Rick: Understand on the c-c-cold weather!
All:
Okie doakie... off on the first adventure...
The first railroad we both wanted to see was the Florence & Cripple Creek narrow gauge railroad from near Canyon City to Victor/Cripple Creek. The F&CC was a short lived NG RR that only survived about 15 or so years. It ran through a very rugged canyon by the name of "Phantom Canyon". Though I have read and seen the photos in my F&CC book... I had never had the pleasure of seeing the F&CC's territory firsthand... so Sharon and I decided to go for it this year!
We left Canyon City bright and early the first day we were in Colorado. I was backpacking the essentials we would need to spend the night in Colorado Springs. Our intention was to ride the F&CC roadbed to the Victor/Cripple Creek area, then ride the Gold Camp Road (the roadbed of the Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek std ga. RR) from Victor to Colorado Springs, spending the night at Colorado Springs, and return to Canyon City via the Gold Camp Road and Shelf Canyon Road on Monday morning.
This wouldn't work out as planned! (More on that later!)
Anyway, we hitched up and left Canyon City bright and early. It was a very nippy 4 mile ride on the hiway to reach Phantom Canyon Road. However once we turned onto Phantom Canyon Road, the speeds were lower and thus less nip in the ride. (Must point out that our gear does a great job of allowing us to comfortably ride in temps down into the low 30's.)
Oh, before you view the pics: Bear in mind that you absolutely, positively, CANNOT bring Colorado home in a camera. No way. The vista's are too grand, the canyons too steep, etc. Simply cannot. I'm not the best photographer, anyway, so I've done the best I could.
We hadn't gone far before we approached the first tunnel...