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Day 22 – Rand to Silverthorne

Posted by Alan on Fri, 25th Jun, 2010.
Filed under: Colorado

Fri 25th June 2010

We had a good nights sleep in our log cabin but our breakfast was nothing to look forward to. Because we were unable to buy milk and cereal yesterday we only had a few leftover cornflakes with water, just what we needed to set us up for a 100 mile ride. ( I still felt full from the night before).

We set off at 6:30am straight into the final climb to Willow Creek Pass at 9,683 ft, so no time to warm up the legs properly but we reached the top 7 miles away in less than an hour. Soon after crossing the pass I looked over to my right and by chance saw a moose stood in the middle of the river having a drink. It’s the first one we’ve seen and was the highlight of the day. She stayed there while I took photo’s and wasn’t at all bothered by us. It was a great sight. We also saw lots of deer on the road. (by the way the deer I put on the blog yesterday was an antelope – thanks to Bud for pointing that out)

Once crossing the pass it was mostly downhill for the next 50 miles to Kremmling and we made good time today reaching there by midday. From Kremmling we again started to climb towards Hoosier Pass but we won’t get there today. Our 40 miles of climbing will get us to 9,000 ft and our destination for the day, Silverthorne.

The scenery today was such a contrast to the last few days. We were back in the mountains and it was fantastic. It very much reminded us of the French Alps. We arrived in Silverthorne at 2:30pm and found a great supermarket where we stocked up with goodies (and breakfast). Silverthorne is a lovely place in a great location, very scenic with fantastic mountain homes, lots of outlet shops and a big skiing area. Silverthorne itself sits immediately below a huge dam that holds back the water from the reservoir that sits above the town. The town is bike friendly and there’s a bike route that climbs back and forth to the top of the dam.

When we arrived at our campsite we were less than impressed. There was no running water so a shower was out of the question and of course no wi-fi and they expected us to pay. So, not prepared to go without a shower tonight and falling two days behind on the blog we rode a little bit further and booked into the Summit Inn for the night. Luxury and at a good price. Camping at this altitude will be a very cold experience with our 1 season sleeping bags so a wise decision we think.

Daily Mileage -98.5 miles

Time in Saddle -8 hrs 40 mins

Total Climbing -4,298 ft