July 30 - Day 35 - Steamboat Springs, CO

Routt National Forest (Informal Campground) to Steamboat Springs, CO
Distance - 43 Miles, Avg Speed - 9.1

Well readers, the storm that looked to be certain last night never actually hit us. Our early night was rudely interrupted by a herd of curious cows trying to come into our campsite. Dirtbaby initially thought Numbstuff was just snoring a bit louder than usual but then she heard Numbstuff get out of his tent and start yelling at the cows to go away. That seemed to work but we were still serenaded by mooing most of the night.

Our plan was to get up at 5, climb the 12 miles to Columbine, where there is a grocery store marked on the map, then cycle to Steamboat Springs to get to the post office to pick up our ship forward box and also get the bikes to the bike shop for some TLC.

Of course, our plans never quite work out. Firstly, Dirtbaby sleeps through the alarm so wakes up at 6. Then we find Numb Stuff’s front tire is completely flat but we just pump it up and pray for the best. Dirtbaby’s front tire is not too bad, a little soft, but OK after pumping. We hit the road and begin climbing. The guy yesterday was totally right, it was a brutal climb but much easier in the cool of the day than it would have been in the humidity of the previous afternoon.

Along the way, we see a couple of sandhill cranes which make the most amazing noise. Apparently they are an endangered species so we are lucky to see them. We also see a huge Pyrenean sheepdog just lying on the road, his flock of sheep behind him. He doesn’t bat an eyelid as we cycle past – he just looks like he is having a cigarette break away from his flock of sheep.

Eventually, after 2 and a half hours of climbing 12 miles we reach Columbine, and no, it’s not the Columbine of the tragic shooting fame. There’s nothing there except the grocery store, which is, yeah, you guessed it – closed! By now, we are starving.

Luckily, the road to Steamboat Springs will be paved and it is mostly downhill. Four miles later, we come across a visitor center which has cold water, rest rooms and a soda machine all of which we use. They tell us there is a small store about a mile away, we’re hoping we can get a coffee here and maybe if we are lucky, a breakfast pastry. In fact, the store has a restaurant and is still serving breakfast! Oh joy! Great coffee too!

Strengthened by this, we finish the last 24 miles to Steamboat in 2 hours.

Numb Stuff goes to the post office to find 4 boxes waiting for us - he just about has enough room to put them all on his BOB.

On the way back from the post office, he realizes his front tire is now completely flat, so he has to walk his bike to the bike shop – the bike shop is called Orange Peel. We both have a big list of the work that needs to be done on our bikes – Numb Stuff is getting a new sturdier back wheel. The bikes won’t be ready until tomorrow, so we go and get some beer to celebrate making it to Steamboat.

Here’s a photo of our motel room after the BOB bag and panniers have exploded!

On the way to dinner, Dirtbaby sees a familiar face cycling down the road – it’s CHIP! She streaks across the road yelling Chip! Chip! She eventually catches up with him.  We didn’t expect to see Chip again as he left a day ahead of us but it turns out he took the main route which was much harder than the Columbine alternate.

Chip found a private home here that takes cyclists in. The people here are really into the Divide race/ride and fed him and gave him as much wine as he could drink for $50 a night, so not surprisingly, he stayed there 2 days! Upon hearing his description of the main route, we are glad we decided not to take it as Numb Stuff’s rear wheel for sure would not have survived the rough downhill! We have dinner with Chip and share stories of the last week, then a glass of wine back in our motel room after which we fall asleep thankful to be in a bed.

July 29, Day 34

Big Sandstone Creek campground to Routt National forest (informal campground)
Distance 37 miles, Avg speed 8.2 mph

It rained all night and well into the morning. It sounded like popcorn being popped in the tent, the raindrops were so large. After the rain subsided, the roadcrew kindly woke us up at 6.30am. Both Numb Stuff and Dirtbaby emerged into a wet, fogged landscape. Big Sandstone Creek is now full and rushing which serves us well as we need to filter and restock all of our water supplies.

