Fort Collins to Ryan Park, WY: Out the door

June 17, 2012

I left the house as planned, about 9:15 in the morning. The ride out the bike path and the secondary roads was quite pleasant with the bike behaving well and the load not too bad. The connection to 287 was supposed to be a few short miles on some dirt roads, but a soon as I turned west, the wind kicked up. Big time. The smoke from the fire kicked up as well!

On the dirt road, before the wind kicked up!

The wind has kicked up and stirred up the smoke from the fire west of town.

I'm not proud. I was off my bike, blowing in the wind, and every vehicle that passed kicked up a big dust cloud that felt a bit like I was being sandblasted. I was thinking that if I were in a car, I would not pass a cyclist off her bike in those conditions without checking that everything was okay, when I saw a pick-up coming down the road, and I stuck out my thumb. And they stopped! I ended up loading my bike onto the pickup and getting a ride the few remaining miles to 287. When they dropped me, I had a bite to eat and guzzled some water, and headed up the hill. The hill had me going slowly, and the wind was battering me and gusting so I was feeling unstable, so I stopped a few times. After some time, I used the lesson I'd learned on the dirt road, and stuck out my thumb. This time, it took a few vehicles before I got a lift. It was a couple who stopped, and they were on a day trip to the Snowy Range to escape the smoke! I asked them to drop me at the rest area near the CO/WY border, but somehow we missed it. It wasn't really "somehow". The Bicycle Tour of Colorado is cycling from FoCo to Larimie today, and on to Saratoga tomorrow. They had their own aid station set up next to the rest area, and it was quite confusing. But having missed the rest stop, I said I'd stay in the vehicle into the Snowy Range. So I rode along, and they dropped me just below the peak.

The edge of the parking area in the Snowies. This is where I was dropped off.

Near the top of the Snowy Range in Wyoming

And, boy, was the wind blowing. I've never been in a wind like that before. It was scary to ride...sometimes it was scary to just stand up. So I walked the bike for a bit, over the peak, where the wind died just enough to allow me to ride a bit. Even heading downhill I kept my speed down. I didn't want to be moving too fast if the bike got blown out from under me! At a pullout just a couple of miles down hill, a couple I talked with said there were some cabins just 5 miles down the hill, and said it was 20 miles to Saratoga. Wrong! I kept going, expecting to see some cabins. I finally stopped at a USFS campground to get some water, thinking I might have to stay. The camp host said the cabins were just 3 miles ahead (instead of 10 miles back). The campgound didn't have showers and I wanted out of the wind, so I went on. And the cabins were indeed about 3 miles ahead. I stayed at "The Place", in Ryan Park, jut outside the National Forest. Very nice people there, but I wouldn't recommend the restaurant. For reference, Saratoga is about 20 miles form here!

I couldn't get any cell signal and there was no wireless available, so this is being written Tuesday from Saratoga.

Stats:
Dist 41.47 miles
odo 5909.3 (starting odo 5867.8)
Max speed 29.7
Av speed 8.2

In the Snowy Range. Lots of beetle kill, and true to it's name, it still has patches of snow!

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 42 miles (68 km)

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