June 10, Day 35, Silverthorne Colorado - 60 miles

The only place to eat in Hot Sulfur Springs is a cafe called the Glory Hole. I walked in at the stroke of 7 AM and was surprised to see the place was packed. A group of cyclists and their support staff from Sweden were in Colorado to do some training in the Rockies. They  were all very nice people and most spoke English(I don't speak Swedish). They also had the odd habit of taking a picture of their food. There were probably 25 of them in the restaurant all together and not one of them was overweight. They must wonder what the hell is going on over here in America.

Riding with the Colorado River

I rolled outta town and joined the Colorado River and a set of train tracks set up against the steep walls of a canyon. The legs felt surprisingly fresh and lively and I guess I would have to credit the hot springs for that! The first 18 miles today finished the remaining gradual descent in a westbound direction down into the town of Kremling. It was a little odd biking toward California for 18 miles when Virginia is in the opposite direction! I corrected things with a southbound turn in Kremling and all was right again. After that it was 42 miles of gradual incline in the Arapaho National Forrest up to the the town of Silverthorne at about 8800 feet of elevation.

I had a couple of scary moments today along a section of elevated roadway which was winding around and above a lake. Road crews had closed one lane of traffic and were alternating the vehicle flow. When my turn came to go I got caught in a narrow gully with no room to go in either direction and a big rig was barring down on me. As he tried to get past me the roadway edge I was riding disappeared and became loose, deep gravel. My front wheel dug into the gravel as I braked frantically to stop, but all it did was cause my front tire to pull right and into the guardrail, which was the only thing keeping me from plummeting 75 feet down the cliff. I leaned my right thigh out into the guardrail and came to a stop. Not funny.

Coming into Kremling

An hour later I was going through a short but winding section of climb. A motorcycle coming from the opposite direction was going way too fast, caught the turn wide and was coming right me. He leaned hard right and I leaned hard right and we missed by each other by about two feet. I have had relatively few close calls so far and consider myself lucky. Some days it happens.

Entering Arapaho Nat'l Forrest

I reached the town of Silverthorne just as the forecasted dark storm clouds formed overhead. The weather had been picture perfect all day up until that time and I have been told by locals that PM Thunder storms are a common occurrence at this altitude, which was about 8,800 to 8,900 feet, depending on what part of town you were in. Silverthorne is a prominent winter resort destination, but they pull out all the stops to lure crowds here during the summer, which according to the hotel lobby guy is about two months long.

With views like the one below, I have decided to take a sight seeing day tomorrow. The bike stays in the room and gets a good chain lubing.

Mountain in Silverthorne