What should have been a great ride on a beautiful day turned out to pretty much suck. It was cold when we rolled out of Hot Sulphur Springs but the temperature had warmed up nicely by the time we arrived in Kremmling (mile 18). We followed US 40 along the Colorado River and enjoyed the gradual downhill ride on the wide shoulder of the highway.
After a stop at the grocery store in Kremmling to pick up some salami and cheese for lunch, we turned onto Colorado Hwy 9 toward Silverthorne. That's when things got ugly. The first 23-mile stretch of Hwy 9 from Kremmling toward Silverthorne is a hilly, winding, narrow, two-lane road along with no shoulder. It would be OK to ride with light traffic, but today it was packed with cars, RVs and BFTs. There simply wasn't enough room for all of the traffic to flow past us smoothly, resulting in periodically nerve-wracking situations where either: (1) traffic going our direction (southbound) was passing us at the same time that oncoming traffic was passing: or (2) someone in the oncoming lane was passing another vehicle as that vehicle was going past us. In both cases, for at least an instant, there were two vehicles and us abreast across the road. It was very unpleasant and pretty much spoiled the ride for both of us. Even after we reached the safety of a wide shoulder (about 15 miles from Silverthorne) our mood didn't improve. As the song goes, some days (such as yesterday) are diamonds and some days (e.g., today) are rust.
We did meet 2 other cyclists today, which was interesting. The first guy is riding from Lake Tahoe to Maine. He said he is averaging over 100 miles a day and plans to arrive in late September. Yeow! The other guy is riding the Great Divide mountain bike route from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. He also said that he was in a hurry because he had a job to get back to,* but we noted that he was one of the few riders we have come across who was slower than us.
We are going to take a rest day here tomorrow (shopping at the outlet mall, what fun). Then we'll have only 3 more riding days left to complete our cross-country trip. It seems surreal in many ways - we have been on the road so long it is going to be a little weird to be back at home with no plans to get on the bike again in the near future. I will miss the adventure, the new sights and the interesting people you tend to meet on a trip of this nature. But we are both tired of traveling and ready to be done.
*He said worked for the Department of Homeland Security and had a solar-powered satellite tracking device with him so DSS could keep track of him. This sounds goofy, but Devon (the solo woman rider we met in Oregon) also carried one of these things (her mom brought for her).
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