July 11, 2006
Day 40: Breckenridge, CO to Kremmling, CO
61.21 Miles, 4:53:30 Ride Time, 12.95 Average Speed, 36.3 Maximum Speed
I was very tired this morning, and I had the hardest time in weeks getting ready to ride. I seemed to be doing everything in slow motion - was it the higher altitude?
The first eight miles out of town were on a nice paved bike path - a very scenic, pleasant ride along the Blue River, with views of the mountains. Much of it ran parallel to SR 9, and I was glad I had a peaceful alternative to that busy road.
I got off the bike path at Frisco (pop. 2,443), where, unable to understand my map, I rode around aimlessly for 15 minutes until I found some construction workers who could explain how to get on another bike path, which would take me to Silverthorne. (These guys had the "You rode from Virginia on that?! I couldn't even ride to the store and back, etc." reaction - I always enjoy responding blithely with "Oh, it's no big deal", or something similar...)
I rode another pleasant several miles, this time around the Dillon Reservoir. The last section of this bike path crossed the dam of the reservoir, which was slightly exciting, given the absence of a guardrail. Surprisingly, I saw several children riding unsupervised across it.
Soon after crossing the dam, I exited the bike path at Silverthorne (pop. 3,196), another tourist town with the usual heavy traffic, and got back on SR 9 - still a two-lane with a minimal shoulder, unfortunately.
Much of the next several miles was along the Blue River, where I saw several people fly fishing. Soon after I passed a painting class in a field by the side of the road (where I stopped briefly to check out their work - they were all painting the same mountain), I left busy SR 9 and turned on to County Road 30 - the first "country road" I'd been on in a while - no center line, no shoulder, but very little traffic.
I rode on the county road for ten miles, a relief after the busy state road. The last half of this section was around the Green Mountain Reservoir, which was nice. I stopped at a bait shop in the little community of Heeney, got a Gatorade, and talked for a while to the lady who owned the place. I told her I was from Kentucky, and she told me she had planned to go to Morehead State University years before (but it didn't happen, for some reason). I told her I lived about 45 minutes from Morehead...
Before I got back on SR 9, I had to cross the dam of the Green Mountain Reservoir, but when I approached the dam I saw a handful of stern signs warning me not to trespass on US government property. I rode back a quarter of a mile to where I had seen a truck marked "Security", and asked the guy if I could cross. "Sure", he said; "We should get rid of those signs - they don't mean anything." Ok, then...
I got back on SR 9 for the last twelve miles to Kremmling. The truck and RV traffic was heavy, and I pulled over a few times to let it pass - the shoulder was uncomfortably narrow.
When I arrived in Kremmling (pop. 1,578) I stopped in a convenience store, bought some Gatorade, and asked the two girls working there about the motels in town. They recommended the one next to the store, and wrinkled their noses as they described the nastiness of the other ones in town. I decided to take their advice, although, as always in this situation, I wondered just how unbiased it was (did they recommend the motel next to the store because the same guy owned both of them? etc.)
The motel did seem nice, and they only had one room left, so I took it. After I checked in and cleaned up, I walked around Kremmling, unpretentious in contrast to the touristy Breckenridge - Kremmling apparently caters to visiting hunters and fishermen instead of well-heeled skiers and shoppers. There was a surprisingly well-stocked supermarket at the edge of town, which even had the day's Wall Street Journal - something I hadn't seen in a long while. I bought it and walked around looking for a place to have dinner.
I decided to eat at the Quarter Circle Saloon, where I had a burger (good, but a little too rare), fries, and a brownie/ice cream thing for dessert.
It was now dusk as I walked around the town some more. After I was satisfied that I'd seen everything worth seeing, I returned to my room and started to work on this journal. My heretofore trusty Compaq Armada notebook started acting odd, and after I tried (and failed) to reboot it, I got the sinking feeling that the hard drive had failed. I spent far too much time fiddling with it, then gave up and went to bed.
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Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 2,552 miles (4,107 km)
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