When Dirtbaby begins packing her bike, she shrieks in horror as she notices her front tire is flat! Since we are now down to one good tube and one tube with a repair patch, Dirtbaby decides to repair the punctured tube. Upon further inspection, she notices she too has a tear in her tire. Not again…… Since we have now become experts on mending torn tires, we now take the last of the sidewall repair piece and repair the tire.

After about a 2 hour morning packing, repairing and filtering water, we climb exhausted back onto the road to now begin our day. The road surface has packed down nicely after the rain. However, with the new mud and the fresh sand the road crews have just deposited, moving is a slow go and the 6 miles until we hit pavement feel like torture.

The Aspen alley we travel through kind of helps and acts as a welcome to Colorado.  We stop and have a food break on the pavement. Yum, more peanut butter! Can never tire of that!

Due to the state of our bikes and inner tube situation, we decide to take the Columbine alternate to Steamboat Springs, as we believe we will see more travelers and have at least one additional opportunity to pass through a small town.

On our way, we pass the Three Forks Ranch (Colorado), an impressive ranch that seems to go for mile after mile and has manicured lawns and ponds and waterfalls, multiple guest homes etc. We wonder if perhaps we could camp here, but the number of “no trespassing” signs is a bit off-putting and besides, we both are pretty stinky by this time! We later find out we could have stayed here….. at a price! Check out the website. http://www.threeforksranch.com/ – a little beyond our budget we feel!

Just before reaching the Three Forks Ranch, Numb Stuff comments on the fast approaching storm he has been tracking in his rear view mirror. Dirtbaby has been doing her best to ignore it, ie just not look that way. The thunder, once again, begins to roar overhead.

After Dirtbaby chats with a very kind passing gentleman in a jeep, we learn of our terrain ahead to Columbine (ie 12 miles of almost vertical uphill! ) and decide to roadcamp just outside the boundaries of the ranch, cutting the day short. We make camp, eat dinner and complete the blog entry just as the rain drops start……..

July 28, Day 33

Rawlins,WY to Big Sandstone Creek Campground
Distance 52 miles, Avg speed 7.8 mph

The day started with a little lie in until 7.15am, then breakfast in downtown Rawllns in a local diner where we noticed an amusing set of rules to be followed. While heading out of town, we came across a little coffee shop so we decided to stop and have a latte, and pick a sandwich to go for lunch. This meant we didn’t get to leave Rawlins until after 10am, later than usual, but as our planned mileage today is only around 56 miles, we thought we could treat ourselves.

The first 25 miles were on pavement, on a road with very little traffic, so we started to think today was going to be pretty uneventful. Until we hit the gravel road that is. The road was pretty steep in places and had just been re-graded with lots of loose gravel, which felt like cycling in thick porridge. Going down was as slow as going uphill as you had to be careful not to fishtail and lose control of the bike.

Tough as it was, we were making good progress, making our 14th crossing of the Great Divide, until Numb Stuff had to pull off the road with another flat in his rear wheel. We were going through our usual procedure of finding out what caused the flat, when a lady called Cindy pulls up in her truck and hands us both a beer! She lives on a ranch close by, and keeps cold beer and water in her truck to hand out to anyone she sees cycling or hiking the Great Divide route. What a great idea – and how thankful we were for the beer. She explains that the road has been bad for their cars, they have not been able to get their trailers up the hills which is why they have thrown lots of loose gravel on the road. But she also appreciates that it has made the going tough for us cyclists. Another guys stops to check we are OK and we joke with him, asking if he is bringing us pizza to go with the beer! Alas no, although he does offer us a potato chip!

Back to business, we spread out our gear on the road just like we do when we hit a motel.  We discover not only had Numb Stuff got a cut in his tire, but he also has yet another broken spoke (#4). No problem, Numb Stuff says, we have a spare tire in the BOB bag. Er, no says Dirtbaby – we shipped it forward to Steamboat Springs, don’t you remember? Oops – seemed like a good idea at the time to reduce weight.

