Bicycling Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado and New Mexico - 2006

Walden to Granby, CO

June 21, 2006
Distance 56.8 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 2,185 feet

Today was a rest day and we cycled 56.8 miles because there was no room in the inn. When we got up this morning we called the office to see if we could rent the room for another night and we were told that the motel was sold out for the evening. So we quickly packed, ate breakfast and headed for Granby. For the first 25 miles, it looked as if we were still in Wyoming. However, we kept being passed by logging trucks coming from the south or going south. We rode our bicycle into the town of Rand, population very small. A few miles later we were suddenly in trees, it was wonderful to smell the pine. The first trees we saw were those left after the forest was logged. The trees were 40 to 50 feet tall and less than 1/2 foot in diameter. All the trees with a greater diameter had been cut for timber.

We continued on Hwy 125 south and began to climb. The problem was that we would climb up a 5% grade for 1 to 2 hundred feet and then we would come upon a roller. The problem was that by the time we ran out of speed and were again grinding out the next 5% grade climb, we were usually 20 feet lower than before the roller started. In addition, all this was happening at greater than 8,500 feet altitude. This happened at least 3 times before we began what became a 2.5 mile climb to the top of Willow Creek Pass at 9,621 feet and we passed from the Atlantic side of the Continental Divide to the Pacific side.

Then the fun began because we went 5 miles with out ever slowing to less than 30 mph and we went another 10 miles at more than 20 mph most of the time. We traveled 15 miles in a very short time. Someone upstairs was watching us for all the way up we were passed by travel trailers and logging trucks. On the fast way down we did not see one vehicle coming down or going up, we had the whole road to ourselves until we were very near the bottom of the descent.

When we arrived in Granby we were tired and picked the first motel that was near the center of town. We were not overly pleased with the motel, but it was a roof over our heads. We then walked up to the center of town for supper, and saw a very nice clean motel, so we made arrangements to change motels tomorrow morning and we will spend tomorrow resting in Granby.