Day 37 - Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park to Boulder (August 12)

Bringing it home?

This will be my last post for at least 2 weeks (until September 5 or September 6), because I will pause here in Boulder for a couple of weeks to recover and to plan for the next stage of my trip.

On this day, an early start got me out of Estes Park before the traffic got too thick. Five miles of climbing and the rest was downhill, except for Pinewood Springs.

I stopped in Lyons to rest. There I met a bike messenger who was riding a one-gear (not fixed) mountain bike with a trailer. He rides as a bike messenger in Chicago, but he started his bike tour in Santa Ana, California. Touring is a way for him to stay active and outdoors.

Along the way, he had run into a rock n' roll drummer who was bike touring in the Mojave desert who had to be airlifted out because of a heart attack. This guy didn't have a dime to his name, yet he kept riding.

My destination today was my friend Stephen's house in Boulder. But I stopped at a triathlon he was working at first. On my way from the triathlon, I ran into a professional triathlete, Cameron Widoff, who finished third in the tritahlon. I first heard of Cameron when I did the Wildflower Triathlon in 1999. I think he came in first for that triathlon.

This is typical of Boulder. You can run into professional cyclists, kayakers, adventure racers, triathletes, etc. and just have a normal (well "normal") conversation with them. Cameron and I talked about how to minimize the amount of stuff I was carrying. As you can imagine, to go faster and get better performance, professional triathletes and cyclists try to minimize the weight of their bikes as much as possible. A touring bicycle is antithetical to a racing bike. A touring bike has a ton of extra weight. In my case, extra weight that I really didn't need. So Cameron gave me some suggestions about how to lighten the load.

Wilderness and Too Many People

When talking with Cameron, I found really one topic of conversation to be really interesting. How to find an uncrowded place to hike, camp, play. Here in Boulder and especially Estes Park, there are a ton of people. The outdoors is right nearby, but there are a lot of people out on the trails. We talked about how north of here in some of the areas I had just come through, there was uncrowded hiking to be found. Some of those very same places that I found boring and dreary have mountain ranges nearby where the crowds are much less than here in the front range of the Rocky Mountains.

Even though I saw those areas as being full of motorhomes and motorcycles, if one were to drive off the beaten path, one could find good uncrowded places to hike, camp, and play.

Day 37 - Aspenglen to Boulder - 53 Miles

Day 36 (August 11) - Timber Creek Campground to Aspenglen Campground

Where's there's population, there's tourists. Where's there's tourists, there's kitsch. Welcome to Estes Park, CO. More about the mass of humanity later...

For now, the ride:

The ride concerned me. Even though I had ridden to the campground as far up the climb as possible without actually climbing over the mountain, I was still concerned about today's ascent.

The Timber Creek Campground is locatead at the headwaters of the Colorado. So far, I have ridden by the headwaters of many important rivers: The Columbia (near Radium Hot Springs in British Columbia, Canada), The Snake (Grand Teton National Park), The Yellowstone (Yellowstone National Park, the Yellowstone leads to the Missouri), The Platte (connects with the Missouri south of Omaha, Nebraska), and now the Colorado. Some rivers flow from the parting of the waters to the Pacific, while others flow to the Atlantic.

Headwaters of the Colorado

From my campsite along the headwaters of the Columbia, I would climb to an elevation of 12,183 which was 2,000 higher than any other pass I had ridden to date.

It was suggested that I get an early start and I was on the road by 6:30 a.m. Overall the climb wasn't that bad and I kept with my planned pace - I got over the last peak by a little before 10:00 a.m. My body held up for the most part. Overall during this ride, the aches and pains have not been to bad. Maybe a few sore muscles, an IT band, and a sore derriere. I've had a low grade cold, but it didn't really stop my riding. This climb was the first time I experienced a really bad cramp - my left calf started to act up. I was able though to keep it under control for the ride.

The climb consisted of two summits. So when I went over the first summit at 12,183 feet, I then had to lose 300 feet of elevation and climb back up another steep hill to get to the second summit. Some of the road was gravel because construction was occuring. Why are construction contractors allowed to poorly maintain their construction BMPs? In a National Park?