Anyway, we manage to mend the tire with a piece of old tire and some duck tape. We replace the inner tube and pump up the tire again when BAM – the inner tube explodes! On closer inspection it looks like the rim tape has moved uncovering one of the spoke holes, so we put some duck tape over the hole and try another tube. This time it holds and we are good to move on. It has taken nearly 2 hours to fix things, what with the time drinking beer. By this time, the skies are looking darker and darker so we try and speed on as quickly as we can.

Eventually, the storm hits us and we have to take shelter under some trees. A family stops to give us water, a Seven Up and cheese packets, being all the food they had with them. People are so kind! Eventually the storm passes over and we continue on, only to find the road has turned to mud and it is even harder to cycle. Eventually, we decide to give up 4 miles from our planned destination and camp next to a creek which is listed as a campground on the map, but does not look very much like a campground, being covered in long grass.

We manage to get our tents pitched in the rain somehow and throw everything in the tents. Everything is wet and muddy. Numb Stuff cooks up a couple of Mountain House dinners which we eat in the tent, then we flake out, totally exhausted. The rain has made us really appreciate how lucky we have been up to now weather-wise, it would have been so much harder if we had had more rain.

July 27 - Day 32 - Rawlins

A&M Reservoir to Rawlins, WY
Distance - 47.5 miles, Avg Speed - 11.6 mph

Having arrived in the dark, it felt strange waking up this morning as we had no idea where we were! The reservoir turned out to be an utter disappointment, a large slime pool, rather than the luscious cool pool of water we had been dreaming about the whole 90 miles of yesterday. We decide to hang on to the water we had filtered from the well yesterday, rather than risk the reservoir water. Bill tells us in an admiring tone that one of the hikers (super macho man) just took some water from the reservoir, blew off the flies, and then drank the water. We are not feeling quite so macho! As we don’t have a lot of water, we decide to follow Bill’s plan of cutting over to Lamont, then taking the highway down to Rawlins. According to the map, there is café at Lamont, called Grandma’s. Bill must be starving, as he is not carrying a stove and only seems to eat Pop Tarts. He is also not carrying a water filter – he just adds a drop of Chlorox to his bottles. Here’s a photo of us with Bill, although it is a little blurry:

After recent disappointments with closed cafes, we try not to build up expectations, especially when we see the sign outside the café which has clearly seen better days. It says "open", but is it?….YES IT IS!!!!!

Grandma's Cafe...you gotta love it!  I lot of money went into the size of the sign,  but not so much into its maintenance.  Who cares though, it is here, so are we, and it is open!  We will rest now; we will eat.

Bill is already there, cramming food in as fast as he can. Poor Grandma, she is cook, waitress and washer up and feeding 3 ravenous cyclists must have been hard work! Iced water never tasted so good. Her café is on the Trans Am cycle route, so we are not surprised to meet a couple of cyclists further down the road, although they are on a recumbent tandem which we have not seen before.

Bill disappears into the distance as he is much faster than us. He is having mechanical problems, he broke 2 teeth on his small chain ring and his back wheel needs to be trued so he needs to find the bike shop. No doubt we will cross paths again.

We crossed the Continental Divide once again today.  I think this is #11 so far on our trip.  I am starting to lose track.

Rawlins is not an attractive town - most of the services have built up between the highway and the I80, so downtown feels run down and neglected. It is a 7 mile trip just to go to the grocery store for more provisions for the next 3 days. We end up in Super 8 and spend the rest of the day doing laundry, washing ourselves down and, of course – drinking a beer or two!

July 26 - Day 31

Pinecreek (informal campground) to A& M Reservoir (informal campground)
92 miles, Avg Speed - 8.6

Dirtbaby shakes Numbstuff’s tent at 6am sharp. We knew we had a long and difficult day in front of us, so we get up early, pack up and hit the road.

