Day 31 - Steamboat Springs - Brush Mountain Lodge

Said goodbye to Michelle and Steve and got back on the road to roll out of town for a pavement section to Clark where I stopped for a breakfast sandwich and the resupply that I didn’t get in Steamboat. 

From there it was back on the dirt and up the main climb of the day. Steve had warned me that the road was rough and after riding round a gate that said ‘road closed’ I understood what he meant. The nice smooth gravel road abruptly changed to the kind of boulder field last seen in northern New Mexico. 

At the base of the climb I met Ryan and Jodie, a nice couple from Montana who I’d leapfrog for the rest of the day and share an evening with at Brush Mountain. I tackled the rocky ascent as best I could, thankful for the regular plateaus where I could take a breather. Once over the top I could see why the road was closed, with many felled trees blocking the way which required carrying the bike over or ducking under. The surface soon gave way to gravel once again for a fast approach towards BML. 

As I got closer I saw an increasing number of Tour Divide racers going the other way and around five or six were at the lodge when I arrived, including the leading woman. They all looked slightly glassy eyed as they gobbled up their rice and energy drinks before trying to get back on the road as quickly as possible. We were able to share some stories of what was to come in each direction and one guy informed me he was averaging around 18 hours riding a day, which made me extremely glad I didn’t have to go any further. But there was no sense of superiority and they were extremely friendly towards and interested in us humble tourers. 

There was a steady trickle of racers throughout the evening as those of us staying the night relaxed on the porch and Ryan, Jodie and I plotted how we were going to tackle the next section. Later in the evening Chris pulled into the lodge and it was good to catch up to hear how his last few days had been.

It’s about 85 miles to Rawlins and then a 120 mile stretch through the desolate Great Divide Basin with no services and very little natural water. Probably the least enticing stretch on the whole route.