Days 48-51: Breaking away
Day 48
In the morning we had breakfast with our gracious host Richard then headed down the road to catch the 8:30am worship service at Steamboat Christian Center, a church on the south side of Steamboat Springs. It was so great worshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ here in Steamboat before we left, and it was cool seeing how this church loves its town.
After the service, we rode out of town along U.S. 40 and began a long climb up towards Rabbit Ears Pass, breaking with the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route for the last time and beginning our paved highway trek toward Denver. It was a mentally and physically difficult climb along a busy highway (with good shoulders, thankfully), and we could not talk with each other to pass the time, because the highway was so loud -- we could only yell back and forth, which was not so nice. It made us appreciate how quiet most of the roads on the Great Divide route were (and made us wish we were on our tandem bike that we left at home).
Four hours later, we made it to the top. There we took a satisfying lunch break.
Rabbit Ears Mountain is visible from the top of Rabbit Ears Pass. If you look closely you can guess how it got its name.
We rode down the other side into a more desert-like landscape. Late that afternoon we passed through the interesting town of Kremmling, CO -- a town we would have passed two days after Steamboat if we had stayed on the dirt roads of the Great Divide route. On the far side of Kremmling, we passed an Australian bicycle tourist heading in the opposite directing who seemed to be making a career out of bumming around the U.S. by bicycle. He had been all over, including intersecting parts of the Great Divide route further south and meeting some of the same northbound riders we had seen earlier on our trip.
We rode along a valley, following a railroad track on our left and the upper Colorado River on our right. As the sun began to set, we made camp along the river side in the Lone Buck unit of a Colorado State Wildlife Area.
Day 49
The next morning we rode through Byerly Canyon and into the town of Hot Sulphur Springs, CO.
It was there that we finally found it:
The cinnamon roll to rival the one we had in Belfast, Maine three years ago on our East Coast bike trip.
Freshly baked. Plentiful pecans. Heaven on a plate. Created, received from Heaven, or perhaps fashioned after the exact Platonic form of a cinnamon roll by the Glory Hole Cafe in Hot Sulphur Springs -- a restaurant whose own founding was divinely inspired (according to the description on their menu).
It would be difficult for anything we saw or did later in the day to outshine the magnificence of that morning's cinnamon roll... and really, nothing did. But read on, because the next day we saw some awesome stuff in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Before I conclude today's entry, I will just note a few other events from the day:
We found our new favorite (rare?) flavor of Gatorade in a gas station in Granby, CO: Limon Pepino (thanks to Papa DiGioia for introducing us to this flavor).
A big, brief rainstorm blew in, but the timing couldn't have been better, because we were eating lunch on the porch of the Grand Lake, CO welcome center.
We made it into Rocky Mountain National Park and camped at Timber Creek campground. We were kind of bummed that there was nobody at the park entrance station to check our annual pass that we purchased way back at Glacier N.P. This makes the third national park after Glacier that we could have gotten into for free without even displaying our annual pass. We tried to console ourselves that it was still a good investment... somehow... the money was for a good cause, right?
Day 50
We left camp as early as we could, after overcoming the daily challenge of getting our bodies out of the tent and into the cold. We climbed up Trail Ridge Road from our campground (about 8,800 ft) up to the crest at 12,000 feet. It was somehow easier than Rabbit Ears Pass, and the views were awesome (if a bit smoky, as the wind had blown in smoke from distant wildfires).
On the way up, we crossed the continental divide for the last time on the trip, crossing for good back into the Atlantic basin.
We ate lunch inside the visitor center near the top (it was cold outside up there!) and also spent some time walking along a trail through the stark alpine terrain.
That night we camped at the Aspenglen campground on the east side of the park. It finally hit us as we were arriving at the campground that this was our last night bicycle camping on the trip. That night we got a text message from our Belgian friend Christophe whose family of four we had met on Day 1 -- his wife and children had gone back home for school, but he had gotten within one day behind us when we were at Brush Mountain Lodge. We were bummed that we did not cross paths, and now we were far off the route. He also told us he had been riding with Ari and Kirsten!
Day 51
The next day we left Aspenglen campground and rode toward Denver after a stop for breakfast and coffee in Estes Park. We took State Highway 7 all the way out of the Rockies then rode to Denver via Lyons and Boulder.
The St. Vrain canyon along highway 7
Leaving the Rockies
We had a late lunch at the Yellow Deli in Boulder -- our favorite commune-run religious deli chain (we have been to the one in Chattanooga before).
We ate on the Pearl St pedestrian mall in Boulder.
We loved the clear, consistent, ubiquitous bicycle navigation signage throughout Boulder.
We took the U.S. 36 bikeway from Boulder to Denver and stayed with Jessica, a wonderful host whom we connected with on warmshowers.org.
Denver was our final destination by bicycle. The next three days we planned to rent a car at the Denver airport, drive back to Atlanta (via Versailles, KY to see James and Amy and their baby!!), get back to Atlanta on Saturday, then return to work on Monday.
*****
Update:
We are almost back to Atlanta!
In the morning we had breakfast with our gracious host Richard then headed down the road to catch the 8:30am worship service at Steamboat Christian Center, a church on the south side of Steamboat Springs. It was so great worshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ here in Steamboat before we left, and it was cool seeing how this church loves its town.
