Trans Am Week 8

Day 56: 67 miles from Walden to Saratoga, Wyoming!

We made it to Wyoming!! Hit the road at 6:00 am. Chilly! (45degrees).

Cows are back! We didn’t see many in Colorado.

And white pelicans. I continue to be surprised by the beachy feel and smell I encounter on these plains. There is sand and hills, blue herons. And now white pelicans!

The Wyoming sign was also missing. What’s up with that?!

Sage brush everywhere.

And more yellow flowers.

White barns with red roofs were all the fashion through here.

A cowboy herding cattle down the road. I took the pic secretly after saying hello so he wouldn’t think I was the clueless easterner that I am. 

I was so excited to see the town of Encampment on the horizon after 50 miles on the road.

After getting a really good look at a golden eagle sitting on a pole yesterday, I kept my eyes peeled and spotted two bald eagles.

The general store in encampment. It was cute but had just 3 onions in the produce section. Still, I was so happy to see the “open” sign. One of my favorite things. 

So many layers of things to look at!

Wyoming humor.

Grocery store decor Wyoming style.

Day 55: 60 miles from hot sulpher springs to Walden

When we got up this morning it was under 32 degrees! I was so glad to have just swapped out my lightweight sleeping bag for my sun zero one. And to think I’d wondered if it was overkill! 

We rode 30 miles uphill to cross the Willow Creek Pass at over 9k feet. The front side was destroyed in the eastern troublesome fire two years ago so campgrounds, the store, all cabins and of course the forest itself were all destroyed. The grounds keeper at windy gap wildlife refuge below told me it would take 50 -100 years for it to recover. 

I rode 20 miles up with Ricky. We chatted about forever plastics, the environment, self sufficiency, bias, privilege, you name it.

Then on the other side of the pass it was all green. Kind of amazing.

The terrain started to flatten out and I realized we were approaching Wyoming.

This is my golden eagle sighting! Looks so far away here.

Walden was cute. It had a nice city park but we had booked a hotel the night before when miserable in our mosquito I feared campsite. This is the fun little bar where we had dinner. Grilled cheese and cinnamon roll for me. Vegetables have become scarce again. Although I did also have a good side salad here. 

Day 54: 61 miles from silverthorn to hot sulphuric springs

 Some fun art leaving the town of Dillon/Silverthorne. It was fun to be back in a busy place with coffee shops and bike paths for a bit. Although Deidre and I were laughing at ourselves. We were not interesting to anyone in Colorado. So many people are bikers and outdoors people we drew no attention. And the rural folks seem to resent the cyclists, so we got no love on the road. Humbling to come back down to earth. We are just ordinary people after all! 😂

We had a head wind (bummer), but it was so beautiful it’s hard to complain. 

The trail followed the aptly named blue river for almost 40 miles. In this one place, it opened up into a lake filled with recreators. It made me sad to be alone on my bike seeing all these gatherings of friends and family. Had to remind myself I will be doing that soon enough. This part of the ride was also hard, with some hills rising above the water. 

On the far end we crossed over the damn. 

Then back to the rolling descending hills.

And the Colorado river. 

Byers canyon. This was amazing how the railroad ran along the far wall of rock.

The town of hot sulpher springs was interesting. Kinda run down teeny houses next to this tourist attraction that brings tony people. I ate at this public house, which was fun because it had communal tables. So I met a construction worker and a weaver. The former was there to renovate a house. The latter on a 2 month sabbatical to practice her craft. I would have liked to have a beer. It was a beer drinking kind of place. 

Then Deidre arrived and it was off to our campsite at the end of this gravel road by the river. Horses showed up! Along with the mosquitos, which were overwhelming. We set up and crawled into our tents.

