Day 55 Kremmling to Denver Creek Campground 6/30/14 “The Ancient Ones”

Stats

Location: Colorado
Miles: 38.04
Calories: 3,618
Top speed: 28.3
Average speed: 8.5
Elevation: 8,532

Leaving the Kremmling RV park we stopped at a local diner for breakfast as we didn’t have any breakfast food left. The food was good, the coffee was hot and plentiful, no complaints. At the diner we met two other cyclists who were riding the Great Divide (a mountain bike route that runs from Canada to Mexico). Another fellow in the diner was walking the Great Divide. He spoke of his encounter with moose and a grizzly bear.  He had to wait while the moose and bear left the area before he could proceed. We also met a nice family, father and two young sons. I gave them my card so they could follow the blog over the summer.

We had a nice straight road and a tailwind for perhaps 10 miles, it was wonderful. Up ahead I saw a truck and a fellow waiting by the truck, he flagged me down. I stopped and I met John and son Ben. They had just returned from a mountain bike ride and had a bag full of “shot blocks”, Via coffee, and other electrolyte goodies. They were so kind and generous they offered the bag to us. It was needed as we were running low on emergency electrolytes which we need when we “run out of steam”. THANKS JOHN & BEN!!!!

The road turned left and the sign said we were entering “Windy Gap”. The sign didn’t lie, it was windy and it was a gap between two mountains which meant…head wind.  Soon we saw a sign for the head waters of the Colorado River.

A few more miles down the road we arrived at an amazing canyon with unique rock formations.

Entering the canyon I felt a sense of deep respect for the ancient rocks. The cliffs were old and weathered by a million year. Tall pinnacles stood as if they were watching my every move. I should enter and leave quietly, as not to anger the ancient ones, the grandfathers, that watch over all who enter.

Occasionally cars would disrupt the silence and soon a train whistle rattled through the canyon followed by a slow-moving train carrying coal.

Note how small our bikes look compared to the rocks

The train and cars passed. I continued to move with respect through canyon for it was surely a sacred place. As I left the canyon I thanked the ancient ones for allowing me to view its beauty.

We made our way to Hot Sulfur Springs. We did not partake of the springs but I did partake of an ice cream and Lisa had lunch. The road continued and so did the wind, a headwind. We were hoping to make close to 50 miles today but the wind would not let us meet our goal.

We climbed the mountain and finally sought refuge in a forest service campground just off the road. We were the only ones in the campground so it was a bit eerie. A sign informed us it was bear country so we decided not to cook a meal as we did not want to attract any hungry bears. For me dinner was the remnants of potato chips, a can of clams, which I ate 2 campsites away from ours, and a snacksize box of cranberries. Sounds horrible but it was all I had with me. Grocery stores have been hard to come by but our main concern was a lack of water. We had filled our water bottles before we left Kremmling but there had been no place to refill. The campsite did have a water pump but a sign said, “Not potable, water being tested”. We set up camp, ate what we had, used the non-potable water to wash up, put our food, lotions, and anything smelly in panniers and stored them in the nearby bathroom just in case we had a visit from a bear we didn’t want any food in camp.  As soon as the sun went behind the mountain  it got cold. I thought I was prepared, I put on kickers, wool tights, 2 pair of wool socks, 2 long sleeve shirts, a cycling vest and my cycling jacket. Around 3 or 4 am I awoke cold. The next few hours I spent trying to sleep while feeling the chill of the air surround me.

….I’ll keep you posted.