Tuesday, July 7th, 2015
Start/End: Steamboat Springs/Maybell, CO
Mileage: 76+
Weather: some spotty drizzles but overall pretty good, not too hot
Today we started our day out in Steamboat Springs refreshed and ready to start another day of riding. We were fortunate to meet Dan And his wife, who had participated in Texas 4000 back in 2006. Texas 4000 is an organization which is similar in nature to ours as it is based out of the University of Texas. They wrote us an incredibly encouraging and real note that really brought the team together on the reason we are out riding. It brought a moment of reflection and some real emotions, but it was a nice moment. Additionally, they baked us 8 loaves of banana chocolate bread that we are saving for breakfast tomorrow. Thank you so much for your support of our group!
We had a great stay at the Euzoa Bible Church in Steamboat Springs and are so thankful that we got to stay at their amazing facilities. Additionally, we just had such an amazing view of the mountains in morning as we woke up and packed up the van. Thank you so much for allowing us to use your space to stay!
After we were ready to go and after sharing the note from Texas 4K alumni, we dedicated today’s ride to one of our rider’s Aunt Chris who has recently been fighting a battle with uterine cancer. It has been a more recent development and definitely has impacted the family, so today we rode for Chris!
Today was definitely a more fun, easy day than others as we were going downhill for most of the day. Yay! Don’t get me wrong, we had fun climbing, but days that are not based solely around climbing one “hill” for 20 miles…well, that can be tough. So downhill…. We move a little bit faster than our usual pace, but not too much faster. It started out pretty chilly in the morning and many of us were very glad to have our jackets with us.
During the day at several different points, groups saw antelope, whether they were crossing the road or more so off in the distance in a herd. They are essentially small deer as I have come to understand it, but they tend to hop as they move quickly instead of running as traditional Midwest deer do. This makes them especially entertaining to watch. Other than that, the scenery, while being beautiful, was not anything to write home about, especially after seeing the snow covered mountains. We are entering a more desert region with limited vegetation or greenery and a lot of smaller hills in the distance.
We stopped in Craig, CO for our lunch stop where we were generously donated 6-inch subs and a bag of chips for each rider which we would use for dinner from Subway. We were so thankful for their generosity, and this amazing timing because tonight we would be camping and not be able to cook dinner. Thank you so much for this huge donation to the team!
After Craig, we had a few big hills to climb (note: hills not mountains).it was kind of fun, because on one of them, a large bird of prey flew above us and squawked the way that Eagles do sometimes in movies. It was such a cool experience, especially to be so close to the bird and to be climbing a hill. At the top of the hill, we had at least 3 people get flat tires on the climb from glass or staples. Basically, we had two groups stopped off the road changing tires. It was great fun. Then from there, it was actually all downhill.
Tonight was different because we would be camping for the first night in the town of Maybell which has a population of about 70. Many of the teammates had never had a camping experience before so we learned how to assemble the team tents and how to fit about 4 riders and their bags all in the tent. It was a little crazy, but we’ve been on the road together for 44 days, so why not be a little closer? We learned the value of bug spray on this adventure and were so thankful for the showers available at the campsite. It was a good evening and despite the lack of cell service, we had a great evening.
-LAH