White River Campground - Breckenridge - Como, 8/4 47 miles

Sarah here--

Silas, Daren and I started out from our campsite on the Blue River (about 5 miles west of Silverthrone, CO) on a wide shoulder for what would be one of Silas' longest rides on the trip.  From the start he set a blistering pace that I wasn't quite feeling up to after the long climb over Ute Pass that Jody and I had done the day before.  In the town of Silverthorne we switched to one of the best dedicated bike trails I've ever seen.  It wound through the commercial district of Silverthorne along a river littered with flyfishermen.  On the far side of town just before we would begin an ascent over a large dam I heard Daren yell to Silas (always in the lead) to "Stay away from those rocks!" in his serious voice!  We had just passed the Tommy Hilfiger outlet and the main parking lot, the bike path was far away from car traffic, what could Daren possibly see that would put Silas in danger?  As I got a little closer I saw what Daren had seen, two juvenile FOXES playing on the rocks just beside the path.  When Daren saw them they were playing tug of war with something-- play-fighting-- and the sight of such wildness was good reason for Daren to be concerned.  We watched from a safe distance (but still MUCH closer than I've ever been to even ONE fox) until one of the pair got tired of all the playing on, over, and around the large boulders, and settled down in the dirt to rest.  We were shocked.  They paid no attention to us during their play-- and then they were comfortable enough to lay down and take a rest-- right there-- five feet from the path?!  Amazing.

We continued on up over the dam and enjoyed miles and miles of beautiful bike path to the town of Frisco.  Cruising right through, we were treated to dedicated bike path through a wooded area with lots of folks out for Saturday rides.  Soon we were in Breckenridge where Jody & the RV were waiting.  We had lunch, congratulated Silas on a smoking fast 26 mile ride, and Daren and I took off to finish the rest.  The climb out of Breckenridge was steady but fun.  Lots of smiles and good juju seeing all kinds of folks out enjoying the mountain on bike and foot.  About 1/4 of the way up to Boreas pass the pavement ran out but we were blessed with great surface conditions on the dirt.  This pass is noted as the easiest of all the big passes on the ride (lucky me!) because it is railroad grade once the pavement ends, but a 2000 foot climb to 11,482, after 26 miles chasing a 12 year old with no concept of pace or limits... still makes you feel like you've worked a bit.  The big let down on this ride was the 9 mile descent.  Within the first mile I contracted shaken-baby-syndrome and had to use every muscle in my body to stay on my bike and control my speed.  The washboard was unpredictable so as I'd get comfortable with a certain frequency and let my speed increase, I'd suddenly find myself in much bigger, deeper washboard at a speed that is not good for brain health.

The good news was waiting in Como-- Jody & Silas were there, the camping was free (no official RV park, but we were told we could camp in front of the old high school-- so we did), and the old train depot had been turned into a brew pub!  I insisted that only pie and ice cream could fix my shaken brain syndrome and I talked Jody and Daren into joining me at the pub for that delicacy.  Yes it was 3:00, yes I could probably wait a few hours and have dinner first, then dessert like a civilized human being-- but where's the fun in that?  So we had pie and ice cream and beer at 3, then returned 2.5 hours later for dinner with no problem.  I'm only a little ashamed to say that we ended a near-perfect day of riding and dining with MORE ice cream back at the RV as we watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey (our latest obsession-- how can there only be 2 seasons?).

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Kremmling to Silverthorne 8/3 37 miles

Another bonding day for Daren and Silas.  Sarah and I hit the road bright and early making our way toward Silverthorne.  It was pretty much a country meander until the last 13 miles.  At this point we started climbing, a pretty normal occurrence on this adventure, only this time we had road construction to deal with.  The first few miles we were on the side of new asphalt.  The other side of the road had not been paved yet, and we had to jump over to the non paved whenever a car tried to pass us otherwise the road was too narrow.  Then, we came up to the flaggers who very nonchalant about their work.  They stopped a few cars in our lane from going up, but said we could go, "but just ride around the big machines".  We started up, and a few minutes after we headed up, the cars behind us started up as well, we started to move over to the non paved part, but then cars were being sent down from that direction as well!!  Everyone stopped, the people going downhill went off the road, we went too close to the machines laying scalding asphalt while the workers smiled at us, and the cars going up waited until we got out of danger.  My lungs and legs were burning.  Trying to go up hill way faster than normal, and then the chaos! 

 Another 2 miles and we topped Ute Pass at 9,524ft.  Then a great,very fast downhill.  There were very strong winds on the downhill that practically stopped us and blew us off the road from our 25-30 mile an hour descent!  We eventually made it down to the highway where Daren was waiting with Silas.  They drove us to the White River campground on the Blue River, just a few miles from where we left off, and a mile west of Silverthorne.   The wind was so strong here, it blew our Coleman stove off the picnic table.  We had to weight it down with a big rock!

