One Plain Bagel, and One Cup of Raspberry Tea

Short Version:
We ride the rails and a cable

Long Version:
Like the Otago Central Rail Trail in New Zealand's South Island, the Galena Trail is an old railbed. It runs from the town of Rosebery* through New Denver and on to Three Forks, near the ghostish town of Sandon**. We were still feeling sub-par***, and the idea of a gentle grade appealled greatly, as did the opportunity to turn and ride back down, gently, at any stage.

We set off from Rosebery, up a pretty lakeside trail with rusting old rail equipment scattered at intervals. We crossed and recrossed the highway, then up through a winding canyon with the river churning through its narrow passage far below us.

An hour or so after setting off, we reached the cable car, which was very, very cool. It was a rectangular metal frame with a steel-mesh-covered plywood floor and steel-mesh sides, suspended by two pulleys from a wire rope that spanned the river at somewhere around four metres when empty - three when full of heavy NZer + bike. When at rest, the cage swings near the middle of the span. From there it is hauled to either bank by means of a rope, which runs in a loop from the frame of the cage, through pulleys on each landward support tower, and back to the cage. This same rope is the means of propulsion for the cage from one bank to the other: some serious hand-over-hand effort is required to make it up the last few metres. But make it we did, first Lovely Wife, then humble puppet servant, and then we had a snack in the sun, perched on the remains of an old rail bridge, before hauling ourselves back across the river in the cable car and setting off back down the trail. It had taken us an hour to ride up, which is not a lot compared to some of the rides we've done but was a lot in the context of being temporarily weak and feeble. Still only took us half an hour to ride back down though - even a little bit of downhill grade goes a long way!







* = There is a trail connecting Rosebery to the next town northwards, but it was labelled "Hills," so we didn't go there. Later, we drove through the next town. Its name: Hills. There was a barn there which no longer had walls - they'd disintegrated at some point. The frame and the roof were still intact, though, and over the years a mass of red ivy had grown over the framework, providing a new - and appropriately colored! - set of walls

** = There are still a few people living there, and they maintain a small museum, some historic cottages, and a still-functioning, still-running power-generation plant

*** = Lovely Wife's food intake for the previous three days stood at one plain bagel, and one cup of raspberry tea