Day 26

Before we can start to talk about the events of Day 26 we need to cover the late Evening of Day 25 and how it had an impact on the rest of the trip.  Char and I started walking from our hotel in Glenwood Springs towards a local park where we were informed there would be a major fireworks show for Independence day.  As we passed a Shell station there was a nice couple who maybe sensed we were indecisive on where we were heading and invited us to join them in their lawn chairs on the lawn of the station property.

It turns out they were the owners of the station a fellow by the name of Greg Beightel and his Wife who I never caught her name.  While watching the fireworks Greg asked us where we were from and I gave my standard response of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was about to start to explain as I have had to this entire trip but Greg immediately responded with several responses and questions that showed he was pretty up on Canadian Geography.  It turns out there is likely very few roads in the USA and a lot of Canada that Greg hasn't seen from the seat of a motorcycle.

After asking us about our travels to date Greg asked us our plans for the next few days of riding.  I told Greg we were basically looking at slabbing it to Denver and then onto Cheyenne, WY before hitting some secondary highways on the way to South Dakota.  Well by the time we left Greg's office at the station he had mapped us out some must ride roads with only 40 miles of super slab between here and Rapid City, S.D.

So if you are ever in Glenwood Springs, CO and need fuel, or want some info on great roads to ride then stop by and see Greg at the Glenwood Shell at the corner of 6th and route 82.

Day 26 was originally planned to be an off day after 3 straight days of riding but Char and I discussed how we seem to be hitting a wall physically during the trip and decided to alter our plans.  So from here until we arrive home we are going to skip taking days off and instead reduce our miles covered per day.  We both seem to be getting a bit saddle sore at this point with rest stops coming quicker each day so hopefully this approach will help.

With this plan in mind we planned a very short day today and with Greg's help mapped out an interesting ride to Steamboat Springs, CO which I figured might provide some interesting places to visit with the extra time we would have upon arrival.  We got off to a leisurely start later in the morning and immediately hit I-70 East bound coming out of Glenwood Springs.  Considering this was going to be our only 40 miles of slab time it was actually about as interesting a ride as you could expect on an Interstate.  The first 20 miles or so was through Canyons before opening up into rolling hills.

We left the Interstate at Wolcott and got on route 131 which was another wonderful motorcycle road (they seem to be endless in this part of the state) and headed North towards route 134.  Before heading onward on 134 we stopped at the small burg of Toponas for a coffee for Char.  This country store was a prime candidate for a spot on the show Hoarders.  There was literally piles of stuff everywhere you looked.

Apparently anything can be recycled as a planter!

In my younger days I could put away the beer pretty good but I don't recall buying Budweiser by the gallon!

Shortly after going over Gore pass (9527 elev.) on route 134 we came upon this lady fly fishing in a very small stream.  She had caught several small Brook trout and had just released a 12" rainbow trout as we were pulling up.  Spent a few minutes talking with her husband who it turns out is also Canadian having grown up in Val D'Or Quebec.

We turned off route 134 and headed North on Highway 40 towards Steamboat, part of why we took this route besides Gore pass was to come over Rabbit Ears pass. Rabbit Ears gets it's name from having two summits giving it the rabbit ear look.  We were around 9600 elev. but I was shocked at how much snow was still in the tree lines in this area.

As you descend from the second Rabbit Ears summit you get some great views of the lake as you approach Steamboat Springs.

This is Carl Howelsen who ws the father of skiing in Colorado.  He started a ski area right across the river from downtown Steamboat and a Winter carnival tradition that is still alive today.

With only riding a short distance today we needed to find a way to fill some of our time.  Char had no trouble with this task as seen here.

This is a view of Howelsen hill across the Yampa river from Downtown Steamboat.

Mileage covered today was 243.4 km bringing our trip total to 7694.6 km.