Today was a sleeeeeeepy day. I had a late night last - after hanging out with Casey, and then writing, and then talking to Andrea on the phone, it was suddenly past 11. Then, while on my way to my camping spot, I was flagged down by two van travelers ("rubber tramps" if you want the official slang) to share in some conversation. Of course that sounded interesting, so I did, but it led to me not going to bed until about 12:30 or 1am. That's rough with a 5:15 wake up.
So today I was pretty sleepy, and it made for a difficult ride. It would have been hard anyway: 63 miles, tons of elevation, and over 6 hours on bike - and my desire to take a nap the whole time didn't help. I didn't though. I was tired enough that I knew if I napped I'd be nearly done for the day.
I'm in a little primitive, yet packed, campground on a creek that feeds the nearby Colorado River. It's beautiful here, and apparently up over a huge hill and a 20 minute hike are hotsprings - not a likely endeavour for me right now.
The first 16 miles or so out of Steamboat was paved and FULL of local cyclists. Eventually Paul, a local, and I started riding together. He was going to the reservoir 20 miles away to swim, and we rode together for about 15 miles.
He told me all sorts of great stories. He's from Michigan, and when he was 25 biked to Jackson, WY (Teton area) to see the mountains, and loved it so much he started working and stayed there.
He met the love of his life in college, but he was too wild for her at the time (being a traveler, etc) and he lost her. She eventually moved to Steamboat, raised kids, and had a husband who kind of sucked and eventually left her. She called up Paul 30 years after their split and he came running, and now they've been happily married for 12 years.
He also was able to tell me all sorts of stuff about what we were biking through, etc. Paul was a pretty great riding partner.
I was feeling off all day, and was trying to fix it with caffeine. About mile 45, after a couple hard climbs and on top of a ridge that kept going up and down, a truck pulled up and the driver handed me a cold beer. He said "here, looks like you need this."
Why yes, I do need this. And, in fact, I felt much better afterwards! The ride down to the Colorado River was spectacular! Some of the best riding of the trip so far, and I'm so glad I was able to enjoy it (the caffeine was also kicking in pretty good by then).
Now I'm going to curl up with my book and fall asleep nice and early. I only have 75 miles until the end of this part of the trip. Once I get to Silverthorne Dan will pick me up and give me a ride to Denver, and then I join up with Team RoadShow for RAGBRAI. I'm so ahead of schedule that I'm going to break that 75 miles into two days, so they should be pretty chill.
Maybe I will visit those hotsprings...
Thing is... I'd rather go on a bike ride.