The day begins with an interesting twist as Numbstuff realizes the route and waypoints for the ride on his GPS have ended.   We just finished Section 2 of the Great Divide route, and now it was time to update the GPS device with Section 3 waypoints.  That would mean pulling out his netbook computer and dealing with technology issues as he connects the GPS device to his computer...Not the time nor place for that now... We set off to enter the most difficult and remote day of the journey so far without GPS navigation, rather only using the Adventure Cycling route maps Dirtbaby carries and interprets. Don't get me wrong, the Adventure Cycling maps are great, but having the GPS to guide you also just makes you navigate with that much more confidence that you are on the right track.   Should prove Interesting…

We cycle about ten miles to a small town, Atlantic City for breakfast. Bill follows behind and we meet him at a closed café (the only one in town) where we all gather around a picnic table for an instant breakfast meal and coffee. When we depart, Numbstuff and Dirfbaby head off while Bill takes some more time to water up and gather his belongings.

Let’s leave it at, Numbstuff and Dirtbaby make a 5 mile “unnecessary” uphill detour after departing breakfast. The day seems to begin with some rough edges… We cycle back to Atlantic City after realizing our mistake and get back on route.  Already, we realize not having the GPS waypoints to guide us will be making a difference for us today.

Make no mistake about it, we now depart civilization as we know it and head out into the desert.

There will be only one water stop in the next 80 miles and the temperature at 10ish am is in the 90”s. Mile after mile the route continues on a sometimes sand, dirt, loose rock and sage brush grown road/trail. There is no evidence of civilization, anywhere. Even animals which we had become accustom to, simply vanish. Our minds begin to wonder and the vastness of the desert and heat begins to toy with us. Each new route and turn is done so with great debate, as making another mistake will be costly.  We each read, and re-read the map several times in order to ensure we are on the right road and making the correct turns.

At round 2pm we reach an oasis in the middle of the desert. It is barely visible from our vantage point by Numbstuff picks up a small green patch of life completely out of place in this unforgiving land. It is the water stop we had been looking for…

Now this is where the psychology of the journey gets interesting and the “test” of one’s ability to remain cool and collective comes into play. You see, we knew that we were in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no one around. The deafening sound of quite outside of the flies buzzing around your face reminds you each and every second you are nowhere any modern day person should be.

At the water stop, Dirtbaby and Numbstuff say very little, the focus is on getting some food in our bellies and refilling water supplies. A simple galvanized steel pipe came from the earth and dumped its’ water onto the desert floor. We filtered and filled every water carrier we had right to the top. Someone had left a cows skull at the entrance of the water source perhaps as a small reminder or a further taunt that if you are here, well, good luck!!

After about an hour at the water stop, we realize we still have more than 55 miles to complete before the end of our day. About ten miles up the route Dirtbaby admits to Numbstuff that she is indeed scared. Earlier at the watering hole Numbstuff has thought in his own moment of anxiety that the difference from remaining cool and alive and completely loosing it is just a small turn of the dial, a single click of that dial and it’s all over…

The day continues and the miles seem to slow to a crawl. On the route map we should be crossing a river that is now completely dry and Dirtbaby is thrown from her bike when hitting the sand in the now dry bed of the creek. She is fine, just a few bumps and bruises.

At 9:45 PM we cycle into the A&M Reservoir after almost running over large Sage Grouse flightless birds in the middle of the road. We meet Bill once again at the camp site along with 3 other hikers. We can see Bill’s headlamp from the trail and he unknowingly helps us to camp. He is very excited to see us and cannot believe we have made it. There is a gale force wind and setting up our tents was a group effort. No dinner or food of any of us as we are too exhausted and use our final efforts to simply climb into our sleeping bags and go to sleep.

July 25 - Day 30

Pinedale, WY to Pine Creek (Informal Campground) - 80.3 miles, Avg Speed - 9.6 mph

The night before, Harry (now without Sally) sticks his head round our door to say hi. Sally had to leave at Jackson so she could go back to work. Harry is now riding with a friend but needs to wait for the post office to open on Monday so is staying another day in Pinedale.

