After my post the other day, i continued down from vail through very cold, very wet weather. Luckily, it was all downhill, else i likely would have blown three days budget on an overpriced hotel room. I set up my tent in the rain and holed up in there around 6:00 and just read all night. The next day (yesterday) i woke up to a bright, sunny (albeit chilly) morning. I let the tent dry while i finished my book, and hit the road towards glenwood springs.
When i reached the closed bike path, i decided to just go for it and see how bad it was. The part i rode was mostly okay, just a lot of spots covered in slippery river silt (which thoroughly covered my bike). However, there was one spot i needed to haul my bike over a floating log jam, and a few spots i needed to push through water, one of which was about three feet deep through a tunnel, so i had to shuttle my bags first, then my bike. I realized that this is another benefit of touring with other people: when you do something crazy (like wading your bike through the Colorado River), you have someone to document it, or at least verify that it happened! In the end, i still had to hitch a ride : I got to a locked gate, and at that point the river was pretty raging. Luckily, i was at a turnout for a hiking trail, and it didn’t take long for me to convince someone to give me a lift.
I’m definitely leaving the mountains behind as i slowly descend into the desert.
