Epic Bike Ride Day 26 June 22
Thoughts from Mark: An interesting day that took a couple of twists and turns. I rode into Steamboat Springs, where I had breakfast with Kelly, but she wasn’t feeling great, so she didn’t eat. Then, we agreed that I would ride on, while she did laundry, and a bit of grocery shopping. We agreed to meet in Clark, which was about 20-ish miles away. I rode through very pretty canyons and meadow areas, and soon came to Clark, which had a post office/grocery store/ice cream place all in the same building. As I rolled in, I saw Santa Fe Brian sitting on the deck, along with another northbound rider, Alex. I hung out with them, and waited for Kelly. A short time later, two southbound riders showed up, and they began telling stories of their journey. They were riding extremely fast/hard, often racking up 100 mile days. They both said they were stopping the ride in Steamboat Springs, as they had to go back to work. As they left, another northbound rider, Lane from Wyoming (or maybe Montana, I don’t remember - sorry Lane) showed up. Eventually, Kelly showed up, and I began riding again. Brian, Alex, and Lane all said they were going to try to make it to the Brush Mountain Lodge tonight, saying it was an amazing place with a great host who cooks delicious meals, and there are showers! I decided this would be my goal, too, as it was about 30 miles away, but with 3,500 more feet of climbing.
I set out to ride to Brush Mountain Lodge, and the first few miles had some very significant climbing. I wasn’t feeling super strong, so these climbs were kicking my tail. Eventually, I turned onto the road which led to the Lodge, but it was still 15 or so miles away. As I rode up this rutted out road, I came to a closed gate, saying vehicles were prohibited. Kelly was behind me, and we talked about what to do. I didn’t want her to have to drive back down the road, and figure out another way to get there (who knows if the other roads back to another section of this road would be closed, and we didn’t want to be separated for the night). We decided to ride back down this road, and take the “Columbine Alternate” section of the map. As we got to the first intersection, we met a couple, Jim and Mary, who were locals out for a bike ride. We chatted for a bit, and they asked all kinds of questions about my ride. We have been lucky to meet so many nice people, who are genuinely interested in the ride!
I rode on, and eventually we found a dispersed camping area, where we stopped for the night. Kelly cooked another great dinner for us, and as we were eating, I saw an animal out of the corner of my eye. As I focused in on it, all I could see was a brief flash of the rear end. It was such a fast glimpse I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but I thought it was either an elk, or even a bear. About 15 minutes later, after my mind was racing with bear thoughts, it moved into a clearer position, and I could see it was an elk. This was a huge relief!
Thoughts from Kelly: We desperately needed to do laundry, so as Mark rode to Clark I found a laundry mat and did some grocery shopping. I was a bit nervous about being split up after last nights debacle but I had to put on my big girl panties and be brave. I met some interesting people while doing laundry and had some fun conversations about different parts of the country. The laundry took forever but luckily, Mark and I both had cell service so we were able to keep tabs on each other. I found my way to Clark and enjoyed to the cool post office/grocery store/ice cream parlor/restaurant that was in a very historic building. We hit the road again and eventually came to a spot where the road was closed. Contemplating being split up again was a bit daunting so we decided to turn around and take an alternate route that the cycling map provided. This really sucked because Mark was really looking forward to meeting fellow riders at a lodge along that route. The alternate route was nice and we found a beautiful spot to camp high above a river with some animals to watch.
Miles for the day: 55.37 Feet climbed today: 3,912
Total miles ridden: 1,171.32 Total feet climbed: 80,860