Day Twenty Eight - Travel Day, Poudre Canyon

We stayed at another hotel with no breakfast service, so once we were awake at 6:10 AM, all we had to do was load the bikes and go. It felt "cool" when we first started to load so we turned on the tube and heard a weather report that Grand Lake (which we visited yesterday 25 miles away) was reporting 32 degrees! I could hardly believe my ears. I checked the thermometer on the bike and said 48 degrees, so it was cold. As a result, I donned my heated liner and my rain jacket. We were rolling at 6:47 AM.

Day 28 track

It was very foggy, though initially the fog was a couple hundred feet off the surface. As soon as we got rolling, the temp dropped from 48 down to 41. The photo below is a little blurry due to the lack of light because of the fog. We would run a few miles on US-40 back towards Granby before making the turn northward on Hwy 125.

High fog right after start of today's ride

The photo above was taken 16 miles after we started the day. We are on Hwy 125 at 8460 ft of elevation and climbing up towards Willow Creek Pass. It;s now 41 degrees and I haven't yet turned on my heated liner, but I DO have my grip heaters set on medium-low. Soon after this we ran up into the fog and it was "pea-soup" for a while. Between the poor visibility and the twisty road I couldn't manage any photos while riding. Shortly before we got to the Willow Creek Pass, we rose above the fog bank and into the sunny skies, but the temps had dropped to 37 degrees. I clicked on my heated liner and it felt good. At the 28 mile mark since we started we crested Willow Creek Pass at 9,659 ft. We also crossed the continental divide again. From here we would begin a descent of 1500 ft which would take another 30 miles. For a while it was cold, but clear as the next photo shows as we run across some new pavement not yet finished in the opposite lane. We did come across a big fat woodchuck near the edge of the road, but he scampered back into the woods as we swooped by.

In the clear after crossing Willow Creek Pass

We were hoping it would be clear like this the rest of the day, but that was not to be. Another 10 minutes down the road we ran into this. Note the line of clouds formation off to the left in this photo.

Fog is back and thick!

 At this point we are just trying to stay on the road, hoping no deer, moose or other critters cross the road, and stay warm. We know there is a restaurant waiting ahead for us in Walden, so we're intent on getting there for breakfast. Not far after this photo we came across a couple hundred foot stretch of road with heavy deposits of HAIL along the sides! I couldn't get my camera out quick enough to catch that.Finally, at just before 8:00 AM we reached Walden and our oasis in the cold - The Moose Creek Cafe.

Moose Creek Cafe - with local ranchers hanging out on the front porch

Here's a menu item you don't see very often - certainly not back east -

Rocky Mountain Oysters

We got breakfast and lots of coffee and sat a while hoping the fog would clear. It did lift a bit, but after nearly an hour we decided to press on. We are now heading out on CO-14 which would turn out to be the STAR of the day. 14 would take us up into the Roosevelt National Forest, and then over Cameron Pass (10,276 ft).

On the way up to Cameron Pass

This whole stretch approaching Cameron Pass was very scenic with lots of evergreens, silhouetted against the rugged mountainsides and the blue skies with puffy white clouds it was just beautiful. Unfortunately the wi-fi at this hotel is so poor I cannot post as many photos as I'd like...

The descent down from Cameron Pass was equally as scenic and twisty in places as well so it made for a really sweet ride.

CO-14 descending from Cameron Pass

At this point, we are now entering Poudre Canyon (pronounced "poo-der") and the road will snake along with the Poudre River as both descend into the canyon. It gets steeper and twistier for a while, and even has a waterfall for the river which we didn't stop to photograph. I mean, the splendor is so great that if we stopped for every photo opportunity we'd never get anywhere! I am trying hard to catch photos of the river to the side of the road, but every time I pull the camera out, the river splits away from the road or the vegetation obscures it. When holding the camera with my left hand so I can take a photo, I cannot operate the shift lever so I can't just keep the camera out the whole time. Eventually, I get tired of the cat and mouse game and Larry is getting warm so we stop to shed a layer and I get this photo of the Poudre River.

A quiet section of the river

Eventually I do manage a shot of the river from the saddle and the river is running pretty good here.

Poudre River alongside CO-14

The road continues along the river and through an ever narrower canyon in places making it twistier and more exciting. Fortunately for us there is very little traffic so we are able to enjoy the majority as we like. We did stop in a few places and took pictures, including a group of rafters coming down a rapids.

Rafting - very popular here!

We finally reach the northern limits of Fort Collins where we make our way across city streets over to I-25 which we get on headed north. Here is our last look at the Colorado Rockies as we head north in I-25 towards Wyoming.

The Rockies from I-25 north of Fort Collins

We had seen oil pumps before, but not for a few days so here was one shortly after we got into Wyoming on I-25.

Oil Pump in the field

From here we would head on up I-25 through Cheyenne, and then a few miles north of town turn onto US-85 for the last leg on up to Torrington Wyoming. We made a stop at a rest area where we chatted up a trucker, Bob, who was envious of our trip. I hope we convinced him to retire and go for it! Had more pictures but cannot post due to poor internet.

Today's Stats: 281.5 miles in 8:11 Elapsed time, 5:14 saddle time.