Greetings from Steamboat Springs!
I should be miles north of here, but things never go as planned.
Last major update was from Fraser. As you already know, I spent the night at Vance's mother-in-laws, had breakfast at Safeway and my "Safeway Godmother" (a manager who I had chatted with the previous night) told the woman building my footlong sandwich that she should pile on some extra meat ...
... good thing she did because of that "things never go as planned" and that extra meat came in handy ...
I had plotted a route to the official continental divide route from Frasier and had it stored in my GPS. The first problem was I hadn't run the route to a main street in Fraser so it took a bit of zig zagging in Fraser to find the start. The second problem was way more major: about an hour or so into the ride, having climbed up some considerable elevation, the route suddenly jumped off a cliff into the valley below.
Er ... that's not going to happen.
As luck would have it, right at that very spot in the middle of nowhere was a guy putting some heavy equipment on a truck. He had a map!!!! And he gave it to me!!!
WOW!
Turns out that the road I was on worked just fine, but had I been able to connect to the road I wanted I would have saved several hundred feet of climbing. When I get home I'll try to figure out what went wrong.
It was a long slog to the pass, but, man, was it ever a fast run down to Horseshoe Campground and the start of the official route. As I flew down the gravel, forest service road in very good condition, I passed by a total of 4 very large marmots.
From there the route meandered north, downhill towards the Colorado River. Rolling hills (that killed me on the uphill side), pasture land, surprisingly lots of sage brush. Out in the middle of nowhere, the UPS man and I leapfrogged on another as I continued straight and he weaved in and out to make deliveries.
Passed the William Fork Reservoir. I mention this because Rich's son and wife had just been there a few weeks ago to fish. I saw a huge nest with a couple of birds of prey squawking at each other and just one boat on the entire reservoir. Sorry, Turner, I did not see any pike.
The route continued down to the Colorado, but here's the thing that I came to hate: often times the route passes over a creek. This means that the route dives down to the creek (Whee! I'm flying) then climbs back out of the drainage (Is there a lower gear on this bike????). Nice if you're in a car, not so nice on an overloaded bike.
I ate half of my foot long hoagie then rode a bit more to reach a decision point: go "off route" for supplies in Kremmling (4 miles round trip) or continue on the route. There was a convenience store in Radium so I decided to stay on route ...
... and got less than a mile away when a massive squall blew over me just before crossing the Colorado. The wind was howling and the rain was driving up from the south. I found a grove of willows and hunkered down for 45-60 minutes. The wind died and the rain slowed to a drizzle and I hit the trail.
The thing is, you have to keep going, regardless of the situation. No one is going to bring the next campsite to you.
Making matters doubly worse, it was an uphill climb out of the Colorado basin and the road had turned to muck. I was tired enough and this didn't help.
Climbing out through meadows and timberland for a long time, I finally reached a steep canyon and the road was paved! I shot down that thing like there was notomorrow, but there was a hairpin turn at the end of that long run and I smoked the brakes slowing down.
And it was a good thing I did because there was a MASSIVE view of the Colorado River and the valley it had carved out. Maybe 1000 feet immediately below this point I could see the active railroad track that hugged the cliffs with the river next to the track. The sun had come out and the view was spectacular.
And the route continued downhill until ...
... it crossed a drainage and I had to climb out again. Can't you guys just put in a bridge all the way across the valley?
Another long slog out. I'd ride for a while, get tired, stop, suck some more water out of the camelbak, repeat as necessary. I guess the good thing was the Camelbak was getting lighter ...
Then another long run down towards Radium. I stopped at a "primitive" campground (had a toilet ... is that primitive?) a mile out of Radium. For dinner I ate 1/4 of my hoagie: I had 1/4 left, but I would stock up at the convenience store in Radium the next day. I was debating putting up the rain fly, but with the clouds gathering, I decided I should put it up. As I went to sleep, I could hear the train whistles since the tracks were less than a mile away.
I awoke to the sound of rain. The tent kept me dry (thanks, Matt!), but as the day dawned, it was coming down very steadily. Yuck. I waited a couple hours, hoping for a break in the rainfall and, fortunately, the rain did let up to let me break camp without wiping water off my glasses.
Down to Radium to the convenience store ... nope. The guidebook/map said there was a convenience store, but Colorado River Runners sells candy bars, no real food. Damn! I should have stopped in Kremmling. As I approached the house, the employee was talking to a couple other guys who were putting horses into a trailer. One of those guys offered me two Snickers. It wasn't real food, but it was better than starving. This started a travel theme for me:
"If someone offers you food, take it."
It was a miserable climb out of Radium, away from the Colorado River. It was misting, the road was mucky and ... closed!
What the hell?????
Turns out that a small crew was cleaning out the muck below cattle guards. When I reached them, the cattle guard was sitting on the road and the backhoe was clearing out the dirt in the pit below the cattle guard. As there was fences on either side, I waited 15 minutes for the maintenance to be completed.
No one offered me food ...
Grand vistas as I climbed out. You could look up the Colorado valley and see bluffs, forests, meadows.
