Day 5- book pages 27-32: We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the lake with the temperature in the 30s but nice and dry. We broke camp and packed up for the longest stretch without gas, 225 miles, so we went back into Pinedale to gas up and fill up our extra gallon cans and took off for Rawlings, Wyoming, however, we had to stop at the local restaurant to fill us up with a good breakfast for the long journey. Yummy and we got to see the locals up close!
Bill's Pic 106
Ken Packing up for early departure.
The first 35 miles was pavement and then it became a decent
gravel road. We made good time while
trying to watch for wildlife and the gorgeous scenery. We were still running alongside the Bridger
Wilderness with its spectacular snow capped peaks. This ride was as peaceful as it gets, letting your mind go blank,
just trying to take it all in. Therapy
of the finest kind!
Ken's pics 434,435 Bill's Pics 073,113
Bill & Mark taking in the scenery.
Cool rock formation!
We were able to do 60- 70 mph on this stretch.
Big Country!
We come into an old mining town, South Pass, with the
Carissa gold mine on the outskirts. It
looks to have been closed for a while, but people still lived in the town. A few miles further we get to Atlantic City,
a major crossroads of the old west and a very interesting looking town
including the Miner's Delight Inn and a cool looking general store. A few miles further south we cross the
junction of the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express trail. History is everywhere and I decide I need to
come back and spend some time here too.
Ken's pics 437, Bill's 139
Carissa Gold Mine 
After 55 miles or so, we enter the Great Basin. Today's ride is along the old wagon train
trails on top of the Continental Divide.
We cross the Divide many times today but you really never realize it
because we're riding along the highest ridge through the valley with far off
mountains on both sides. The views were
huge and spacious, giving meaning to BIG Sky and openness. We stop and try to take some pictures that
might show the magnitude of what's around us but I think you would need the IMAX cameras to justify it.
Day 6, book days 31-36: We leave Rawlings on pavement for the first 25 miles, then it turns to gravel and starts climbing into the Sierra Madre Range, where we cross the divide again at 7,965 ft. We are finally riding into forests and trees of which we didn't see much of since Union Pass. It was very lush and green with many beaver dams and ponds. We rode along mountain streams and crossed them several times. On one of these man-made earthen berm crossings, Bill has his bike slide out from the loose gravel and slick earth. Only minor damage to the Jesse panniers. At the next steep corner, I nearly go over in the loose scree but catch it before it hits but manage to pull something in my back. Ouch!
We continue through some scenic ranches and then all of a sudden come upon this impressive forest called Aspen Alley, where we stop and take some pictures.
Marks pic1648
Shortly after Aspen Alley the gravel road ended and we
picked up paved hwy 70 and crossed into Colorado at a little town called
Slater. Hwy 70 was newly paved and was
very scenic and windy with a few great vistas.
After Slater we got back onto dirt and took the standard route instead
of the alternate. This stretch is where
the BMW guys said to take the alternate because it was too steep and rocky for
these big bikes. Well, we had to see
for ourselves, so we headed out. It was a great ride running along a creek for
a ways and then started climbing through the forest.
Ken's pic 440, Mark's 1651
The road bears right at this stand of trees with a hunter's
camp on the left. I'm looking at this
hunter making coffee and when I look back to the road ahead, as I'm turning
right and I see it's rocky, rutty, and a huge vertical incline but I'm in too
far to stop! I pick my line and give it
gas and bounce and dance my way a couple of hundred yards to the top. I bashed a few things but didn't go
down! I pulled over as soon as I could,
to go back to see if Bill and Mark are following me. I didn't hardly get off the bike when Bill pulls up Marks not far
behind. They can't believe I just went
up that hill without stopping and talking about it! I can't believe they followed me! Actually it's a good thing I didn't see it before I was in it,
because I don't think any of us would have gone up that hill. This hill continued like this another 1.5
miles and actually got rougher but at he top we all had big grins on our faces
for beating that hill. The next several
miles were pretty rough going down hill and beat us up pretty good. We were very happy to finally hit some
pavement at Clark, CO and ride down into Steamboat for lunch.
After lunch, we tried to find our way out of town on the bike route but couldn't make a connection so picked up a mile or so further along. It was an easy ride until we got to the end of the county maintained road, then it became very narrow and overgrown with lots of potholes. We missed a turn and had to back track and then found ourselves at an impasse at Lake Catamount.
Insert pics Mark's1654, Ken's 442,
447
Where do we go now?
Bill taking a photo Op.
Ken gets a photo op.
The book said to walk your bike thru the gate and ride onto
the Yampa River Trail System, which was not wide enough for us. We picked an alternate route using state
roads, however, after we got around a lake we saw a sign for Lynx Pass, which
is where we were supposed to go with the book. Great luck! It's paved for only a couple of miles and
then turns into a decent gravel road.
This was a very impressive ride because we rode along creeks most of the
time and you could see a lot around you, like the multi million dollar private
getaways that lined the road. A few
really cool working ranches too.
We get to the end of the book day 34 at Lynx Pass campground and pull out the book to see what the next section is like. This next section was all downhill until the mining town of Radium, CO. It was steep, narrow and loose rock but incredible views but would have been suicide if it were raining. We had fun crossing a river too.
Mark's pics 1655,1657
Ken making a wet crossing.
Bill having some wet fun.
After Radium, we were stopped by the local sheriffs and told
they running maneuvers up ahead and to go slow and watch out for bullets! We finally passed them and rode up out of
the valley. We
came upon a neat view of a train below us and took several pictures.
Ken's pic 450, Mark's pics
1659
Mark and Bill taking a Kodak moment!
Choo Choo
It was getting late but we decided to keep going and passed
through Kremmling and took the route over Ute Pass, 9,524 ft. down to
Dillon. The ride was beautiful and ugly
at the same time because of all the mines and their byproduct lakes, however,
it was worth the effort because of the view when you come over Ute Pass is like
looking at the Alps. The panorama of these giant mountains all
snow capped and majestic.
We look for a campground in Dillon/Frisco with facilities but don't find any. We wind up riding all the way to a campground in Leadville about 30 miles away at 8:00 at night and it's in the 30s. We were tired that night after 290 miles.