View From the Top

Because I started my ride early, I was able to miss the bulk of the traffic and crowds. This gave me the opportunity to walk around the tundra. Above an elevation of 11,000 feet to 11,500 feet, the warmest average monthly temperature is 49 degrees. This is where the trees end and the alpine tundra begins. The alpine tundra is only a 1 foot to 3 foot layer of dirt where a fragile ecosystem of plants and mammals exists. Tundra that has been trampled by the tourist foot can take up to 1,000 years to recover.

Interesting Rock Formations at 12,000 Feet

After getting to the top, it was downhill all the way to Estes Park. My original plan was to ride onto Boulder. But, I decided to stay in the Rocky Mountain National Park instead. I stayed at the Aspenglen Campground. I got there right in time. I was actually given a "RV only" campsite because there were no other campsites.

The Rocks at Aspenglen

After I began setting in the the "RV only" campsite, Gary from Placerville, CA asked me if he could swap campsites. His kids had the adjacent campsite, but Gary's campsite was in a different part of the campground. This swap benefitted us both. Gary was able to camp next to his kids and I was able to get a better campsite that was nearer to a bear box.

View from My Campsite

After setting up the campsite, I headed to Estes Park to forage. I had emptied my bags of food as much as possible in preparation for my climb, so I needed to restock. Estes Park was a typical mass of summertime touristy humanity. There were the kids running around; the typical american tourists, a few locals, lots of traffic, people cheering as the noisy motorcylces went by. It's everything to look forward to in a mountain resort town in the month of August.

The Urban Camper

I noticed something different about the campers in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Even though I had heard from people who moved to Colorado that people were friendlier than say, California, I noticed something else. I attribute it to being near a large urban area and the type of guarded behavoir that causes in people.

When I was out in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming and Montana, and Canada, people seemed friendlier and more open to start conversations with strangers.

Now being near Denver, Colorado, a large urban area, I noticed a different way of behaving. I noticed that campers were less likely to approach me and ask me about my trip. People tended to stick to themselves similar to how people act in large urban areas. They didn't want to start a conversation with a stranger. Even though I would be able to connect with friends in the Denver area in another day when I got to my final destination, in the meantime, I couldn't connect with the strangers that were near me in the campground.

Day 36 - Timber Cr. to Aspenglen - 49 Miles

Day 35 (August 10) - Walden, CO to Timber Creek Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park

Riding the Red Forest.

The forest for this entire ride was infected by bark beetles. Some stands of trees had a few red trees (an indication of bark beetle infestation) while other stands were entirely red. Then there were other stands of trees that were mixed - some trees were aspens while others were pines. These mixed forests had red pine trees and green aspen trees.

Bark beetles typically live in these trees, but a combination of drought conditions and mild winters have created conditions that are perfect for bark beetle infestation. If there is enough rain, the pine trees are healthier and are more able to defend against beetles. Also, if it gets cold enough during a winter, the cold kills the beetles and their eggs. But lately, it has been dry and mild. It could be a possible effect of global warming or just part of the weather cycle.

As for the ride, the wind at my back, the climbing was easy…what more is there to say?

I rode of Willow Creek Pass at 9,600 something feet. It was described as a lightly traveled route. In the 50 miles it took to get to Granby, I saw only 60 or so cars. Of course, the drivers sucked and there was no shoulder, but that’s all to be expected. The ride over and down Willow Creek Pass was relatively easy, which didn’t wear me out too much for the next day’s climb.

I started early, leaving Walden at 6 p.m. It was barely light outside. There were clouds over the mountains that I would climb this morning. Some rain streamers dropped from the clouds. In some places the rain was very heavy, but I mostly stayed dry. Over the mountains, there were a few stray bolts of lightning. This concerned me some, because I didn’t really want to play lightning rod with my body and bike. When I did finally begin my ascent, the clouds had dispersed. I was hopeful that there would not be any clouds over the mountains for the next day's ride.

