Steamboat Springs, CO

Made it to Steamboat Springs this morning. Mile 1534 along the route, although we've ridden something more than that. All continues to go really well.

We continue our great luck with weather. Highest temps so far were in the mid 80's - nothing over 90 yet. No serious rain for weeks.

Since our last post in Pinedale, we rode through ~250 miles of dry, dull, sagebrush with NO TREES and NO SHADE and very limited access to water. So it made a big difference to have relatively mild temps. One of our days riding across the Great Divide Basin was even overcast with occasional light drizzle - with temps in the 60's, couldn't have hoped for better weather in that landscape.

Rawlins WY is at the southern end of the Great Divide Basin, and we stopped there to resupply our groceries before riding another 135 miles to Steamboat. Rawlins is a tired, almost dismal, town. We were there on a Sunday morning, and the only things open (other than many storefront churches) were the grocery store and laundrymat - the only things we really needed. No library for internet access though :(

30 miles south of Rawlins we climbed back into the mountains - aspens, pines, creeks and other things we hadn't seen for ~250 miles. It's REALLY nice to be back in the trees.

Our potential for bad weather now shifts from too hot to too much snow. Our overall elevation now is higher, and the chances for 90+ temps are probably gone. However, our chance for hitting some storms including snow is just starting. If it's not one thing it's another. The aspen trees have not yet started to turn yellow, but perhaps in a week or so we'll start to get glorious aspen covered mountains.

I have lots of thoughts about cows, land-use, top-soil, huge trucks, mining, oil-drilling, and other such things. More thoughts than my 30 minute library internet pass will accommodate, but maybe in a later post. Summarizing - I think much of Montana and potentially all of Wyoming will suffer a cultural meltdown when the price of gas in the US finally catches up to the price of gas in the Europe. 95% of the vehicles on the roads are trucks, and not little trucks like a Toyota Tacoma, BIG trucks, Ford F200 or F250 is the norm. And the recreational activity of choice seems to be this: hook a big camping trailer on the back of your giant truck, and behind that camping trailer, tow a utility trailer with two All Terrain Vehicles in it. Drive some distance, park your camping trailer, and take off in your ATV to stir up a lot of dust. Then, take out your weapon of choice and shoot any public road sign you can find. Or, if there are no road signs handy, then shoot tree trunks instead.

It's a good reminder that the culture in San Francisco, or Evanston, or Ann Arbor, or Boston, or Philadelphia, or any of the other places Jim and I have lived, is NOT like the cultural norm in the whole country.

Anyway, we continue to have a great time. We are fortunate to have good weather, reliable bikes, enough to eat, and many great campsites.

For the next couple hundred miles we have towns every day or two, so we don't need to carry so much food, we get more hot meals, and hopefully more libraries.

Thanks to Rickson for posting the picture of the bear !!

All is well, we're having fun, and we'll post again when we can. - Amy & Jim