Day 49-A Day Without Forward Progress in Dillon, CO

For our third day off of this tour, we went back along the bike path, and off route a tiny bit to Dillon, CO. I first made a stop at the post office to mail some Yellowstone t-shirts I had bought for my grandkids…been carrying those for awhile.

Then I met Doug over at the REI. I wanted to get a second pair of shorts for Kansas. The heat might necesitate going back to wearing my bike shorts with no unders. I found some Terry shorts that have a longer leg. I’ll be able to wear them without the over shorts. Now watch…because I got those shorts, it’s going to be ultra cool in Kansas!!! Which, of course, would be okay! I also got another pair of cycling gloves. Mine were pretty skanky, even though I washed them every time we’ve done laundry. Doug went back to do the same. While he was in REI, I added sealant to Tilmann’s front tire. I had brought it with me in case I needed to borrow a floor pump from REI. My frame pump worked fine. 

Conveniently, the grocery store, City Market, was right next to REI. It’s too bad we have a huge climb tomorrow, there was a good selection of food. We only got the minimum to get us over Hoosier Pass. 

By the time we finished getting what we needed, it was lunch time. The thing about this area is that everything is on a hill. That limited our lunch options severely (after all, this is supposed to be a rest day). We ended up at a Jimmy Johns, which is not my favorite. 

We rode back to the campsite. Along the way, I took a couple photos. 

Tilmann ready to go to town. 

The part of the path that goes along the Dam Rd. 

The other side of the dam from the top. We came from Silverthorne down below, yesterday. 

Zoomed in, you can see the path going up to the dam. 

I rode down an off-shoot of the path to see this “Historic view”. Yeah, it’s just the same view of the reservoir. 

A thunderstorm was brewing, but we managed to get everything put away before it hit. I even had time to rewrap my handlebar tape (I had had to rewrap it way back at Paradise Campground the night before McKenzie Pass. I guess it lasted pretty long).

We retreated to our tents during the storm. The people we met at Hot Sulphur Springs (both the Germans and the Dutch) rolled in and got set up on the next site over just before the storm too. I enjoyed a bit of a nap during the storm. 

Now it is still cloudy, and there is a possibility of more storming, but it’s not raining, and everything is drying out. We are crossing our fingers that we make it over Hoosier tomorrow before the next rain comes. It’s supposed to rain around noon tomorrow. We have about 23 miles to the top. Best get an early start!