Aug 2, Day 38 - Kremmling

Stagecoach State Park Campground to Kremmling, CO

Distance 50 miles, Av speed 7.7 mph

Despite going to bed so early the previous night, neither of us have got much sleep due to the heavy rain the night before. At least it is dry this morning, and the reservoir is pretty.We have breakfast, dry out our tents and sleeping bags using the hand dryer in the rest rooms (amazing how quickly this works!)). A wet tent is much heavier than a dry one – every little bit helps! It takes us almost 7 miles to cycle back to where we left off yesterday.

The Stagecoach area was developed as a potential ski resort in the seventies. The ski runs were cut out through the trees but for some reason, presumably lack of money, lifts were never installed. There are quite a few houses around, and it seems to be a thriving community. Soon, we are climbing again, up to Lynx Pass, past ranches most of which seem to be up for sale. The road has been freshly “graded” meaning earth has been spread across it by our dear friends, the road crew. It’s not too bad to cycle through, providing you follow a car track through.

Just before the last 8 mile climb, we have a second breakfast stop where Numb Stuff scoffs a Mountain House breakfast granola, which we are surprised to learn contains 500 calories (compared to their main meals which usually have 300-400 calories). Must get in some more of those!

18 miles into the day, Numb Stuff’s front tire, tires of life and deflates rapidly. He is very demoralized and it is hard to know what to say to cheer him up.

We take off the tire and again the rim tape has moved leaving the spoke holes exposed. This time, at least, we have spare rim tape that Elliot left us yesterday so we tape over the exposed area, go through the agony again of getting the tire back on and hope for the best. Each time this happens it cuts a good hour out of our day. Normally, this wouldn’t be too bad but because we are now up against the afternoon thunderstorm clock, it makes a huge difference to our progress.


Luckily the climb up to Lynx pass is not at all bad. We are interested to see that the campground we should have camped in the night before but actually looks as if it is closed, probably due to bark beetle infestation. We have a quick lunch anxiously watching the black thunder clouds gather then follow the route for another 8 miles.

We ford a stream, getting a free bike wash and lower body parts shower. Then it is decision time – we have the option to follow the official off-road route, which gives an amazing descent of 2,000 ft in a few miles, but will mean camping with no services, or take the paved highway down to Kremmling. We also need to second guess the weather – it is still looking dark and ominous.

Eventually, as we are not confident about the state of Numb Stuff’s front wheel, we decide reluctantly to take the paved highway. It is tough to miss one of the best descents of the whole route, especially for wild child downhiller Numb Stuff. This decision is justified somewhat, when an hour later, it starts to rain heavily! The last 6 miles along Highway 40 into Kremmling is horrible, along a narrow road with little shoulder and heavy traffic that shows no pity for wet and drenched `cyclists. We are glad to find a great hotel, which has just opened, and unbelievably, the owner of the local bike shop works the night shift on the reception desk, so we will be able to talk to him about the wheel first thing tomorrow! How great is that!

On the way to the store to buy wine and beer (including one called Plaid Bastard), we have a phone call from a shivering Chip. He is in the town just 40-50 miles down the road, Silverthorne, where we are headed tomorrow. He is calling to see how we have got on – he said he had experienced the most violent electrical storm the night before, and had ridden through some really cold weather today. The local weather is showing flood alerts for the next 24 hours so we are apprehensive as to what lies ahead tomorrow!

BTW, forgot to mention yesterday, while we were stopped with the second flat, Mr & Mrs Salsa danced by. Finally we got to speak to them! They said they had a bad time going through the Divide Basin, and ended up getting up at midnight to cycle from A&M Reservoir to Rawlins in the dark. Puts our night riding to shame! It sounded like they were going to finish the ride at Kremmling.