After the service, we rode out of town along U.S. 40 and began a long climb up towards Rabbit Ears Pass, breaking with the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route for the last time and beginning our paved highway trek toward Denver. It was a mentally and physically difficult climb along a busy highway (with good shoulders, thankfully), and we could not talk with each other to pass the time, because the highway was so loud -- we could only yell back and forth, which was not so nice. It made us appreciate how quiet most of the roads on the Great Divide route were (and made us wish we were on our tandem bike that we left at home).
Four hours later, we made it to the top. There we took a satisfying lunch break.
Rabbit Ears Mountain is visible from the top of Rabbit Ears Pass. If you look closely you can guess how it got its name.
We rode down the other side into a more desert-like landscape. Late that afternoon we passed through the interesting town of Kremmling, CO -- a town we would have passed two days after Steamboat if we had stayed on the dirt roads of the Great Divide route. On the far side of Kremmling, we passed an Australian bicycle tourist heading in the opposite directing who seemed to be making a career out of bumming around the U.S. by bicycle. He had been all over, including intersecting parts of the Great Divide route further south and meeting some of the same northbound riders we had seen earlier on our trip.
We rode along a valley, following a railroad track on our left and the upper Colorado River on our right. As the sun began to set, we made camp along the river side in the Lone Buck unit of a Colorado State Wildlife Area.
Day 49
The next morning we rode through Byerly Canyon and into the town of Hot Sulphur Springs, CO.
It was there that we finally found it:
The cinnamon roll to rival the one we had in Belfast, Maine three years ago on our East Coast bike trip.
Freshly baked. Plentiful pecans. Heaven on a plate. Created, received from Heaven, or perhaps fashioned after the exact Platonic form of a cinnamon roll by the Glory Hole Cafe in Hot Sulphur Springs -- a restaurant whose own founding was divinely inspired (according to the description on their menu).
It would be difficult for anything we saw or did later in the day to outshine the magnificence of that morning's cinnamon roll... and really, nothing did. But read on, because the next day we saw some awesome stuff in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Before I conclude today's entry, I will just note a few other events from the day:
We found our new favorite (rare?) flavor of Gatorade in a gas station in Granby, CO: Limon Pepino (thanks to Papa DiGioia for introducing us to this flavor).
A big, brief rainstorm blew in, but the timing couldn't have been better, because we were eating lunch on the porch of the Grand Lake, CO welcome center.
We made it into Rocky Mountain National Park and camped at Timber Creek campground. We were kind of bummed that there was nobody at the park entrance station to check our annual pass that we purchased way back at Glacier N.P. This makes the third national park after Glacier that we could have gotten into for free without even displaying our annual pass. We tried to console ourselves that it was still a good investment... somehow... the money was for a good cause, right?
Day 50
We left camp as early as we could, after overcoming the daily challenge of getting our bodies out of the tent and into the cold. We climbed up Trail Ridge Road from our campground (about 8,800 ft) up to the crest at 12,000 feet. It was somehow easier than Rabbit Ears Pass, and the views were awesome (if a bit smoky, as the wind had blown in smoke from distant wildfires).
On the way up, we crossed the continental divide for the last time on the trip, crossing for good back into the Atlantic basin.
We ate lunch inside the visitor center near the top (it was cold outside up there!) and also spent some time walking along a trail through the stark alpine terrain.
That night we camped at the Aspenglen campground on the east side of the park. It finally hit us as we were arriving at the campground that this was our last night bicycle camping on the trip. That night we got a text message from our Belgian friend Christophe whose family of four we had met on Day 1 -- his wife and children had gone back home for school, but he had gotten within one day behind us when we were at Brush Mountain Lodge. We were bummed that we did not cross paths, and now we were far off the route. He also told us he had been riding with Ari and Kirsten!
Day 51
The next day we left Aspenglen campground and rode toward Denver after a stop for breakfast and coffee in Estes Park. We took State Highway 7 all the way out of the Rockies then rode to Denver via Lyons and Boulder.
The St. Vrain canyon along highway 7
Leaving the Rockies
We had a late lunch at the Yellow Deli in Boulder -- our favorite commune-run religious deli chain (we have been to the one in Chattanooga before).
We ate on the Pearl St pedestrian mall in Boulder.
We loved the clear, consistent, ubiquitous bicycle navigation signage throughout Boulder.
We took the U.S. 36 bikeway from Boulder to Denver and stayed with Jessica, a wonderful host whom we connected with on warmshowers.org.
Denver was our final destination by bicycle. The next three days we planned to rent a car at the Denver airport, drive back to Atlanta (via Versailles, KY to see James and Amy and their baby!!), get back to Atlanta on Saturday, then return to work on Monday.
*****
Update:
We are almost back to Atlanta!
Hi! We are very sad you have finished your trip. We've enjoyed reading your blog! Sorry we didn't cross paths again. We actually saw you while having lunch at Connie's at Sawtell just before Big Springs. I raced out the door and called your names but you were already too far to hear. We then took six days off for the eclipse, Tetons and Yellowstone.
ReplyDeleteWe were in Kremmling yesterday, 8th September, so I guess that puts us at least three days behind you. It was lovely to meet you! Keep riding! Ari and Kirsten