. I did too. From it is deck you could see the faces of the Child’s glacier and the Miles Glacier, and you could drive off the other end and turn around.

You can no longer drive to the bridge as the accelerated melting from the Sheridan Glacier has washed out the road, 30 miles of so outside of Cordova.

This Million Dollar highway has none of the problems of the north. The glaciers are long gone, and the once numerous mines along the way are also as played out as the last ice age.

The road is non the less specular and leaving from Sheridan we had it all to ourselves for most of the way.

Mines Along The Million Dollar Highway

There aren’t very many pull outs ,along the way  but the one at the mine is paved, has ample parking and good views of the area.

Just like in Alaska a million dollars will not buy much, and the scenic part of the Million Dollar highway was over to soon. Descending out of the high country and into the hot high desert, I kept noticing road signs “Road Painting Ahead” I envisioned artists inspired by the Rocky Mountains lined up along the road, standing at easels, and capturing the mountains on their canvas.

Looks Like Road Painting To Me

The reality of road painting turned out to be a DOT truck spewing toxic fumes, and laying down a thick layer of paint along the side of the road.

 

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