Day 13: Rest day in Hot Sulfur Springs.

July 15, 2018

Today I am taking an unplanned rest day in Hot Sulfur Springs. The weather forecast calls for a thunderstorm today and I am still recovering from a stomach bug.

I was able to slowly eat a full breakfast and lunch. That made me feel somewhat better.

Today is Tom Swanson's 81st birthday. Tom left early in the morning to pedal 16 miles downstream to Kremmling where his car is parked. Then he drove home to Tucson, Arizona.

Kelly Iniguez and Ken Paulsen left later, also pedaling to Kremmling where Ken's car is parked. Ken will give Kelly a ride to Silverthorne, where her daughter will pick her up and take her home to Rifle. Kelly is having shimmy problems with her new bike and is considering switching to a different bike (lots more details on her journal).

Jacinto and I paid for a second night in our rooms at Ute Trail motel in Hot Sulfur Springs. $12 cheaper on Sunday night than Saturday night. Same as in Walden, the motel is mostly occupied by TransAmerica cyclists.

During the day I saw dozens of TransAmerica cyclists pass by. None of them carried panniers or bikepacking gear. They were ALL on motor vehicle supported tours. I'm not sure but I suspect that most of them stay in motels and don't camp. Times have changed!

In the morning I visited the Grand County Historical Society Museum which is a 1 minute walk from the motel. $5 entry fee but there is a lot to see. I spent a long time looking at the indoor exhibits in the large main building which was once a school. Then I toured the outbuildings and rail cars on the property. The museum has a great collection of buildings and artifacts.

It was fascinating to learn how late Grand County was settled. The area was still rather frontier-like in 1900. My home area in western Oregon was settled 50 years earlier.

Grand County is not far from the 19th century boom town of Denver but is on the wrong side of the Rocky Mountain Front Range. A railroad over the mountains was completed in 1904, but that high route had a short operating season and was never practical or profitable. Grand County finally became well connected to the outside world when the Moffat railroad tunnel was completed in 1927. Today the railroad is still the best way to get from Winter Park to Denver. There is no highway tunnel through the Front Range.

The main museum is in an old schoolhouse built in 1924.

This schoolhouse was used from 1920-1942.

Inside of the jail. The walls and cage are covered in plastic to preserve historic graffiti.

This blacksmith shop was reconstructed in 1979 using logs from old blacksmith shops.

This building was built between 1906 and 1909 for use as a Ranger Station. Later it was used as a ranch house.

Inside the ranch house like it was in 1930.

This large log building served as the Grand County courthouse from 1888-1902.

The museum has two rail cars on display. The caboose has exhibits about the Winter Park ski train.

After lunch I changed my lodging reservations. First I changed the Dillon Best Western reservation from tonight to tomorrow night. I wanted to stay two nights there but the second night is fully booked because of a concert.

Next I booked a night at Snowshoe Motel in Frisco. That's only 5 miles from Dillon but we can bike the long way around Dillon reservoir. It will be a scenic semi-rest day.

Those changes allowed me to keep existing reservations for the last 3 nights in Leadville, Eagle, and Rifle. I will skip the planned loop south through Breckenridge, Hoosier Pass, Fairplay, and Buena Vista. Instead I will pedal a shorter route directly from Frisco to Leadville over Fremont Pass.

I took a nap from 3-6 PM, then Jacinto and I went to dinner.

The sky was cloudy and there were a few sprinkles during the day. But the predicted thunderstorm never happened. Maybe there was a storm farther up the mountain where we would have been?

The motel proprietor encouraged Jacinto and me to go to the hot springs but neither of us was motivated. The afternoon was 75F and unusually humid. High humidity is rare in this arid region. The humidity dropped when the clouds blew away in the evening. Back to normal. Tomorrow should have good weather.

0 miles.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0