July 11, 2001. Frisco to Kremmling,
Colorado. (48 mi.) Mile 2516
Back
to the High Plains
Our
hosts last evening, the Lewallens, got up early and served us some excellent
banana bread
to help get us going.
We said good-bye, once again appreciative of their hospitality, and started
with pedaling the 7 miles of paved bike trail around Dillion Reservoir to
Silverthorne. This was a beautiful early morning ride, and one that we had
done years ago, though we could hardly recognize Frisco and Silverthorne. Now
there are new Outlet Malls, high rises, heavy traffic, inflated prices, and
sprawling development. Our spirits improved once we left it behind.
Dillion
Reservoir early in the morning
Over
the course of today's ride, we dropped 1500 ft of elevation back into
sagebrush and rangeland. A strong headwind kept us from fully appreciating
this downhill though. We had to pedal hard before the afternoon thunderheads
caught us, but we were successfully inside the burger bar in Kremmling eating
huge banana splits when the skies opened up overhead with thunder and rain.
When
the sun returned, we set up our tent at the Red Mountain RV Park, a campground
with a lounge and dataport, where I could work on the laptop while Mike did
laundry. Later we were joined at our tent site by John and Marilyn, young college
students from San Diego, seeing the country west to east on their tandem bike
and a shoestring budget. We all sat around in the campground office sharing stories, wearing
nothing but our wind shells and rain wear, since
all of our other clothes were in the wash.
1) 
2) 
3) 
1)
Looking back toward the mountains over Green Mountain Reservoir
2)
Thunderheads every afternoon, with scattered rain showers
3)
Red Mountain RV Park. The owners laid sod to make a better tent space for the
bicyclists who frequent the campground..
