Day 32- Steamboat Springs

I had a very good sleep inside the lodge overnight. I could tell it was pretty cold outside when I checked on the bike. There were a bunch of rascal chipmunks terrorizing the place, and Kiersten warned us to not leave any food in any of the bags on the bike overnight, otherwise these devils would find a way to get it. Last night, when I was comfortably sitting, drinking chocolate milk, coke, and beer, one of them boldly started to lick the salt off my leg. 🧐. Peter, who decided to camp outside confirmed that it had been pretty cold. $25 well spent I felt.

Kirsten had cooked up eggs, sausage, and blueberry pancakes for all. Of course many of us went back for seconds. It would have been easy to lounge around longer or stay an extra day, but this was the day I would see Linda and Blue in Steamboat! There was a long steep climb ahead across another Divide pass. Hike-a-bike was guaranteed, and the descent on the other side was notoriously rocky. I was the first one leaving the lodge and got a big goodbye hug from Kiersten. She seems to really enjoy the company of guests she gets each day, and spends a good amount of chatting to get to know everyone.

I felt pretty good on the bike today and tried to up the pace a bit. Maybe my biking legs were finally showing up after a month? Finally, after about 15 miles, Matt, the Tour Divide racer pulled up to me and mentioned that I had been hard to catch. I am sure he was just being nice to a senior citizen 😏. We rode and talked for a while in our “breakaway group” before the rest of the fast riders in the “peloton” caught us. I told them to keep going, since the first hike-a-bike section was just ahead.

Even Tour Divide riders have to hike-a-bike every so often (pic compliments from Peter)

The trail surface going up was more sandy than rocky, and it was difficult to get good traction with your tires or feet walking. Finally I reached the top and got ready for the rocky downhill. In fact, it would be downhill all the way to Steamboat Springs. Just this long section was a lot more technical with rocks that were for the most part firmly implanted in the surface. You basically had to slalom around the deadly stuff and get rattled by the smaller rocks. This was the ultimate test of your bike, equipment, and you as a mountain bike rider. It was very tiring, but I (and the bike) survived it in the end. The rest of the route was mainly on pavement with nice curvy downhill sections through the rural area. I still played it safe, not wanting to wash the bike out in a curve with loose sand/rock on the pavement below.

Rocky descent.

I pulled up to the “Clark store” which was right on the corner of the main road leading to Steamboat. The rest of the peloton was already inside and had placed their lunch orders. It was a really nice store/deli with lots of stuff, but the staff seemed very unorganized and it took a lot of time to get our food. It was Saturday, so there were many other tourists visiting the place for lunch too. The rest of the group got distracted by the ice cream bar, so I decided to make a second “break away” attempt, while they googling over the many flavors of ice cream available.

As I mentioned, the rest of the route was also downhill, although a bit more tame now. I felt good in the legs, so I wanted to make this count. My bike is setup for rough terrain, and not road surface, but I didn’t care. It did take a bit longer, but I was finally caught by the speeding peloton in a pace line in my rear view mirror, with Matt pulling the group. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I hooked on the back of that train as we made good time towards Steamboat. There was not much of a shoulder on that two lane road, but still a lot of traffic. Still, pretty much everyone was courteous, and waited to pass us when it was safe. We always waved when they waited to pass, and they did the same. Obviously we were getting closer to an active outdoors oriented town, with many of these drivers bring cyclists themselves, or used to sharing the road with them. Matt eventually pulled off to a parking area where he had left his car the previous day to bike up to Brush Mountain Lodge. The pace of our peloton slackened quite a bit afterwards.

Mike had an appointment at one of these bike (and ski) stores I was familiar with to have his bike boxed up to fly back home. Peter needed the same service, so I just told the group to follow me to the shop. We rolled onto Main Street in Steamboat and were at the bike shop in just a few minutes. Mike and Peter made arrangements for the bike boxes, while Jaime and I made arrangements to have our bikes checked over. Our daughter, Kate, had ordered a new rear tire for my bike that Linda would bring, along with a new chain. The shop was also open tomorrow on Sunday which was great!

Peter had arrangements to camp in the yard of someone that lives in Steamboat, and that happened to be only a couple blocks from the shop. I had seen a Facebook post by this person offering to that for any GDMBR’er coming through. One good thing about FB! Peter is not on any Social media, so I shared this with him a few days earlier. Steamboat can be an expensive place, especially during ski season, so this was great for him to stay there a few days while he rearranged his travel plans back to the UK where he lives with his wife.

I rode to the “Rabbit Ears” motel where I would meet Linda and Blue later. They gave us a room that was easier to keep the bike and had a wonderful rear view and access to the Yampa River behind. Linda drove into the parking lot literally minutes after I had checked in. It was so wonderful to see her and Blue! She has been so good about encouraging me about this trip and giving positive support along the way. I am very lucky, because I know that isn’t the same for all who do this ride…

My heroes!

I returned back to the bike shop with a “naked” bike sans all the luggage that was strapped on earlier. I had a new tire and a new, freshly waxed chain in hand. The shop was great about accepting my replacement parts, especially since they didn’t carry my brand of tire. I asked that they check everything over, especially the brakes since they have been used heavily this last month. No problem they said and the bike should be ready for pickup tomorrow, Sunday.

Linda, Blue, and I walked around town a bit afterwards, looking for a good place to eat dinner outside on a patio since we had Blue with us. One of our favorite restaurants in Steamboat is called Mambo’s and they have a small outdoor section. Linda checked in availability, but unfortunately said they don’t allow pets there. However, they were helpful in recommending a sister restaurant called “Yampa Valley Kitchen” where pets were allowed on their patio. I like when they offer an alternative instead of just saying “No”.

That restaurant was very nice and we enjoyed or meals and waitress enough to make reservations for tomorrow night as well. I invited Peter to join us as well, so Linda could personally meet someone else who I have done part of the trip with.

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