Day 50: 67 Miles

Walden, CO to Saratoga, WY

I started today with only 22 miles to the Wyoming border. Those 22 miles were the easiest of the day. There wasn’t any real wind and I was able to average almost 14 mph to the sign welcoming me to Wyoming. After stopping for a quick picture, I got back on the bike and it felt like the weather had completely changed. Suddenly there was a lot of wind to deal with. I started at 7:30 this morning, which is later than I would have liked. The winds tend to pick up later in the day, so it would have been smarter to get up early.

The riding in Wyoming was nice, but it reminded me of Kansas to some extent. I think it was all the wind and cows. Thankfully the scenery still looked like Colorado, or I would have been miserable. The roads in Wyoming also looked straight on the map, but in reality they snaked back and forth across the landscape. This was good in the sense that the wind did not remain a headwind the entire time. As I snaked across the landscape I could get out of the wind for some stretches.

The route today also involved more climbing than I expected. There were several times where I had to really work to get over the hills. The wind didn’t make it easy and the climbs usually curved up and around the hills rather than going straight up. About 35 to 40 miles in I knew the climbing was mostly over, but at this point the route turned directly west and into a headwind. I had about 15 miles to a town and made a strong push to get there and take a break. I got to the town of Riverside around noon and found a place for lunch. At this point I was debating whether to go on or just stay in town. Riverside has a population of 52, but there were actually a few options for places to stay. While I was eating lunch, I studied the wind maps and decided that if I could make it the additional 18 miles to Saratoga I would be much better off tomorrow. Saratoga is directly north of Riverside and with the winds coming out of the west it didn’t look like I’d have to deal with a headwind.

Riding north to Saratoga was not too difficult, but the wind did shift around so there were headwinds at times. About halfway between Riverside and Saratoga a car pulled over and waved me down. I was planning to stay at a hotel tonight, but he offered me up a place to stay. I normally would not just accept these offers without knowing the person or going through a website where they are somewhat vetted. It just so happened that he was a Warmshowers host and Joe and Steve had stayed with him last night. I was super lucky that he pulled over, because I probably wouldn’t have checked Warmshowers. The towns have been so small through northern Colorado, that there are usually no hosts.

I made it to Saratoga around 2:30 and headed over to the hot springs. It felt great to sit in the springs after a long day of riding. They have built two pools into the natural hot springs for people to use. The first pool is called the lobster pot and it was too hot for me. The second pool was a great temperature and felt nice on my sore legs. There was also a spot in the river where you could sit on one side of rocks where it was warm and then shift to the other side where it was nice and cold.

I stayed at the hot springs for a couple of hours and then headed over to Karim’s place for the night. I’m hoping he is a basketball fan, because the NBA draft is tonight and I’d like to follow what is going on. Tomorrow may be a short 40 mile day to Rawlins, WY. There aren’t any great places to stay after Rawlins unless I make it a very long day. It will all depend on the winds and how early I wake up.