Day 99

Miles 68.6 Total for trip 3885.25 Talk about an oasis. 70 miles of nothing but sagebrush. I climb over the last hill for the day and see this great river on the other side.

I would like to thank the great state of Wyoming for marking the roads that I needed to turn on for the last couple days. Without my odometer I would have been doing some guessing, but every road was marked.

Today was the long day. From A&M to my next stop was 68 miles with possibly no water until my destination. Last night the coyotes were howling(it sounded like a huge pack). I think I set up camp in their watering hole, my mistake. This morning I wished I had a fishing pole, the fish were jumping big time. I lucked out on the weather today it was overcast just about all day and I even got about a 30 minute rain shower. The area I was riding today was all sagebrush, no trees could be seen for the whole 68 miles. My water was doing ok, but I was not drinking as much as normal because of the lack of water. There was a Diagnus Well on my map at mile 57, but it is not always running. I stopped and walked the 1/4 mile to the well to check it out. Sure enough there was water running from the spicket, so I filled up on water there. I told myself if it was running I would camp there for the night, but it was not a good area to camp so I pushed on to Sweetwater River. I am glad I did, Sweetwater turned out to be a great spot to camp.

Day 98

Miles 56 Total for trip 3816.65 I stopped at a little gazebo on the way out of town to read a newspaper and eat breakfast. While I was there a family that was just visiting relatives in Boise stopped by and ate breakfast. they were on their way back home to Nebraska. Later in the day I passed by a biker and he started his trip in Boise, and went through Riggins and is now on his way to the coast. It is amazing how many people I have passed that just came from Boise.

As I was leaving Rawlins I saw a restaurant called China House. I wondered if that was the Chinese place Dan said he had the worst Chinese food ever? The restaurant claimed to have the best food in town. I am not sure who to believe. I got about 15 miles out of town and turned onto Mineral X Rd. I would call it the loneliest paved road in America. I was on it for 26 miles and only 3 cars passed me. I turned off the loneliest paved road in America towards my destination for the night, A&M Reservoir. There were many Pronghorns(see photo) along the route today. They were fast so this was the best picture I could get. I got to A&M around 6 pm and had a relaxing dinner and filtered enough water for the long haul tomorrow.

Day 97

Miles 25 Total for trip 3760.65

I woke up knowing I only had 25 miles to get to Rawlins WY so I was going to take it easy today. It was all pavement to Rawlins so it was one of my easiest days for a while. I met up with a couple riders going South. They had stayed in Rawlins for 2 days. They said that there was a third in their bike group, but the other had a bad fall and had to be taken to the hospital in Helena MT and could not go on. I road around Rawlins for quite a few miles today. It seems like an old quit town with not much going on, but there are many new hotels and the KOA camp ended up being quite full for a Sunday. It sounds like it is a stop along the way to and way back from Yellowstone.

Day 96

Miles 68.6 Total for trip 3735.65 The top photo is called Aspen Alley, there is a nice campsite after the trees, but it was too early in the day to stop so I kept on going.

I got out of camp today with around 3 liters of water thinking it would be plenty since I was going to be along a river for around 20 miles to start the day. I was along some great river scenery and saw a mansion in the middle of nowhere(see photo). Unfortunately all the river access was heavily fenced so I decided once I got to Hwy 710 into Wyoming I could find some water to access, the 710 did not have any, hopefully the 70 would have a creek running along side it. There was not any water the first 10 miles into WY, which were all up. I was trying to go lite on the water just in case I could not find any for awhile. I had my last drink around the top of the long hill. I was hoping the work center would have some. I got to the work center road and turned to find a great little creek. I took around a 30 minute break and filtered enough water to fill all of my water bottles and bags. My next turn was Aspen Alley, it was a great ride for the next 15 or so miles. The last 8 miles to camp was tough. Rolling hills that went up and down around 300 ft. I got to my designated campsite to find it was too marshy so I had to keep riding until I found a suitable spot along the side of the road.

Day 95

Miles 40.4 Total for trip 3667.05 (My odometer has bit the dust, until I can fix it or get a new one the miles are just an estimate off of my map)


I found the road out of Steamboat Springs, yes it was the road that was right across from Ace. It was a nice paved road for around 20 miles. I almost continued on the paved Hwy 129, but decided the dirt road that I had planed would have better scenery and less traffic. I did decide to take a paved alternate so I stayed on 62 and continued to the great city of Columbine. It was more of a row of cabins then a city. It seemed like a great getaway. It was only a short 6 miles to Steamboat Lake State Park and just a mile from some great dirt roads to see nice scenery. I ended the day early at the top of a good climb. There was a nice camp spot with some shade. I decided it would be nice to start tomorrow with a nice downhill.

Day 94

Miles 51.86 Total for trip 3626.65
Avg spd 11.18
Max spd 29.08
Climb 1614
Alt chng --1293
I had extra miles to go today, but I did all the hard riding yesterday so it should be a nice ride into Steamboat Springs. I was about 1/2 mile out of camp when I heard some loud splashing in the creek next to were I was riding. I stopped an saw a moose staring at me. I grabbed my camera and got some pictures before he could run away. He got out of the creek and ran a couple hundred feet down the road.

Today I road by the Stagecoach Reservoir, which is relatively new in reservoir years. It was started in 1983. There are a lot of nice houses around it. I got to ride a nice trail about 1/4 of the way around the reservoir, the trail ended up going right over the dam. It was a great ride today. I was riding by the Yampa River for most of the day. It is a nice little river that goes through Steamboat Springs and a lot of people ride tubes and rafts down it.

The above photo is me on the Stagecoach Dam.

I found a bike shop and picked up a bunch of spokes, co2, and a chain whip so I could replace all the bent spokes. I found I needed a larger wrench so I found an Ace Hardware on the edge of town. I worked on replacing the bent spokes for about 2 hours and put my bike back together so I could get out of town. Little did I know I was so fart out of town that the road I needed to turn on was right across from Ace. I got on the 40 and road for around 3 miles and saw the 42, which I should not have seen if I went the right way. My map showed the 42 would allow me to turn onto a road to get to the 44. I road on the 42 around 2 miles and the only roads I saw were private gated roads so I gave up and went back into town. It was 7.30 so I decided I had better stay at the overpriced RV park for the night. It was a good thing because the next day there was not a place to camp for around 25 miles, it was all private land.

Day 93

Miles 31.10 Total for trip 3574.79
Avg spd 5.50
Max spd36.74
Climb 4198
Alt chng++1282

After a good nights sleep I decided to go with my original planned route, which would take me near the Colorado River and have a lot of climbing for the day. I am glad it was Wednesday because the rafting traffic was bad. If it was the weekend it would have been terrible. I made it up the first climb with no troubles, it was the descent that I had some trouble with. I was shifting down, I was going to stop and take some pictures, when my chain went off track and got stuck in a bad way on my rear wheel. It turns out that 3 spokes were broke, many were bent, and my derailer will not go into granny gear any more.(I did get some good pictures) I worked on it for 1 1/2 hours or so to get it good enough to get to Steamboat Springs. The rear wheel was real wobbly, but it seemed ok to ride under 20 mph or so. I didn't have to worry about going too fast today since the majority of the day was going to be uphill. I was around 8 miles before my planned campsite, but I was tired and I found a nice hunter's campsite so I decided to stop for the day.