Wednesday morning we headed across the street to a cafe and coffee shop and had excellent breakfast burritos then headed to the garage to pack our bikes. We met the four Nashville guys and the couple from Arizona. Of the four Nashville guys, one actually lives here in Utah now and has for many years. They took off before us, but we met them again about two miles outside town where we picked up the Great Divide Route again. One of them was fiddling with his bike, so we continued on.
We wound through Silverthorne on bike paths, then up steep switchbacks on the dam to the top and Dillon Reservoir. There was a beautiful bike path along the shores of the reservoir all the way to a campground (Heaton Bay) where we planned to stay the night.
We arrived with Jonathon and scouted out a site. There was a tent camping area so we headed over there, found what appeared to be an empty site and took a rest. We talked it over with Jonathon (the one from Utah) and he invited us to camp with them. As the other guys rolled in during the next hour or so, we discovered that all the sites were reserved for the night. Luckily we ran into a woman who was lounging in a hammock in one site. She said she always sleeps in her truck and said we could move into her site once she finished her dinner. It was very kind of her to allow us to use her site. It was pretty site in the pines close to the shore of the reservoir. Of course, that meant mosquitos.
It was nice to not have to cook and we enjoyed a delicious charcuterie dinner.
That night Brian kept us enthralled with stories about riding the Great Divide Route and the Colorado Trail. And he had some good stories, many of them about trail angels feeding and housing him along the way. We really enjoyed getting to know the Nashville guys and were really glad to be able to camp with them.
We really enjoyed three days on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. We were surprised that the dirt roads were so nicely graded and smooth. They were a mix of county roads and forest service roads. Brian assured us that most of the Great Divide Route was like that, pretty smooth dirt roads. No wonder so many people ride it on drop bar gravel bikes. Both Dwight and Jonathon were on Salsa Cutthroats. My Rivendell handled it all really well and was quite comfortable. Lars had 41mm Surly Extraterrestials on his Bridge Club and they were fine as well. Brian also told us that the section we rode was probably the most populated of the whole route. But it was really beautiful country and the riding was great.
Day 3 totals: 57.3 miles, 3960′ elevation gain, 2309′ elevation loss.
We slept well and left camp about 8:00 am. Our Nashville friends would be turning south in a few miles to continue on the Great Divide Route to Salida, so we said our good-byes. The bike path was really nice and before long we were in the town of Frisco riding down Main Street which was turned into a pedestrian-only way. There are lots of tourists in Colorado and they were milling about all over. Once through town, we were back on very scenic bike paths through the mountains. Colorado seems to be very bike friendly. In fact, there is a bike path that parallels I-70 from Glenwood Springs to Denver, 200 miles! I have seen this path many, many times driving to Denver and always wanted to ride it, at least some parts of it. The path paralleled Ten Mile Creek, which I read has decent fishing. About five miles outside town, we pulled over to fish a bit. Pretty quickly I had a good hit, and it was a nice looking fish, but I didn’t get a good set and it was off. We spent about 35-minutes fishing but didn’t catch anything. It was still nice to walk around in a beautiful creek in the mountains.
The riding was very pleasant. Even though I-70 was not far away, we seldom saw or heard the traffic. We were quite a bit lower than the highway, and usually riding along creeks. After about 10 miles of riding we passed through the ski resort Copper Mountain, and began climbing up toward Vail Pass (10,666′). We were now riding along Black Gore Creek, another potential fishing spot I had read about when researching this trip. We found a nice looking part of the creek, pulled over and rigged up. The water was pretty cold. The fishing wasn’t too fast. I caught three smallish Brook trout (6-8″), Lars had some strikes but didn’t net any. We fished for about an hour and had a good time. We then continued on up the path, which got steeper the closer we got to the top. We were surprised how many cyclists were on the path. Most were tourists on rental e-bikes, but there were also quite a few roadies on sleek road bikes powering up the grade. Lars actually passed a few of these guys, on his loaded bike.
At the top of Vail Pass, we met a couple brothers from Baton Rouge on road bikes. They were in Colorado for vacation, riding Vail Pass. They were both on sleek, high end carbon road bikes. They were incredulous that we were riding platform pedals, thought we were kind of crazy. And that we were riding loaded bikes up this pass. But it wasn’t too bad. We’ve certainly ridden much more difficult and long climbs. We chatted for a bit, then began the descent. It was fast and smooth. On our loaded bikes we even passed a few roadies all tucked aero style. That was pretty fun, us with our loaded bikes, baggy shorts, shirts flappy in the wind. We bombed down into the very touristy and crowded Vail. Once we got to Vail, Lars informed me that his knee was really sore, and he was worried about it. About a week before this trip, Lars bashed his knee rock climbing and it hadn’t healed up much. We had hoped for the best but it was getting worse. Lars is not one to complain, so whenever I would ask him about it, he would mutter that it was sore, but fine. So we talked about options. He wasn’t about to quit, but he also was worried he was damaging his knee. We pulled out the maps and looked at ways to shorten our mileage. The problem was that we were at the bottom of our loop. The shortest way back to Steamboat Springs was still nearly 100 miles, which isn’t that much on good legs. We also discovered that our original route, continuing down the I-70 bike path a few miles past the city of Eagle wasn’t going to work out anyway. A few weeks ago there was a big mudslide that covered I-70 near Glenwood Springs and Google Maps was telling us that the highway was blocked off just past Eagle. So our next option would be to turn North at Wolcott (a tiny community with no services). On our maps, we found a BLM campground along the Eagle River just a couple miles past the junction of Highway 131 (the road to Steamboat). That was our new objective. We bought some overpriced deli sandwiches, found a bench, and had a lunch. After lunch and rest, we continued on down the bike path, which unfortunately led us right down the main street in Vail which was swarming with tourists. Before long we were back on nice bike paths along the Eagle River.
There were times the bike path spit us out onto a frontage road or less traveled country road. In the town of Edwards we stopped at a gas station to get some things. While there a guy rolled up on a janky bike. He was homeless, no shoes, completely out of water. I bought him some bottled water, and he asked if he could follow us out to the campground. We rode together the last 10 miles or so to the campsite and we invited him to camp with us. He was trying to get to California. James was from the Denver area, and from what we could tell had been homeless for a couple years. I still had half of my sandwich from dinner and some chips and gave them to him. He was hungry and grateful. I told him what the road ahead looked like, and the formidable desert he would have to cross from Grand Junction into Utah. I encouraged him to try to hitch a ride through that section. I gave him what cash I had as well. Lars also took one of his bottle cages off his bike, mounted it on James’ and gave him one of his bike bottles. He was really grateful for that.
We headed down to the Eagle River and swam and cleaned up, then had dinner. We set up camp, went for walk, chatted with James, then went to bed.
Day 4 totals: 56.9 miles, 1924′ elevation gain, 4328′ elevation loss
Into the Outdoors 