Day 16: Kremmling

A good start in the day was the breakfast at 5:30 am in the motel. Like many other days before the Divide seemed to be having mercy with my done legs. It was easy rolling out of Steamboat to get the whole body on temperature. The first 20 miles to Stagecoach State Park went quickly by. The first steep climb along the Yampa River led up to the Stagecoach reservoir. I crossed the dam and the gravel road guided me to a nice single trail following the shore of the huge lake. Boots with very relaxed looking people were floating on the water. Colorado turned more and more into a nasty state. While I was looking how to survive the next day all other people seemed to be on vacation. Of course, I was on vacation too, but normally my vacation looked a little bit different and more relaxing. 

The 15 mile ascent to Lynx Pass was really moderate and not steep at all. I lost some air in my front tire. Fortunately I was running a tubeless setup so the problem was done with some air blasts from the pump. The next what I lost was my track on the GPS. First I thought I missed a turned once again. Unfortunately I couldn’t ask Thomas, because he was already some minutes ahead. I scrolled down the map and saw no track. Only after a reboot of my GPS the track was visible again and more important - I was still on track!

I was using the relatively new Oregon 600 and like all Garmin users know – the customer is always the tester. During the whole Tour Divide this new device made some monkey business from time to time. But just in case I had a spare GPS in my backpack.

As I crested the top of Lynx Pass I took a break at an outhouse just right behind the Pass. A sandwich and a corn bar should substitute some of the lost energy. There was not really a downhill after the Pass and the clouds got this dark looking complexion again. I crossed a paved road and 10 minutes later I stopped at the Rock Creek. The first lightning strikes were cutting through the muggy air. The cue sheets stated: If crossing the stream without any danger is not possible it would be permitted to take a detour. What does without any danger mean? On the first view I didn’t see any spot where the water was as shallow as someone with a full loaded bike would be able to ride through. I estimated the depth to approximately 3 feet. Walking with the bike lifted over the head and not riding through the river was possible for sure (Thomas told me some days later it was less than a knee deep). But in the face of the ongoing thunderbolts I decided to take the detour. Well, backtracking to the road I’ve crossed some minutes before and following the pavement until I came back to the original route.

After I hit the main route the all day “retching” started over again. Countless smaller up and downs on this new section of the Divide route. Some really steep climbs on bumpy and rough terrain slowed me down. With the thunderstorm in the neck I had to push my bike several times. As I got to the top the sky behind me was nearly black. I looked into a valley where the Colorado River meandered through. I heard the typical sound of a train and saw deep down the long monster was crossing the valley. My noisy brakes told me that the downhill was steep and bumpy. At least since this downhill and with two-thirds of the route in my mind I thought by myself that going northbound on the Tour Divide Mountain Bike Route would be definitely the more challenging version.

Radium was just a collection of some houses at the riverside of the big Colorado River with no service at all. The rail road was following the shoreline of the huge river. It seemed with the downhill I was able to shake off the thunderstorm. Of course, for the climb out of Radium the sun left the cover of the clouds and heated up the pavement of the moderate climbing road. I guessed the half day off in Steamboat yesterday was not really productive. My legs just reluctantly did their work. I had to get off my bike and was pushing for half a mile.

After a downhill I hit the accent to the Inspiration Point over Gore Canyon. The wind or better said the storm that came directly from the dark looking clouds in front of me pressed me from the street. This was the overkill for my legs. Riding wasn’t possible anymore. In the short breaks where the wind stopped blowing I tried to make as much way as possible on my bike.

Inspiration Point was an overlook with a breathtaking view into Gore Canyon. Deep down of these majestic walls the Colorado River traversed by the spectacular rail road with its tunnels was still shaping the Canyon. The wind took turns with the rain. As I crest the top of the Watershed Divide I took cover under a fir tree and put my rain jacket on and skirted the rain cover over my backpack. But after one or two miles on the road the rain passed away again. My legs said no for getting the additional 50 miles to Silverthorne today. The windy intermezzo from the last hour ago had killed it. It was 5:00 pm as I stopped at a supermarket in Kremmling. Not really a time to check into a motel. I just checked the option for having a camp just 10 miles ahead, but I preferred a bed instead a narrow sleeping pad and with an early start tomorrow I would be able to catch up the lost time for the camp. After I bought something for breakfast and did a full resupply I checked in a motel. Thomas was on the way to Silverthorne. I just wrote him a SMS to tell him that I am a flabby pussy without enough power in my legs to follow him. And I think I don’t need to mention that I thought about quitting the race again.    

Gore Canyon

Kremmling