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……..