Great Divide Day 15

I started out the morning with ibuprofen to get ahead of any inflammation. John, Cameron, Andrew, and I began riding together and caught up with the 4 other riders we've been on pace with the past several days. We all ended up camping within 5 miles of each other. We had some ups and downs to cover before we started climbing in Colorado.

30 miles in, the Savery museum had a nice setup with coffee and snacks for sale. 

After we finished second breakfast, we started riding our tailwind into Colorado. We climbed at a good pace until we came accross a cattle drive and waited until the cowboys drove them off the road. 

The wind willed us up the hill to Brush Mountain Lodge where Jay Petervary greeted us, "welcome to paradise," and helped Andrew with his brakes.

Kiersten, the owner of the lodge, gave us a hug and made sure we had food and drinks. There was pizza, snacks to go, and lots of different creams and toiletries. We decided to leave our bear spray behind like most riders at this point, because we are now out of grizzly country.

 As riders left the lodge, Jay and Kiersten rung cowbells to send them off. After 2 hours, we were ready to finish up our climb. We passed through fields of flowers and aspen trees.

The climb was mostly ridable, but we had to hike a few sections. 

The descent was rocky at the top and we had to pick our line carefully. The rough descent turned into a flowy one into the Clark store where we bought some snacks to tide us over before we got to dinner in Steamboat Springs. Nick, who we last saw in Whitefish, MT arrived at the store while we were packing up. He offered to share his hotel room. We were in need if laundry and a shower so we took him up on the offer. The ride to Steamboat Springs was paved and downhill.

(Blogger Katie in her natural environment)

We rode to a brewery for dinner before settling in for the night. I washed the loads of dirt off my body and clothes. Hopefully they will be dry in the morning. 

Read Day 16