I arrived very early in Granby. So this gave me a little time to rest and get a bite to eat. I was only planning on riding a few more miles, maybe to a private campground within the next 14 miles. In the back of my mind, I was considering riding another 25 miles to a National Park Service campground inside Rocky Mountain National Park. I was concerned about doing this. Although, it would get me much closer to tomorrow’s climb, it would probably wear me out. And the campsites were first-come first-serve. What if I had ridden those miles and had done that climbing and there was no campsite?

Before I entered the National Park, I stopped at a private campground. The campground host said that people had made reservations months ago. It was a Friday night after all. I was a little peeved. What if a tired bicyclist needed a site. No luck!

In Granby at 11:30 a.m., I had called the park ranger and asked about the Timber Creek Campground. The ranger said if I got going, I should be able to get a campsite. I was not so certain. Based on the distance and the climbing, I thought I wouldn’t get there until 4 p.m. and surely, by 4 p.m. on a Friday night, all of the campsites would be taken.

Nevertheless, I continued on to the Timber Creek Campground, determined to try my luck at finding a campsite. And if I didn’t, well, I’d just climb over the pass. It's only 12,000 feet high.

A quick stop at the information kiosk gave me some hope. The ranger said that at 11:30 a.m., there were 39 spaces available. It was now 1:30 p.m., so I wasn’t very confident. But I continued on. Basically, I sprinted the best I could the 10 miles to the campground. It was a slight uphill and instead of arriving at 4 p.m., as I had originally planned, I actually got here shortly after 2 p.m.

I was really happy to stay at the Timber Creek Campground. The Forest Service and National Park Service campgrounds are so much nicer than the private campgrounds. Sure there are less services - no wireless internet, no cell service, no showers, no laundry, but there are nice campsites surrounded by pine trees. From time to time, a moose or a bear saunters through your campsite. A very enjoyable experience!

Day 35 - Walden to Timber Creek - 83 Miles

Day 34 - Riverside, WY to Walden, CO (August 9)

Welcome to North Park…leave your Beef Behind.

I didn’t know how much work the ride would be, so I wanted to get started early. This ride rises out of Wyoming and into what is called North Park. Before the North Park is a large valley that never seemed to end. In this valley, I entered the Red Forest (see more about it on Day 35).

As I was climbing out of Wyoming, I saw another touring cyclist going the other way. Because he was going the other way, I told him about Sheryl (Day 33). But he was only doing a 7-day tour starting in Steamboat Springs and traveling around a mountain range north of Steamboat.

So back to North Park. North Park is a large high altitude Park. It is like a “Hole”, like the Big Hole that had cycled in Montana. I don’t know what the difference is between a Park and a Hole, but I think they are both high valleys that are surrounded on all sides by mountains. The Big Hole River flows out of the Big Hole in Montana and the North Platte River flows out or through North Park.

North Park was significantly wetter than the country I had been riding in Wyoming. I know this because it was wet enough to be fly habitat. Where there are flies, there are flies that follow me as I ride.

North Park, you might ask yourself, “is that the inspiration for the show called “South Park.” Well, not exactly. There are a few parks in Colorado. From north to south: North Park (Walden, CO), Central Park (Granby, CO), and…South Park. Don’t forget Estes Park.

In Walden, I rode to my first lodging choice that night - the city park. I met the caterer for a group of college-aged cyclists from Missoula, Montana. They were doing physiological testing for the Center for Work Physiology and Excercise Metabolism at the University of Montana. They were riding long and hard and each day to see how their bodies held up. Their blood was drawn, tissue samples were taken. They were basically guinea pigs, but the if they completed the program - 2,000 miles in 22 days of riding - they would get a nice $7,000 bicycle - The Orbea Opal. Sounds like a good bargain. Where do I sign up? - oops, I’m too old or too slow or carrying too much weight.

