LOBAA40/41 - Sawmill Gulch Campground - 14 miles south of Willow Creek Pass, CO

6/25/26/08 Wed MDT
LOBAA40/41 - Sawmill Gulch Campground - 14 miles south of Willow Creek
Pass, CO
Sally bike mileage/time 84 / 5:50:35
Sally Total 2814.18
Bill bike mileage/time 21.3 / 1:51:11
Bill Total 976.9
Jim mileage 80.9
Jim total 7265.9

Sally:
I'm recounting yesterday (Wednesday's ride) from a peaceful spot we
ended up at -- a primitive forest service campground about 12 miles
from another crossing of the continental divide. We are at something
around 8000 ft and it;s nice to be lower and warmer and in this quiet
place. So we decided to stop for a day and enjoy it while we plan the
next couple of weeks. So back to yesterday. We started out by taking a
wrong turn, left instead of right, which led to quite a bit of
confusion before we finally got it figured out. Well we have to live
up to the name of this ride I guess. It had been so easy for miles,
Highway 96 for over 300 miles! The congestion of the Breckenridge/
Silverthorne area didn't help anything. We've come to dislike the
cities and crowds, it's much better when we our out on our own.
Anyway, once we got back on highway 9 and riding out of town all was
great. The wildflowers were gorgeous and I finally made myself stop
and take some pictures. The scenery was beautiful in every direction
with snow-capped peaks behind green slopes. The day warmed slowly, for
awhile it looked like rain, but that finally backed off and it turned
into a perfect day. I had planned to ride short, but after stopping at
a forest service office to ask about campgrounds and learning of this
one, I really wanted to get here. I was feeling good, so after
stopping for lunch (the MOST delicious fresh -local- spinach salad
with strawberries and walnuts) in Hot Sulphur Springs we decided to
keep going. Oh I forgot to say how stunning the Colorado River Valley
was just outside of Kremmling. It was meandering through a huge green
meadow with the snow-capped mountains in the background. So
picturesque. I'm sure it's great fishing. Further on the river changed
dramatically to a fast-dropping white water plunge through a narrow
rock-cliffed canyon. Critters of note today were a marmot and a fox. I
got photos of the fox! I was stopped to take pictures of a neat cliff
and as I looked over the edge of the dam I was standing on, there was
a fox looking at me! Since I had the camera in hand I was ready for
once. Just after that a security guy showed up from who knows where
and told me I couldn't stop on the dam. He didn't even care that there
was a fox right over the edge. Oh well it made my day.
Bill:
The Breckenridge/Silverthorne area has a great number of bicycle
trails and while Sally rode on them Tuesday during a heavy bike
traffic period, Wed morning when we left camp (after our LOBAA moment)
the trails were smooth and wide and meandered around the lake where we
were camped and along the dam that makes the lake. The path then
went down to the bottom of the dam via a series of switchbacks and the
scenery from atop the dam was breathtaking in both senses of the word
as we were still near 10,000' in altitude. Wednesday night Sally made
us a yummy pasta salad which should last another night and this
morning I started our first campfire of the LOBAA ride and made most
of the breakfast. The breakfast of eggs with peppers, cheese and
onions and toast with jam tasted yummy in front of the campfire. I
washed my cycling clothes in the river on our day off and hung them on
the line to dry - should dry quicker than in a laundry dryer! There
are lots of signs of moose around here (as in moose droppings) and the
very nice and chatty local ranger couple who came by to service the
area warned of bears as well ... so we put the food in the dog house
(Jimmy) with Wally. This campsite, though primitive and without
potable water, is probably the nicest of the trip. I really stumbled
onto our specific site ... there was a woman here when I arrived and
she was sitting near the stream in what was the primo spot of this
small campground. I commented to her that she sure had the best spot
and she said that they were camped at another campground and she and
her husband had just come here to fish. So we shared the spot until
her husband got back from his successful fishing upriver and then we
had the spot to ourselves.