Jim's Ride Across America: Day 39 Silverthorne, CO to Walden, CO

Yorktown, VA to Walden, CO Completed 2,484 miles

Biking Detail Silverthorne, CO to Walden, CO

Day 39 Friday, June 19

Left the Silver Inn in Silverthorne at 6:15 am hoping to get in more miles today. All depends on the winds, road conditions, elevation gains, and my legs. Clear and cold! Started out with an under armor base, my jersey, my blue wind breaker and my long gloves. Rte 9 was good getting out of Silverthorne with nice wide shoulders and not a lot of traffic at that hour. As a plus had a nice little tail wind so things are looking good. Wide shoulder ends after about ten miles but road still good. There was a sign that said to expect a 45 minute delay due to road work but we didn't experience anything...until 25 miles later.

The ride along the Blue River to Heeney and beyond is very scenic. Big Thompson Gorge is beautiful and reminds me of riding along the Columbia River in Washington. With some nice downhills and a good tail wind I made good time heading into Kremmling, CO. Was averaging over 18mph at 25 miles, so expected about two hours into Kremmling, just in time for breakfast. At about 30 miles we hit the road construction and a delay with gravel road to contend with about seven miles before Kremmling! Six mile stretch of gravel, one way road. And we lost about 45 minutes.

Prepare for delays! Got to Kremmling, 37 miles in, and stopped for breakfast at the Moose Cafe, about 1/2 mile off route to left when get to town. Good food and large portions. The road turns East at Kremmling for 26 miles, so you're actually backtracking for awhile. Road out of Kremmling not so good until you get 7 miles out, then it turns great with a 12 foot shoulder for a good distance. Saw two bikers heading East and gave them a thumbs up. I'm heading downhill and they are going up, not a good time for chatting especially with big miles to do.

Shortly after Parshall you head into a canyon where the Colorado River runs wild. It's pretty spectacular! Just as I came around a corner I glimpsed the river and a train making its way along the rocky bank. I stopped and got a photo, one of the few I have taken since Margie does such a great job getting the pics.

Turned off on 125 N and got a big surprise. Road starts up immediately at 6%-7%. I turned and looked at my back tire thinking I had a flat. Nope. Just the difference between going downhill and going uphill. Turned out to be a 3 mile climb as a warm-up to the climb over Willow Pass some 20 miles away. Followed Willow Creek, very scenic. Margie got lots of pictures. Twenty plus miles of pretty steady up grade, nothing serious probably 3%-5% I think. Unfortunately, my Garmin stopped giving me the gradient somewhere along today's ride. I didn't want to reboot it and lose the rest of the info so I went without knowing the exact grades. Reached the Willow Summit at 3:00 pm.

Already a long day in the saddle but needed to push on to Walden to find lodging, another 34 miles! Stopped in Rand 12 miles along the way. It has a nice little gift store, nice gifts and clothing items, but only open Thurs-Sun. They have a few snacks and cold drinks, but not a place you can count on for eating. Good thing we had a good breakfast at 9:00. Have been sustaining myself on Cliff Bars.

Stretch of 125 from Rand was extremely windy, straight on in your face wind for several miles, then gradually turning into a tail wind as the road changed directions. Road is as straight and flat as Kansas. The wind very similar. The road was sub-par with the classic every 20 ft frost heave bumps for most of the 22 miles. There were a few sections that had been redone with perfect asphalt that was smooth as glass but in total probably less than 1 mile out of the 22 to Walden. Luckily, the road changed directions about 10 miles from Walden and I flew into town with a strong tail wind. 115 miles and day over!