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Lynx Pass to Kremmling 8/2 45 miles

To much protest, Silas rode with us this morning for 10 miles.  Actually, every morning that Silas rides, he protests.  But once he's out the door, he's happy as can be.  

We started on a gradual descent out of the campground with a creek beside us for several miles.  We eventually passed by a "preserved" historic building from the 1800's, that was once a post office, boarding house, and stop for Wells Fargo.  About a mile after that, we had to ford a creek.  It was about a foot deep, and Silas somehow conned Daren into pushing him across.  We had a great ride through rolling hills, and toward the exit point for Silas, we came across ranchers unloading their cattle from cattle cars to graze a new area of land.  It was pretty chaotic with them unloading right on our trail, and us trying not to spook the horses and cowboys.  At this point, Daren and I missed our turn.  For one thing, we thought it was up the highway a mile from the drop off, and secondly we just didn't see the road sign in front of us because of the chaos.  It turns out that the trail was moved to this point(an addendum was sent for the map which we forgot about).  We rode up to the old trail head, and found it completely grown over and covered in downed trees.  The GPS had it right though, and we found ourselves riding past the cowboys again and up to the new trail.  This trail was tough!  Steep climbing right off and for 7 miles, on rough rocky roads.  But then at the top we had a great view of the Colorado River below us, and a very steep descent down to Radium and the Colorado River.
 The day was really starting to heat up, so we decided to soak our shirts in the river before starting our next big climb.  We lost a lot of elevation going to the river, down to 7000ft from 9000ft, and were going to have to make it back up to 8500ft.  Fortunately after the first hot section, a huge thunderstorm started up.  We were very thankful for the rain(just like home) and no lightning, to get us over the last pass.  Then we had the best 10 mile descent.  I hit top speed of 36 on the dirt road with no fear of flying over any cliffs.  We ended our day in Kremmling, an old shipping post, and now staging area for flyfishermen and rafting companies.

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Steamboat to Lynx Pass 8/1 42 miles

After a very restful time in Steamboat Springs, Daren, Silas and I headed out of town toward Lynx pass.  Silas only rode 8 miles with us today because there wasn't another good pick up point for him and the trail was supposed to get steep and technical.  We had a great time riding along the Yampa River and then through rolling farmland.  We passed and were passed by several riders and runners.  Steamboat is full of healthy people.  We saw many of them this beautiful morning.

After Sarah picked up Silas, Daren and I headed toward Lake Catamount on pavement, then the trail took us off road along the Yampa River.  We rode over the dam to Stagecoach Reservoir and up through Routt National Forest.  We saw a funny looking cow, I think a mix of cow and lama, but no other wildlife.

We made our way to the campsite at Lynx Pass.  Apparently many moose make their home near here, but of course I didn't see one.  I did see beavers in the pond near the camp, working very hard on their home.





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Steamboat Springs, Co 7/30-8/1

We seemed destined to be done with Wyoming at this point.  Limited time, hot open desert, and what I thought was engine trouble.  The next closest big town on our route, Steamboat Springs, CO, perfect.  It turns out that the engine light that came on was for an additive that was low for the diesel exhaust system.  I thought for sure it was some major problem because I read through the manual too quickly and missed the "it needs to be added every 5000 miles" part, and instead read that it was probably contaminated and needed to be cleaned immediately or you could only start the engine 16 more times problem!  I texted Sarah with the engine trouble news, and set to finding a way to Steamboat.  When Daren and Sarah arrived after what was for them a killer, as in painful ride, Daren methodicaly read through the manual and found it was minor issue.  But, too late at this point.  All of our minds were made up!  We're heading to Steamboat to fix "Rocky" and take a short break.  

Steamboat is a great town.  It was so named by early settlers because of the sound the hot springs made, like a steamboat coming down the river.
 Silas had the best time with the kids that were camping there.  They played lots of pool, watched the Olympics on the tv in the clubhouse, and just had a great time with each other.  We enjoyed the town.  Fortunately, the town of Steamboat has a free shuttle bus that goes through to the rv park where we were staying, and into the center of town.  It was a great way for us to get to town without having to ride. There were several good restaurants, galleries, bookstores, and coffee. We also did a short 2 mile float on the Yampa River.  It was a leisurely meander on single inner tubes, floating down a slow moving, low river.  Several hot springs fed into the river.  There were a few small rapids, nothing to get your heart rate up or anything, but enough to put a smile on your face. The take-out was just before a small set of rapids.  I thought I would just ride into the pool just as you come out, but managed to flip the inner tube!  I kept stumbling, trying to get up and in the meantime, my inner tube was heading down river.  Fortunately Daren watched the whole fiasco, and sprinted down river and down the bank to retrieve my tube.  Fortunately for the 8 to 10 people behind me, their entertainment value went way up.  They also all exited well before I did where the water was calm(quick learners!)  I should have charged money for the show! 

