Running on fumes to Colorado-Wyoming border

So the stay in Steamboat was really lovely and much needed in terms of rest and recovery, tho by last night I still hadn’t eaten a decent meal and despite being hungry, the thought of food was unpalatable. So it was bland cereal and toast again for tea….and breakfast this morning. I don’t feel sick, the vomiting etc has all stopped, but you know those days after a bout of Delhi belly, you just feel depleted.

But….we needed to keep moving northbound , so located a camp site near Columbine, around 30 miles, with a stop in the tiny hamlet of Clark with its one shop.

The first section of the ride was on road, so I felt comfortable tapping out a pace, but every time the road would rise, I’d feel like I was running on empty, with limited power. I tried to eat what I could when I could, and drank loads of water with electrolytes to keep some semblance of balance to my ‘diet’! We got to Clark in good time and we were able to sit in the shade. I wolfed down a bowl of ice cream as that’s all I could stomach (excuse the pun)!

The next stage was on trail/gravel and we knew we had a climb out of Clark towards the lake where we were planning to camp. And as before, we found ourselves walking up sharp inclines in to the tree line ahead. I was, by this stage, pretty buggered – I’m noticing that riding in the afternoon is something I’m not good at, and it was now 2:30. I was again running on fumes through lack of anything solid to eat, but I kept drinking. We stopped halfway up the hill to rest, and I slept a wee bit, overcome with exhaustion. But it was only 7 more miles and we were close to the top, so we decided to push on to get in to some shade at the campsite. This was a formal camp site run by the state forest department, so whilst it was likely to be busy, it had showers, water and toilets 😊.

As we crested the final hill, the lake and site came in to view. Just in the nick of time from my perspective as I had nothing left. As expected the site was a)busy b) noisy and c) expensive! But I wasn’t going on any further, so here we would stay for the night. We met up with two guys we’d last seen in Abiquiu a few weeks back, and spent an hour chewing over our various horror stories and delightful moments. I managed to cook up a tin of chicken soup I’d bought this morning and wonderfully, was able to eat it all! A damn good start. I knew today I was asking my body to do something it simply didn’t have the fuel to do, and to continue to ask of it that which it couldn’t give was only going to end one way. I had thought about getting a lift to the next town on the trail, and resting until my appetite returned. I’ll make that call tomorrow. After we decided to take what the Divide calls the ‘Columbine alternate’ route we reconnect close to a road in about 30 miles, so the options might open up then. Otherwise, I have three more days out in the mountains and Wyoming desert, but we have agreed to take the three days with smaller mileage than try it in two. Tomorrow is very doable with around 30 miles and only one stinker of a climb early on.

Colorado-Wyoming border
After what was a great sleep (tho it was cold next to the lake) we both wrestled ourselves out of our sleeping bags around 5:30 and started the boring process – my least favourite part of a day- decamping. Given the cold last night the tent was soaking with condensation so the first job was to try get the fly sheet a bit dry before packing. The morning ritual is a reverse of the night before in terms of putting everything away and everything back on the bike but mysteriously it takes three times longer! Anyway as always stuff was shoved here and there until it fitted and we set off around 8:45 after something to eat. I was able to eat some porridge but nothing like I needed, but it’s all I could take so that was what I had! Immediately out of the campground we started the climb to the tiny, one shop hamlet of Columbine. It was a brut of a hill but on road so I was happy to tap out a rhythm until we got to the small shop….which was closed until 10! But I needed Coke and chocolate so we waited for the shop to open which it duly did and off we went! The terrain was very favourable with loads of fast gravel downhills and sharp but short climbs. The scenery was stunning as we moved through meadows and ravines, following a river towards the border. At Columbine we had met three other bike packers doing the Divide…..only we noted how little in the way of luggage they had. Turns out they had a support wagon with all their bags! Bastards!! We periodically met up through the morning as they’d stop with their support car, cracking open cold cans of soda and chomping on sandwiches while we looked on! We also got chatting to a group of motorcyclists traversing the US on gravel roads – such a great way to travel!! Bastards!!

Around 12 we found a spot by the river to eat. I still was not able to eat but weirdly I wasn’t overly hungry. It’s getting a little concerning that I can’t stomach food as I’m doing 30 miles over rough terrain and asking my body to run on virtually nothing.

It was only 5 miles to the campsite which was a ranch that allowed cyclists to camp for $10 a night, with access to water and showers. It literally is on the border, with one part of the ranch in Colorado the other in Wyoming. The campsite is away from the ranch in the grounds of an old house which are rented out also. As it was no one was renting the cabins so we sneaked inside and rested.

I then discovered a problem with Bob -one for which I had no solution! One of the lugs on my forks holding the pannier fixture had shorn off, meaning only two were now doing the job of three. The only thing to do was to empty the front panniers and fill them with super light luggage and try to put the heavy remaining stuff in the rear panniers, which were already overloaded! So I spent the afternoon completely repacking my bags and making brutal decisions to ditch food and anything I hadn’t used to lighten the load. Tough decisions were made which I hope I won’t live to regret down the road but my priority is weight reduction which = less luggage! Eventually I got the two front panniers down to around 1kg each (instead of the 3.5) and discarded a load of stuff from the rear to balance the bike. I’ll see how the panniers hold up tomorrow!

We are 74 miles from Rawlins, the next town, mostly on road but a very lumpy route indeed. And to add to things there’s no water after mile 20! First challenge of Wyoming coming up! Apparently we are heading in to ‘high desert’ in Wyoming before heading north west towards the Tetons and Yellowstone 😊