Thursday, August 7, 2008

Day 6--Kremmling to Silverthorne

Before I forget...best sign seen this week was at the dining room of the Saratoga Inn...

"Unaccompanied children will be given a shot of espresso and a free puppy"

Day 6: Kremmling to Silverthorne, 52 miles
Monday, 8/18/2008


Another fun day on the Divide ride. We started again with chilly conditions in a dense fog, but it burned off within the first hour of our ride. We took a dirt road out of Kremmling (CO 33) east along the Colorado River (near its headwaters, so not as major as the river that eventually carves the Grand Canyon.) This road then turns south, and for the next 20 miles we pedalled gradually uphill through a broad basin known as Middle Park, riding around Williams Fork Resevoir.

That brought us to our second of three 'named' climbs on our route...Ute Pass. We rode past a horribly ugly (and active) molybdenum mine. This mine scars the landscape along the ride in many ways...from the ugly dam that contains a huge tailings lake, to the ugly huge building housing the entrance to the mine, to the stench we had to endure riding near the mine. However, it is hard to complain too loudly about this considering that the bikes we were riding are largely composed of molybdenum-hardened steel!


4.5 miles of steep, paved, and non-trafficy uphill brought us to a thrilling downhill...also paved, so we could let our bikes fly down the pass. The view from the top (and along the descent) was spectacular.

We had an interesting stop on the drop...Mom was in the lead, and she was flagged down by a motorist on a pullout. He had been watching a black bear (a real bear, not a cow bear like I saw on day 1.) Mom waved down me and Richie, and we saw it briefly, before it moved back into the trees. Mom unfortunately never saw it, but the motorist had snapped some pics, so she saw it on his camera screen.

The day ended with probably the worst stretch of congestion and traffic on the entire route from Canada to Mexico...10 miles along CO route 9 into Silverthorne. Thankfully there was a good shoulder, but it is not a fun stretch of road with cars and trucks zooming by.

All along the ride we have witnessed the problem CO is facing with the pine beetle. These bugs infest pine trees and quickly kill them. This problem has been evident all ride, but today was the worst. We saw entire mountainsides that were covered with dead trees. It is sad to witness, and hard to imagine what the solution is.

Two more days to Salida! Tomorrow is our first crossing of the Continental Divide.

I didn't take many photos this day, so Link to short Day 6 Album:

Click here to open Day 6 album in a new window


Click View Elevation button to open full size interactive Day 6 map

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