  We got shuttled back to the start, then headed to a great lunch on the river.  After, Daren and Silas took the free bus back to the rv park, and Sarah and I looked around at the shops, then headed to the Old Town Hot Springs.  We really enjoyed this place.  There were several pools of varying temperature fed by hot springs.  There was also a lap pool, and waterslide.  After several hours of soaking and feeling the healing powers of the naturally occurring lithium, we had a "hurricane" by the river.  Good name for a killer cocktail.  I felt like I was in Hanalei.  We met Daren and Silas for dinner at the Laundry.  The Laundry, as you may have surmised, used to be the old laundry facility for the town, built in the 1800's.  The decor was old hardwoods and brick, and the food, was tapas style.  The "hurricane" is not a good night before ride drink come to find out, it took several hours to recover from this fruity concoction.

Sarah is convinced that she could live in Steamboat.  We would definitely visit!

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Rawlins Wy to Little Sandstone Camp Hwy 70 42 miles

Jody and Silas got to sleep in today and Sarah and I were treated to 7 hours of suffering.  Only 42 miles and a couple 1000 feet of advertised elevation change but the ride was filled with STEEP ravines and a STIFF headwind and some of the worst road surface imaginable.  There was nothing to look at for the first 32 miles except the endless rolling hills and sagebrush, so I had a lot of time to think about the 4 ride Gods that determine the fate of each ride: 

1)The Mountain God is my personal favorite because he is fair and gives one foot of downhill for every foot he makes me climb.  Although we generally get along, he let me down a bit on this leg with relentless 3 mph uphills and downhills that were too steep to enjoy because of the treacherous road conditions.

2)The Wind Goddess is fickle.  Some days she curses you, some days she blesses you and some days she is no where to be found.  On this day, she was a hater.

3)The Earth God was in a foul mood.  Instead of smooth hardpack, he sent 4 inch deep washboards filled with golfball size gravel that turned the climbs into weaving, quad busting slogs and the downhills into white knuckle pucker fests.

4)The Rain Goddess is an old friend from Seattle and showed us a little mercy on this leg with cloud cover and a few sprinkles to keep down the heat.   

At mile 32 we entered an Aspen forest where things seemed to be improving when we were hit with a text from Jody "having engine trouble near town of Encampment".  Unable to reach her, we were left to wonder if she would be at the pick-up point or we had been sentenced to another 20 miles of hell in order to reach a broken down RV.  With no other options, we slogged onward until shortly before reaching the pick-up point when another text got through letting us know that she had made it.  We arrived at the RV a short time later and with a bit of research figured out that the RV warning light was just letting us know it was time to refill the diesel exhaust additive.  After the difficult day, we decided to stay clear of the ride Gods for awhile by skipping the next leg and driving to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a day of R&R.

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Boulder to SouthPass 7/28 62 miles

We had a good stay at a rv park in Boulder.  Lots of laundry done, and they had a huge grass field where we played lots of frisbee golf with Silas.  We got out early again this morning knowing that we were going to have hot, open, country to ride.  The first 20 miles were paved, crossing the trails blazed by J.C. Fremont and the Kit Carson.  The next 25 were on some of the smoothest dirt roads we've ever been on.
 We criss-crossed the Oregon Trail many times.  The state of Wyoming has marked every crossing with a pillar.  You can even see remnants of their wagon wheel tracks through the sage brush lined hills.  After 45 miles, the long ribbon of smooth dirt became 17 miles of sandy, washboard.  We were in the wide open, sun-soaked range and hating it.  Every roller coaster seemed to get higher, and extend farther into the never ending distance.  One final washboard hill to the highway, then down to a shaded rest area where we waited for Sarah and Silas to show.  While we were waiting, six buses from Utah pulled in, unloading over 400 Mormons who just finished a re-enactment of a crossing made by Mormons settlers to the west, in which 75 of the 400 died.  Two of the travelers sat down and talked to us about their re-enactment, while waiting for their bus drivers to take a break.  They were also very interested in our travels.  Minutes later, Sarah appeared.  From there we decided to skip the next section of 137 miles of dry, wide open country, because of time constraints.  We figured since we have to skip some sections anyway, that we should skip these.  We drove about 2 hrs to Rawlins, a rundown old coal town traversed by the Mormon Trail, the Oregon Trail and the Overland Trail.


We found a forest service camp just out of town on the Teton Reservoir.  This was just a pond, but a flock of pelicans lived there, and sandy hills leading down to the water, filled with red ants(Silas discovered to his absolute horror)!  We sat in the comfort of Rocky while a tremendous thunder and lightning storm passed over us.  We played Sequence hoping to take our minds off the great cataclysm occurring  outside.




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