As we set off, we wave to another lone cyclist, who is travelling superlight – just 2 rear panniers which are the size of front panniers. He gets a good head start on us, as at the last moment, we need to take a last minute bathroom stop. Well, this is the last time we will see a flush toilet in 3 days ….and we are feeling slightly nervous, as this is our first venture into the Great Divide Basin, a desert area which has no services and very little water. Most Divide riders cross this area in 4 days, but we are hoping to do it in 3.

The first 31 miles pass by like a breeze, as they are on pavement. Numb Stuff finds some road booty for Deb but we can now only take photos for her, rather than bringing it back for her. Soon, we are back on gravel, and enter into the Great Divide Basin. The route mostly follows the old wagon trails forged by pioneers heading west, and it is sobering to think that the landscape we are looking at has changed little in the 150 years since the wagons and handcarts passed through. There is nothing out here but sagebrush and a few bits of grass.

Things are progressing well, when suddenly Numb Stuff comes to an abrupt halt halfway up a hill. Uh-oh, he has his first flat on his rear wheel. We pull off the road, quickly flip over the bike and start repairs. Reassuringly, at least 3 cars stop to ask if we are OK and need help. Numb Stuff switches out the inner tube, and soon we are on our way again.

We stop for lunch at Little Sandy Creek, eating our left-over pizza from the night before. While we are munching, a group of 4 cyclists, all guys pulling bob trailers turn up but do not say anything other than hi. They make the decision to stop there and camp, but as it is only 2pm we decide to filter some water, and push on another 30 miles to the next campground. Other than splash in the creek and admire the cattle standing in it, there is not a lot else to do at these places .

The terrain becomes roller-coaster like. We cross the Continental Divide twice (#9 & #10) and also get to ride a mile and a half stretch right along the divide itself. This was amazing, being able to look down both sides. We make good time to the end of the gravel road. When we hit the highway, there is a rest stop just half a mile down the road. We visit this and it is so clean and nice we decide to cook dinner there, fill up with water, wash, brush our teeth, chill out, and use the toilets…. who knew there was so much you could do at a rest stop?

Suitably refreshed we cycle the last 7 miles to camp, where we meet the lone cyclist we waved off that morning, who is already camped there. His name is Bill, a nurse from North Carolina. Bill had been riding with Chip for a few days, before Chip abandoned him at Flagg Ranch. It is interesting how we build up a network of people doing the ride. Bill points out there is a full moon tonight – it makes for a great photo!

July 24 - Day 29

Pinedale - Layover day

Numbstuff wakes up in the Sundance Motel, looks at his bike and sees that he has broken yet another spoke but finds a gentleman in the Pinedale A to Z Hardware store that is a bicyclist hobbyist. He has a small corner of his hardware store set up for bike repairs… Lucky, lucky! We notice that Mr & Mrs Salsa’s bikes are in for cleaning at the same place – we keep bumping into each other! Chip moves on.

Of course, we have to inspect the local brewery, Wind River Brewing Co, so far we have tried about 4 of their beers. The Mango Wheat Beer is pretty awesome! Otherwise it is time to catch up with bike cleaning, paring down the baggage yet again, stocking up with groceries and generally chilling out and recovering from mosquito bites. Dirtbaby, in particular has been bitten numerous times on her legs and butt so that it looks like she has a bad case of measles.

We naively thought the energy developments in the area referred to in the guide book would be wind power…… but no, we find that this area is one of the greatest land oil and gas drilling areas in USA which explains the level of traffic. Wyoming - forget oil and gas, just check out and use your wind!

Off tomorrow into the wild Wyoming desert… Wish us luck! This will be a big test for us relating to our resourcefulness. Will not be able to update the blog for the next four days as we will be living with the desert critters...