Signs everywhere warned of bears but the park didn’t even have bear proof trash cans so I didn’t take it too seriously, but then folks in town said they had a bear wandering around. So we put our food bags in a disc golf goal. As if that would help! 😂

Day 52 & 53: 39 miles, Fairplay to silverthorn then red rocks and a rest

We shortened this day to leave us energy to get over the pass and to also go to Red Rocks to see trampled by Turtles! We couldn’t believe the synchronicity that came together to make this event happen. We noticed 6 months ago that this concert would happen within a week of us being close enough to go. We left it out there as a possibility and let fate take care of it. Once we got within a week we checked the dates and saw we were scheduled to arrive the exact date of the concert. We were one and a half hours away, but we had already been talking about visiting with 2 different friends who were going to drive to see us, so we hitched a ride with them to get to and from. Somehow it all worked out. Plus Deidre got to know my friend Kate and I got to meet deidre’s coworker Dave and his partner John. Twenty four hours of new friend making and fun. As always, more than we can take in. 

So… the pass. Would you believe it was easier than expected? The hardest part was dealing with the passing cars and trucks. But other than that, I found my comfortable 4 mile an hour pace and pedaled up. I saw on the map that it got steeper at the top, so I kept bracing for that, but then i realized at mile 2 of the 4 that the 4 mile climb WAS the steep part. I was already doing it! I stopped twice to look at views and have a brief rest, but it wasn’t like the grueling 3 mile climbs in VA, which were steeper. I think this climb showed me that my fitness level has increased. That seems obvious but it isn’t something I’d thought about. Every day is just it’s own new set of challenges to be met with the resources I have. This was a realization that maybe my resources have increased. 

The half way point. I’m always surprised to see all the sunscreen on my face, but it’s just so necessary when you’re outside 12 hours a day!

The top!

The ride down…

After reaching the summit, we had a 10 mile descent into Breckenridge, which the cool locals call “Breck.” I did not try to be a cool local. 

I had hot chocolate there then luxury of luxuries, rode on a bike path (!!) the final 18 or so miles to silverthorn. It was stunningly beautiful and mostly flat the whole way because the trail follows the Blue River, which I thought was a great name. 

Then over the Dillon dam road.

Our warm showers host, Alex, met me in his driveway where he was working sitting next to the trailer he is living in while his house is being renovated. The house is a shell with one working toilet. 

I showered in his trailer and stored my bike behind it then my friend Kate picked me up (she drove from Denver), and we went to lunch in Frisco. There are bike paths and vegetables everywhere here!

 Later, we picked up Deidre and went to red rocks for trampled by turtles (amazingly beautiful night punctuated by great music). In addition to the band, we saw a rainbow, a sunset, and a shooting star! 

But we were exhausted and only made it thru the first set. We had gotten up at 4:30 am, after all! 

We stayed the night with Kate and her husband Geoff and enjoyed a leisurely morning chatting over coffee, eggs, homemade sourdough bread, and great conversation. Then we wandered through a nearby botanical garden, ate some more, and packed up. It was Soooo fun to see Kate and Geoff!

We hitched a ride back to silverthorn with Deidre’s coworker Dave and his partner John. They claimed to already be heading that way for the weekend, but it was still a huge favor. And they took us to dinner where I had my first bowl of pasta of the trip (not counting ramen and freeze dried dinners)—isn’t that crazy? There just hadn’t been any pasta on the menus in these small towns. 

Now we are basically sleeping in a construction site. We were supposed to pitch our tent in the yard, but our host Alex was trying to be nice and let us set up in an unfinished bedroom. But now that we are here, we r realizing it’s really dusty, the stairs are unfinished, and I got a little shock from an exposed wire in the bathroom. So maybe not the best choice. As I’m writing, Deidre has discovered her sleeping pad has a hole. So now she is sleeping in a concrete floor. While that is awful, this is happening 1 mile from an REI. What are the chances? So we will be delayed in the morning as we wait for it to open at 9. And that’s the end of “vacation.”

We love our rest days but find the transition back to the work of the riding a little hard. Also, seeing friends from home reminds me of how much I miss everyone. But we will get up in the morning and get back at it!

Day 51: 67 miles. Royal gorge to Fairplay

This was a really hard day. We climbed over 6,000 ft. With most of them in the first half of the ride. After 20 miles I was wondering how we could possibly finish. But the incline lessened after mile 30, making it more manageable. Also, we popped through the foothills and found ourselves in an amazing valley, riding for miles and miles next to majestic peaks, so the beauty of it all took my mind off the pedaling.