But instead of the campsite, I decided to get a hotel room. I did this so I could rest. The next two days would consist of riding over the continental divide once each day. The first day, I would ride over the third highest pass to date and on the second date, I would ride over the highest elevation for the entire ride at more than 12,000 feet. So I wanted to be well rested for the next two days.

Day 34 - Riverside to Walden - 55 Miles

Day 33 - Rawlins, WY to Riverside, WY (August 8)

Sinclair, Sheryl, Saratoga…

I got a late start because I had only intended to ride for an easy 40 miles. It didn’t turn out as easy as I thought.

The first 20 miles were a breeze - it was at my back. I think I covered the 20 miles in a little more than an hour. At mile ten, I passed through Sinclair, WY. Have you ever seen the gas company that uses a green dinosaur as its logo? Well the Sinclair Oil Refinery is located of all places in Sinclair, WY. It is an interesting town. It has that used up company town feel to it. I wonder what happens when a toxic cloud gas has to be released in an emergency. Fortunately, the town is located up wind.

Sinclair does have interesting architecture though. Downtown there is a Spanish-style hotel. Seems really out of place, but what do I know?

The first 20 miles ended in Wolcott, a nothing little place with a Shell gas station. I was hoping for a Subway Sandwich, but no luck. There was a nice surprise, though, her name was Sheryl. She was a touring cyclist riding the TransAmerica Route (at least since Kentucky) and headed West.

When I pulled up to the gas station, I noticed a touring bike with a load of gear - surely this was a touring cyclist on a long journey, one of my people! And shortly after I set my bike down, a woman jumps out of the gas station. This was Sheryl. She had been touring for a while along the TransAmerica Route. She took a break in Denver to see friends and family. The problem was that the bulk of touring cyclists cross the Country in June and July. So, in August, there are few touring cyclists. The campground host at the campground that I stayed at this day said that he had not seen any touring cyclists for a month.

As a touring cyclist, it is nice to see (and talk to) other touring cyclists once in a while. It is nice to compare notes and experiences. Often the experiences are similar - roads, dogs, cars, camping, scenery. So, Sheryl was excited to have another touring cyclist to talk to. Of course we were going in different directions, but at least it was nice to sit, chat, and eat a 7-Eleven-style bean & cheese burrito.

I said farewell to Sheryl and went on my way to my original destination for the evening - Saratoga. The ride to Saratoga was supposed to be an easier day after my long day of riding from Lander to Rawlins (Day 31). From Rawlins to Wolcott, I was traveling east. I was actually riding on the shoulder of Interstate 80. If I kept going, I’d been in Omaha in 7 days, but I turned south. The wind was from the west, which made the first 20 miles from Rawlins to Wolcott easy, but turning south, I now had a side wind. The riding was harder. I didn’t really care because I thought that I only had a short ride.

Saratoga didn’t turn out to be the stopping place I was hoping for. I really wanted to use the high temperature hot spring - the Hobo Pool. But a visit to the only campground in town - Saratoga Lake - convinced me that I needed to keep looking. A gentlemen at the Lake said that sometime people camp at the High School. This sounded suspicious, so I stopped by City Hall and they said “no way.” You sometimes can’t rely the advice of strangers - especially those who don’t know what they are talking about!

Not finding a hotel room that I could afford, I reluctantly did the only thing there was to do - continue riding to Riverside. The problem was that I had spent so much time running around Saratoga that it was getting later in the day. In fact, it was after dinner, but I pushed on to the next town, 20 miles away - Riverside.

I’m glad that I did. The ride to Riverside was different than the rest of the day. It wasn’t just rolling sage brush. Yes the ride to Riverside still looked like riding in the Mojave Desert (with cooler temperatures), but I started to approach the mountains and the scenery became nicer.  I entered Riverside as the sun was setting.

The campground in Riverside was very nice - Lazy Acres - I almost wanted to stay for a while.

At Lazy Acres, I met a motorcycle rider who had just ridden 26 mountain passes (mostly in Colorado, I think) in 26 days. He said it was exhausting. I can imagine!

Day 33 - Rawlins to Riverside - 72 Miles