River of Fun

Over the course of our trip we’ve followed, watched, bathed in, drank from, forded and enjoyed quite a few rivers and creeks.  They’ve ranged from whitewater to barely trickling, crystal clear to opaque (some just muddy, some from bovine waste) and well-known to never heard of.  Some of the more notable include the Snake, Elk, Swan, Big Hole, Wise, Warm River, Flathead, Red Rock and many others.Today however we met up with probably the most well-known of all the rivers we’ll encounter, the Colorado River.  Originally named the Grand River, the Colorado runs 1,450 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park to the Gulf of California (though it no longer actually reaches there due to heavy use of the river for irrigation).  From last night’s camp near Radium, we were treated to some spectacular views of the river via the Colorado River Headwaters Scenic Byway.  South of the town of Kremmling, CO we headed due east to the Williams Fork Reservoir where we enjoyed a lunch of PB & J and Nutella, a new favorite of ours.  From there it was a moderate 20 mile climb over Ute Pass, where we had spectacular views of the Gore Range and the Henderson Mine.  On the descent we were forced to take shelter under our tarp during a short storm (imagine the parachute game from kindergarten, but with an extra-small parachute and full-size people), and a few miles along Colorado Route 9 into the Colorado ski-mecca known as Summit County.

Today’s relatively high mileage was for good reason, we had a place to stay courtesy of Kelly’s aunt and uncle.  Thanks to their generosity we were able to sleep in warm beds, lounge on couches while eating Pizza Hut and drinking good beer, and even turn a fire on with a simple flick of a switch.  As an additional treat, Kelly’s little brother Chase made the trip from Boulder to visit with us.

Mechanical Issues

We’ve been relatively lucky regarding mechanical issues so far, knock on wood.  With a combined 5,000 miles under our tires over tough terrain we’re thankful we haven’t had more to deal with.  Every now and then something does go wrong though, like today for example.  It was just a flat rear tire for Jeff, but it prompted us to take some time to create a page detailing the few mechanical/bike issues we have had.  You can read all about it on our Mechanical Issues page.