Hopkins 4K for Cancer

July 5, 2006

Glenwood Springs, CO
88 miles

One of our longest days in the Rockies, the most overall climbing of the trip, and the most adventurous, with more than 40 miles of unpaved roads. It sounded intimidating at first, but by the end of the day we had discovered that our bikes, and our bodies, were capable of more than we had thought.

The roads heading to the Southwest were sparse, so our route was forced onto smaller roads from the beginning. Heading South from Kremmling, we turned onto the infamous ‘County Road 1’ within just a few miles, heading onto dirt and the true CO backcountry. Within a mile we were climbing up and up into the hills. Strangely enough, though, the dirt road wasn’t even enough to stop the multitude of 18-wheelers that passed us on the trip. That’s how things work out West I guess.

We descended partway into a huge canyon when the landscape opened up into a fantastic view of the Colorado River, called ‘Inspiration Point’. Although we would be following the river for most of the day, it would consistently squeeze through deep canyons that only the railroad could slip through, and our climbing for the day was nowhere near over. This made for a couple more fantastic descents, which Ryan Slater and I took at some pretty scary speeds. We justified it by the fear that lying on the brakes at all would cause our tires to skid – thus our 40 mph invigorating descents in the awesome backcountry.

We stopped for lunch just as the road crossed the Colorado River, still not very large at this point. Unfortunately lunch did not stop for us, as there was some confusion as to the exact site to set up lunch camp. While waiting, I succumbed to the temptation to jump in the river in my spandex. The water was on the cold side, but the dry heat had all the swimmers completely dry and back to normal within minutes.

I end up riding with Garrett often, mainly because come lunch and the afternoon breaks, we are the ones who often opt to leave early and get the riding over with as fast as possible. Simply personal preference is what it boils down to. Today, as we were waiting for our lunch to arrive, we once again decided to take off, this time passing lunch by. We had been snacking plenty, but the stupid thing was that we did it with very little water. We bolted through more hills, and then finally started following the river through a canyon, thunder and lightning striking the top of the canyon walls. The road finally turned back to concrete, and by now we had been so used to the soft dirt that the hard surface felt unpleasant. Here the thirst started kicking in, and soon it started to affect our performance, especially climbing. We almost stole from a hose on the outside of a house. But we were saved when the river canyon finally opened into the valley where I-70 was heading westward. After 30 miles with little water, we gobbled down at least a gallon in a real estate office.

The last 20 miles of the trip were an easy trek down an amazing bike path that followed the Colorado River, now much more rapidly flowing, down the Western slope at a quite steep pace. Even more interesting was that we were following right along side I-70, weaving in and out of its two separate segments, watching as the highway went through tunnels, and then rejoined the bike path.

Upon reaching Glenwood Springs we were lucky to have access to the hot springs there. Privately owned, natural sulfur springs had been hooked into 2 large pools, 4 ft deep and a few hundred feet wide. They were a perfect ending to such a long, demanding day. We stayed in a Lutheran Church that night, resting up for our first mountain pass since trail ridge, McClure’s pass, to be climbed the next day.

-Ryan t