This little coffee shop saved me at mile 20. We thought there would be no stops until mile 50, so it was a surprise made even better by the fact the upbeat proprietor encouraged me that the ride would flatten out while making me a smoothie with real fruit and coconut milk. 

There were also 2 other cyclists there, Andy and Rita, who were also going west. We chatted for a while, making for a nice break.

It’s ridiculous how many pics I have of the road, clouds, and mountains. But it was just so spectacular and seemed to get better and better as I went. 

At mile 49 we had climbed 5,000 ft and came to the cute little town of Hartsel. We had originally planned to stay there, but changed our mind to shorten the next day when we would go over the Hoosier Pass. So I stopped here and ate popcorn and a cliff bar and chatted with people coming and going from the store. 

I took sooo many picture through here, but they all essentially look the same. This is where I rode along the valley (for about 10 miles) before turning left to cross it for 5 miles. This part was flat, but I had a crosswind and sometimes a headwind, so it was still hard. I listened to a playlist Steve made me of old songs from the 90s we used to listen to all the time. It was so nostalgic to hear all our old overplayed music. Steve said it was great to listen to once, then the music got old again. I haven’t tried the second time yet, but it served me well the first time!

In FairPlay we stayed at an RV park that lets tent campers stay behind their community cabin by the creek. I thought this was going to be a junky place but it had beautiful showers/bathrooms and electricity. There were mosquitos by the water but it didnt matter because all we did here was sleep. I had been on the road for over 11 hours and Deidre about 13. We were asleep by 9 with a plan to get up at 4:30 (a little “later” to give ourselves a break 😂).

For once, I went to bed prepared to get cold. It was supposed to go down to 44 degrees (we were at 9,900 ft) and I still had my super light weight sleeping bag (getting my down bag from friend in Denver). So I put on my layers, used my silk bag liner, put a bandana on my head, wore my biking socks (I actually had a clean pair!), put some extra layers in my bag so they’d be warm if I needed them, and surrounded myself with my panniers to block the wind. It all worked. I woke a bit chilly, but not cold, at 3 am then fell back to sleep. 

Day 50: 61 miles from Pueblo to Canon city (royal gorge KOA)

It was a great day-but 97 degrees, so we are beat. The landscape changed constantly as we moved from flat desert to hills to valleys to mountains to more valleys. The end of the day was less relaxing. The campsite is hot and dry, but also, there are more gnats than I’ve ever experienced. If you give them 3 secs without swatting they are crawling in your eyes and ears. Deidre and I have been so lucky—not too much heat, not too much humidity, generally not too much suffering. So tonight we were making fun of our own whining-gee, we are so uncomfortable on our 3-month vacation! But still, I tried to jump into my tent without letting any in and about 50 came in with me. I was so horrified I jumped right back out, did a little shake-off-the-gnats dance, then got back in. That time was better, but I still had to swat at them for 20 minutes with my towel until I had killed them all. 

The Arkansas river as we left pueblo 

The landscape as we left Pueblo.

We turned off route 96 today. After 360 miles it felt like leaving an old friend.

Met Scott who was riding from San Francisco. He was happy to be reaching the flat of the plains. I was excited to be entering the Rockies. Both of us probably thinking the other doesn’t know what they’re in for!

Then it was just so pretty everywhere.

Still more blackeyed Susans.

I told myself I would look up this explorer but I’m too tired.

Because it was so good-my spinach enchilada!

Ok, is it just me or do these rocks look like faces? 

I’ve arrived! I always think I look so happy when I take these pics, but then I can see later that I look really tired. Or pained or something. Doesn’t really convey the celebratory moment. I will try to smile better tomorrow. 😂

Right as we arrived I saw a new bird: a western tanager! I’d never heard of it before, but it was so colorful I couldn’t help but notice it in the brush by our campsite and is singing to me now. 

View from our campground.

Ready for bed before the sun even sets.