It was a beautiful day when we arrived in Steamboat Springs. Beautiful! Not a cloud in the sky. We finally got away from the rain.
Saturday afternoon in August… Steamboat Springs was packed. Still, we found a place to park in the shade and checked in at a local bike shop. The guy there let us fill our water containers from their spigot, and gave us some info on dispersed camping (which is free) on an area called Buffalo Pass Road.
There is a rodeo that happens every Friday and Saturday night during the summer in Steamboat, and I sure would have liked to have seen it. But it started at 7:30, and that meant we would have been searching for a campsite in total darkness. So after getting what we needed in town, we headed up.
Good thing. Just about every site was occupied, and there was a reason the empty ones were empty. Mostly the reason was level-ness. It was hard to find a flat spot along Buffalo Pass Road. We have a leveling kit but these sites were just too much.
There are small offshoot roads from Buffalo Pass Road. We took the first one – and I immediately got a lesson in how to read a topo map. This road was steep and it went straight down. Too narrow to turn around, we made it all the way to the bottom. And the bottom site was occupied. The nice couple occupying it offered to make room for us, and that would have been fine if the site had been a little bigger. As it was, it took a 6-point turn to get us turned around.
Higher and higher we went along Buffalo Pass Road. Then another offshoot road appeared. I checked the map – the grade was much gentler, so we took it. The guy at the bike shop had told us this area was a bit of a free-for-all, and we found this to be true. People just pull off the road and set up shop wherever there’s a fire ring.
And that’s exactly what we did. Michael found us a nice, (fairly level!) site with a huge view. We even had enough time to appreciate a fabulous sunset while Michael made dinner.
The next day, the purge began. Downsizing is hard, and not in the way I thought it would be. I’m no hoarder, and I don’t have a problem getting rid of things. We are just living in such a small space. Every time I want to get out my laptop, I have to wade through a sea of stuff. How much of it do we really need?
We spread out a tarp and went to work. First on the dufflebag full of our clothes. It’s a big bag, and it holds a lot of things. And we got rid of a lot. Extra t-shirts, mostly. Extra everything. I mean, do I really need three Buffs?
We organized the rest of the rig, too. It’s not perfect. It might never be. But we’re a work in progress, and we made good progress today.
I mentioned earlier that this campsite had a fabulous view. Did I also mention that Michael checked the weather before we left town? Over the weekend, the chance for rain was 0%. Zero! That’s the number I kept repeating as we watched the storm clouds approach, complete with lots of lightning.
Well, at least we had plenty of time to put everything away. And we weren’t surprised when the first big, fat raindrops fell.
*&@(! rain. Is it following us or something?!? At least there were no bears.
Monday morning was clear, and we broke down camp and headed into town. We splurged on breakfast out – I have to say that it was okay, but not really worth what we paid for it. I guess Aunt Alice’s Restaurant in Longmont spoiled us. (We were such regulars there that we told the staff about our trip, so they wouldn’t wonder why we suddenly stopped coming in.)
Anyway – by the time all the necessary stuff we had to do was done, it was 1pm. Our next stop is Lander, Wyoming, and that’s a five hour drive. Michael suggested we get moving.
I suggested that we ride the trails at Emerald Mountain, hit up the Hot Springs for a shower and a soak, and then camp along Buffalo Pass Road for one more night. After all, most of the sites were empty and we could camp a lot closer to town.
Michael agreed. We found a place to park along the river, with shade, and set out on our bikes. Emerald Mountain is a blast! We learned from another rider that the area used to be a bunch of horse trails, and that the mountain bike trails here were specifically constructed to have no more than a 5% grade. We took some fun trails – Lupine had some nice, rocky sections. We came down a swoopy trail called NPR. Not sure what the initials stand for, but this trail reminded me of a trail in Fruita called PBR. There, the PBR stands for Pumps, Bumps, and Rollers. No matter – NPR was a super fun way to get back down the mountain.
The Steamboat Springs Hot Springs are wonderful. Those of you familiar with the area may wonder why we didn’t go to Strawberry Park Hot Springs – it’s because they don’t have shower facilities. The soak was a nice way to end the day, but we were both really after a shower.
Actually, the soak was even better than the shower.
Look out, Lander, here we come!