Ups and DOWNS

Day 42—Monday, September 12—Steamboat Springs to Radium, CO

60 miles 

 Mail drop: food, cookies, sweets, calories from Molly, Paul & Judy, and an Apprentice Learning biking jersey that we'll be seeing more of in posts to come

 

Ice on the tent in the morning, but the sun coming over the mountains soon started warming me up. What especially helped was taking a 25 minute hot shower to begin the day (I think I got my money's worth to help defrost).

Returned to The Shack for a chile relleno omelette. Next stop: the P.O., then the grocery store to get some fruit and frozen burritos for lunch.

Painter Eric from Steamboat at the P.O. who offered me a place to stay if I needed it. I shared some cookies with him as a thank you for another time

Finally hitting the road, I made my way up the valley past lots of new homes in former grazing land.  Is it me, or do the new homes not fit in as well with the rural architecture and landscape?

On the road out of Steamboat Springs

Development is very active in SS and environs.  The once open fields are getting filled in with new housing

Looked like one of the more established farms in the area

Modern juxtaposed with rural architecture. Why does one seem more harmonious with the landscape. What say you?

Eventually the paved road turned to gravel and wound its way up to an area called Stagecoach (might be a town?) that seems to have several villages, one of which cropped up facing a reservoir fed by the Yampa River which was the same river that passed thru the KOA.

From there we (referring to myself in the royal we) kept climbing towards Lynx Pass at what was about 9,000 ft. The road stayed up high: there were not a lot of water sources to speak of which is a prerequisite for calling it a day, so I pushed on. The expected reward of a long downhill into Radium never arrived as the downhill included lots of steep ups and downs which was frustrating for tired legs.  At times, when I get to a pass and finish a long climb, I feel like my legs head for the locker room believing their work is done. The late-in-the-day uphills are tough, and it takes a lot of coaxing to generate uphill power after 50 miles.

Climbing up through high valley towards Lynx Pass

Always fun to look back and see where I have come from

Old Stagecoach Station

My trail notes pointed out a creek where dispersed camping could be found. While descending to that point, I rounded a corner only to have a huge cow moose take off in front of me trotting down the road before disappearing into the aspen. Around another corner I saw a black bear cub (no more than two feet tip to tail) cross the road in front of me. Stopping the bike, I called out to let mama bear know I was there, but then figured she probably crossed the trail first. I rolled down to the crossing point and they had vanished. Looked like it might have been a good camping spot, but not tonight with bears in the area.

After more ups and downs I came to an overlook with a spectacular view but also with sheer drops. A good time to have working brakes.

Straight downhill to the little road below

Light is fading with eight miles to go to Radium

It was getting late in the day and the shadows were long. With a half-liter of water I knew I had to make the next town, river, whatever. Again, what I thought could have been an easy descent to Radium started climbing again (what the heck, although I confess I was not being so vocally polite). After that climb I could see Radium along the Colorado River and rolled over the river bridge to get to a campground where, lo and behold, there was TJ and he'd commandeered a picnic table. Now dusk, I filtered four liters from the river, made some dinner, set up the tent before it became pitch dark.

Having occasion to get up several times during the night, the half moon was brilliant and lit up the valley/gorge where we camped.