Due to the rain of the night before and that day, the road was a mud bath. At one point my tires were completely packed with mud and I could NOT ride: I had to walk. Fortunately, as the road continued to climb steeply out of the valley, the road got less mucky and I was able to ride my usual few feet, stop for a breather, ride a few feet, stop ...
When I thought I reached the top and started downhill, you'll never guess what the route did: in and out of drainages. Oy! I'd get to the creek at the bottom of a long, fun, downhill run and my heart would just sink at the vision of a steep road heading skyward.
I've run into a lot of cows. They don't know what to make of me and are generally spooked, but rather than run to the side, they run in front of me so it seems like I'm chasing them. I'm beginning to believe that cows are stupid.
I stopped for lunch, my 1/4 of the sandwich, when two motorcyclists came up the road. They were riding from Durango to the Wyoming border. We had a nice chat as the skies started to clear and one of the riders offered me a Clif Bar.
You know what I did, especially considering I was out of real food ...
I finally met someone riding the actual route, a lone woman from Philly who had been riding for a month. She still had a month to go ...
I had to ford a creek. It was only about 1 1/2' deep where I crossed, but my shoes and socks got soaked because I had to pedal across the river rocks to get to the other side. Fortunately, I did not dump the bike in the middle of the creek.
Then, another afternoon squall. I had 3 days of perfect weather and now this? I hunkered down against a small pine tree and waited it out for about 1/2 hour.
The climb to Lynx pass was continuous but not too bad. I reached the campground earlier than I thought so I decided to ride to the next campground about 15 downhill when ...
... my left crank arm came off. That's the thing that connects to the pedal to the front gears.
I was screwed because I was in the middle of nowhere with only one pedal to use.
I tried to find the bolt to no avail. Just as the crank came off, Cole and Cindy, fellow divide riders, came up. Cole rode down the road a bit to search for the missing bolt as I searched right around where the crank came off, but neither of us found the bolt. With the day ending, I decided to camp at Lynx Pass, shelling out $10 for brown water from a pump but a very nice bathroom!
I ate dinner with Cole and Cindy, finishing the last 1/4 of the sandwich and relishing the Snickers bar, and we talked about their trip so far. Cole offered me a Builders Bar (20 grams of protein) which I had to accept even though I didn't want to. The temperatures dropped just before sunset and I could see my breath.
Snuggled in the tent for the night, I kept seeing flashes on the side of the tent. What were those other campers doing??? When I finally heard distant thunder, I realized that the light show was lightning. And, sure enough, the lightning came closer and closer, the wind picked up and it
RAINED!!!!
Man, what a storm. Lightning, thunder, wind, driving rain. I didn't dare look outside the tent to see if there was hail ...
Finally the storm subsided and I went to sleep. I awoke with the tent being illuminated and I wasn't sure: was it time to get up? I booted my phone (don't have a watch, leave the phone off when not in a city) and checked the time: 2:18 AM. The light was coming from the moon!
For the first time on the trip I pulled on my sweatpants and zipped up the mummy bag because it was cold.
Dawn broke in a wondrous swirling fog with the sun trying to burn it off. I ate a snack bar and walked 1/3 of a mile to Lynx pass. It was mostly downhill for about 10 miles so I could just ride with my ride foot clicked into its pedal and my left foot resting on the rear suspension pivot.
Mostly downhill ... on the up hill sections I'd either walk or "one leg it" with my left leg pushing a teeny bit just to keep it busy.
When a car passed me, I'd put out my thumb to hitchhike, but the cars on this section this morning were small SUVs and no wanted to get their interior dirty.
I veered from the official trail to increase the odds of getting a ride. Ultimately, Hoyt and Cathy from Louisiana picked me up. I almost cried with joy.
It was a long drive to Steamboat Springs so I'm glad that I didn't have to do it one legged!
They dropped me off at a bike shop then proceeded to the hospital where Cathy had to have some blood work done. I thanked them profusely and as they drove away, I realized I had left the Camelbak in their truck. It only had my phone, credit cards and Spot in it! As I groaned in anguish, I store worker asked if I was OK and I told her what had happened. She said she'd give me a ride to the hospital! Toni has lived in Steamboat for 20 years, loves Hawaii, but wouldn't want to live there ...
When we got to the hospital, I spotted Hoyt's truck! Hoyt was in the truck, waiting for Cathy. I recovered the pack and Toni gave me a ride back to the bike shop. Boy, what a day!
I pulled the bolt from the right side of the bike and went into the repair shop to see if they had the bolt. They thought they did so I asked for two. The bike tech brought out the bolts, no charge! No charge for saving this trip!!!!
I installed the bolts and I was really biking again!!!
I rode to the KOA on the strength of the recommendation from Cole and Cindy the night before. I got a very sunny spot to dry everything out ...
Steamboat Springs has a marvelous shuttle system so I took the shuttle to the library and here I am, typing for more than an hour. I will pick up some supplies, maybe eat some food, spend the night here.
Summary so far: I've enjoyed the vistas, I've enjoyed the solitude, I haven't enjoyed the uphills nor riding one legged for 16+ miles.
I haven't planned out the next steps, but I doubt I will have any contact until Rawlins, 2-3 days out.
I hope all is going well!
JK
