Day 55: Kremmling, CO to Walden, CO (79 miles, 2588 total)

We spent the better part of last night and this morning discussing the route options to Walden. Adventure Cycling recently changed the route in favor of one 17 miles longer than the previous. We know that AC never changes the route without good reason, but some of our cycling buddies have maps with the old version of the route even though they had purchased their maps recently. Asking around, we did a little research on our options. Two different sources recommended the newer, longer route for reasons of traffic and scenery. In the end, Dale, Sid, AK and I all opted for the longer, newer route while Shawn decided to try the old route. Paul and Annemeike decided to take a rest day in Kremmling.

We rolled out just before 8AM, ahead of everybody else. We made quick work through an amazing canyon to arrive in Hot Sulphur Springs and stopped in for a much needed breakfast #2. The County Seat Cafe was worth the stop. Powered up, we moved on.

Seven miles after Hot Sulphur Springs, we turned north on state road 125 towards our third mountain pass of the trip. About 100 yards up the road, we were greeted by a sign that warned us we were in moose country. Excited to see one, both AK and I scanned our picturesque scenery looking for anything moose-like.

Finally, I spotted one standing in Willow Creek. It was a female and she looked like a huge deer. I stopped, hoping to have AK see her too. She looked at me and bolted. The sound of her sprinting through the creek was much louder than I ever thought it would be. Unfortunately, AK never did get a good look at her.

At noon, we were about 12 miles from the pass and a dark cloud loomed on the horizon above the pass. Knowing that lightening over mountain passes can be extremely dangerous, we decided to duck into Sawmill Gulch Campground to wait it out.

The campground offered some cool campsites, so we picked one by the creek and waited. Plus, the campground had a jerk-water pump that we had to try out. After about 45 minutes, the skies looked clear enough to go on, so we did.

Two miles up the road, the clouds looked worse. We were right near Denver Creek Campground, so we ducked in again. We asked a campground host what he thought about the storm clouds. "Nah, it doesn't look like they have any lightening in them." That sounded good, until the guy almost lost all credibility when he told us he has never driven the 9 miles up the road over the pass. Then about a minute and a half later, he lost all credibility when a flash of lightening ripped through the sky.

AK and I ran for cover. We tossed the bikes under a tree, grabbed our green dragon tarp, and headed for a spot we thought would be safe. We sat on an edge of the tarp and pulled the rest over us and the sky opened up. Rain turned to hail which turned to rain, and so on. Thunder seemed to crash all around us, and at one particular time it was so close that it really startled us. After about 30 minutes, it let up enough to peel back the tarp.

The skies still looked bad over the pass, so we continued to wait. Sun broke through and we rolled the bikes out to dry out. AK laid back to take a nap and I wandered around the campsite to explore. A swift creek ran right behind the site we picked, and I wandered down to check it out.

Something in the water looked odd, and on closer inspection I discovered it was... BEER! To be exact, there were 8 bottles of beer and one bottle of hard limeade sitting perfectly chilled in the creek. Knowing that it was most likely left by a 4th of July camper, I took a bottle out of the creek, opened it, and took a sip. It was good. I strolled back up to the campsite and told a semi-sleeping AK that I love this campsite. She opened her eyes and to her surprise I was drinking a beer. After telling her the story of my beverage, we noted that we best get back to taking cover as the skies were turning dark again.

This time we rigged up a better shelter using our clothesline, the tarp, and the picnic table. I also grabbed another creek beer. This time the rain was lighter, and we were much more comfortable.

The entire time we were waiting out the storm, we were trying to keep an eye out for Sid or Dale on the road. Eventually, AK spotted Dale and chased him down to get him to join us (he had already seen us though). Soon Dale was sitting with us drinking a hard limeade as the skies were clearing.

After hiding from the weather between the hours of 1PM and 4:30PM, we finally got back on the road as Sid was arriving. He had missed the really bad weather (as did Dale) and was planning on staying the night in the Denver Creek Campground. We recommended campsite #11 because of the superb beverage service.

From there, Dale, AK and I biked 9 miles surrounded in beauty to the top of the pass. The Willow Creek snaked back and forth near us and rocks and trees jutted into the sky. Soon we arrived at Willow Creek Pass at 9683 feet, and crossed the Continental Divide yet again. We are now back on the Atlantic Watershed side, so we will obviously be crossing it at least once more. I took the oppurtunity to pee on the Continenal Divide; prior to today, I had never peed in two oceans at the same time.

Our maps had us believing that the trip down to Walden through Rand would be all downhill. We we were wrong. There were a lot of uphill sections mixed in with our downhill ride.

At 6:30PM, we arrived in Rand were everthing was closed. We were still 22 miles from Walden and we were losing daylight fast. We shoveled down some snacks and began to race the setting sun and mosquitos to Walden.

On the way I spotted a seagull eating roadkill (I really don't like those birds, even this far inland), nearly got run over by a deer, and scored a nose bleed from the arid climate. Meanwhile, AK's back hurt, Dale fell behind, and we were all hungry.

Finally we arrived in Walden ("The Moose Viewing Capital of Colorado") at about 8PM. Exhausted, the three of us decided to share a motel room. That is when we learned that the reason Dale had fallen behind was because he decided to do a "naked mile" which actually turned into 5.

We quickly dashed over to get dinner before the place closed. We were joined by Jonathan, another cyclist who is camping in the city park with Shawn tonight.

Now we are all exhausted and plan to sleep in until 7 tomorrow. We will enter Wyoming tomorrow and are told to expect some serious ghost towns with almost no traffic (and lots of mosquitos). It should be interesting. Perhaps Dale could do a "naked state".

Jeff