July 23 - Day 28 - Pinedale

"Outhouse" Campground to Pinedale
Distance - 58.6 miles, Avg Speed - 8.6 mph

After braking camp we decide to head out early without breakfast. About 12 miles up the road however we pull over for some quick granola as Numbstuff feels his stomach eating away at his liver… We need to eat constantly it seems to keep up our energy and strength.

We pass several cows on this morning ride. One bull was half on the road and half off and was not impressed with my flashy bike and gear. Dirtbaby gets caught in morning traffic and like most drives pushes her way through an opening in the gap!

Morning wildlife is abundant during our morning ride. A family of Pronghorn Deer, a mother and four children run alongside us, seemingly racing us with a great sense of curiosity.

Dirtbaby observes a possible café about 35 miles up the road that we can have lunch and restock on water. Upon our arrival we can clearly see that place has been abandon and closed for quite some time. Two hikers were asleep in the sleeping bags on the front porch of the place. We notice they are pushing a large handcart, twice the size of a shopping cart… Wow! Dirtbaby and Numbstuff quickly commandeer the side patio area for a quick food and coffee stop. This is exactly what we need to move us forward. By the way… Mr and Mrs Salsa couple also cycle by as we enjoy our lunch.

We meet Chip just as we are leaving our squatter cafe; he is also cycling the Divide. He quit this job in order to cycle and travel over the next two years. He cycles for a bit and we meet again later in the day and all cycle into Pinedale together. We also share dinner with him that evening.

After running out of water at the squatters cafe, the postmistress at the Cora post office refills Numbstuff’s camelback and off we go all watered up. This post office has been in existence since 1891. She also sent us on our way with free tootsie rolls!

The Sundance Motel is our accommodation for the evening. We will take a day off tomorrow as we have lots of preparation to do. Our next four days of riding is very water scarce as we enter into Wyoming’s desert.



 

July 22 - Day 27

Togwotee Mountain Lodge “The Outhouse” Campground in Bridger to Teton National Forest

Distance - 52 miles (of which 7.5 miles were in pilot car), Avg Speed - 8.4mph

We leave Togwotee Mountain Lodge, whilst they are having their morning prayer circle in the car park. There is another 9 miles to the top of the Togwotee Pass, but there is some major reconstruction work going on as part of the Obama administration’s “Putting America back to work” program which means we and our bikes have to be taken through the roadworks on a pilot car three times, twice on the uphill and once on the downhill. Loading up 2 bikes plus trailer quickly is not easy but by the third time, we have it down to a fine art. We enjoy hearing the banter of the road crew on the radios while we are in the pilot car. First Julie is majorly pissed because a Coca Cola truck drove through her stop sign and nearly ran her over. Our second driver told us there are 2 seasons in Wyoming; winter and road construction.

Our third driver, a salty dog kinda guy had a wicked sense of humor. He was telling us the dumb questions tourists ask from – “Are those mountains real? No, ma’m they’re inflatable. We just pump ‘em up every morning and let them down each night to let the wind blow through” to “what time do they let the animals out?”. The “inflatable” mountains are pretty impressive.

There is no sign to mark the crossing of the continental divide at the top, just chaos from the road construction (this was one of two Divide crossings today, #7 & #8). A big 20 miles downhill on pavement follows, after which we begin climbing the Union Pass Gravel road up to our new record of 9,676ft. This road is part of the main wagon trail that took supplies from east to west that the Mormons, amongst others, followed.

At the top, the terrain changes to an alpine setting with more meadow flowers and a wind so strong we could hardly hear each other talk. The wind plus the loading and unloading of bikes wiped us out so we decide to call it a day and camp next to a pit toilet in the middle of nowhere!

This is our last night (we think) in bear country so it is fitting that we finally get to hang our food for the first time – luckily someone has kindly provided a wooden bar to hang from and Numb Stuff performs a text book hanging.

Numb Stuff serves dinner, (who said he doesn’t cook?) then we are both tucked up in bed by 7pm, out like a light until 6 am, 11 wonderful hours of sleep!