{"id":512,"date":"2016-07-07T04:40:32","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T04:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=512"},"modified":"2017-04-24T14:53:53","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T14:53:53","slug":"into-steamboat-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/07\/07\/into-steamboat-springs\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, July 7 Into STEAMBOAT SPRINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>We had a very varied roadwalk this morning after we packed up and left the hay barn. (We asked God’s blessing on the Russells for letting us stay there!) We watched a cattle roundup and talked to workmen repairing a railing by the road\u2014it was installed 1 1\/2 years ago and has already been smashed 3 times!<\/p>\n

Hitching into<\/span> Steamboat Springs was easy\u2014they were stopping traffic on Hwy 40 because of roadwork. We just walked along the line of cars! Steamboat is a very lively place\u2014we are almost done now with town chores and glad of the rest (for 24 hours anyway).<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>I was very glad to have an ant-free, nice dry place to stay in the Russell’s haybarn, but was a bit concerned about whether I’d find myself sneezing this morning from hayfever allergies.\u00a0 No problem–just one or two little sniffles.\u00a0 The mosquitoes hung around all night last night and were still waiting for us this morning, so we wasted no time in packing up and putting back the pallets we’d borrowed in order to set up the tent last night.\u00a0 Then we asked God’s blessing on the Russells for their hospitality, and headed off along Hwy 14, to rejoin the CDT.<\/p>\n

Awhile later we found a ranch driveway where we could stop and eat breakfast, leaning comfortably on the highway railing, but well out of the way.\u00a0 While we were chewing on our very last bit of granola, the ranch folks headed out with two big trailers full of horses all saddled and bridled and ready to go…somewhere.\u00a0 We exchanged waves with them.\u00a0 The horses around here (we have seen a lot of them so far!) are beautiful, and it looks like a classic Colorado scene: green pasture with horses and in the background, the snowy mountain peaks.<\/p>\n

At midmorning Snickers break time, we reached a place where the highway was closed down to one lane, because there was a whole crew there repairing the railing.\u00a0 We stopped to eat our snack, and I went over to talk to one of the guys and to look carefully at how the railing was constructed.\u00a0 Usually we’re driving in a car and there’s no chance to really look at details like that.\u00a0 The guy told me that the reason for the railings on this stretch of road is that there’s quite an embankment on both sides, and it’s curved–the result was many cars (which were speeding) literally flying off the edge and plunging down into the little valley below.\u00a0 Finally the state highway department decided, “Enough of this!” and had a railing constructed.\u00a0 The result?\u00a0 No more cars flying over the edge.\u00a0 Instead, they slam into the new guard rail, careen across to the other side and slam into that guard rail, etc.\u00a0 In the last 1 1\/2 years since the railing was put up, they’ve had to do serious repair work on it 3 times.\u00a0 And now they are having to repair it yet again.<\/p>\n

A few miles farther, we had the fun of watching a sort of mini-roundup, involving 3 cowboys, a dog, and some black Angus cattle.\u00a0 The cows made a brief attempt at getting away, but finally they were rounded up and herded off, mooing in…resignation?\u00a0\u00a0 We walked on, swatting at mosquitoes, which were pretty bad, but at around 10:30, the wind started to blow, and that took care of them.\u00a0 However, we had a new concern–more and more signs along Hwy. 14 warned us of extensive highway work ahead on Hwy 40, going into Steamboat Springs.\u00a0 We wondered how that might affect us.\u00a0 We were very glad when we reached the junction where the CDT joined up with Hwy 14–yay, we were back on “trail”, but our water supplies were just about gone when we reached Hwy. 40, and it was so warm by then that we were awfully thirsty.\u00a0 As we approached the junction, I saw a truck with a horse trailer just sitting there.\u00a0 I am not one bit ashamed to beg for water, so I RAN to it (good thing I did–they were just starting to pull away when I got there) and asked if they had any water to spare.\u00a0 Yes, they did, and even gave me some cold Gatorade, too!<\/p>\n

So we sat in a little bit of shade and ate the last of our food and drank the Gatorade before beginning the walk up Hwy 40 towards Steamboat Springs.\u00a0 Our plan was to follow the highway until the CDT left it and headed back into the mountains.\u00a0 At that point, we would hitch into town.\u00a0\u00a0 As we walked along, a couple of bike riders caught up with us–a father and his young daughter.\u00a0 Since there was quite a hill, they got off their bikes and walked with us to talk, which was really fun.\u00a0 Finally we got to where the cars were being stopped by a flag lady; she saw us and gave us a very cheerful lecture on “how to WALK through a roadwork zone.”\u00a0 The essence of it was, “Stay WAY out of the way of the guys who are working.”\u00a0 We went on through with no problems, reached the CDT turnoff, and followed it to a campground.<\/p>\n

At that point we said, “OK, time to hitch!”\u00a0 and started walking leisurely along the campground road back toward Hwy 40.\u00a0 We got our first ride from an older couple who were out looking at wildflowers (yes, there sure were a lot of those!)\u00a0 They dropped us off at the highway, and we found a long line of cars there, waiting for another flag lady to signal them on through.\u00a0 So at that point, we just walked along the line asking for a ride into town, until we ended up with another really nice couple who actually LIVE in their trailer (which they were towing).\u00a0 It turns out that they spend their winters working at Zion National Park, then spend their summers travelling.\u00a0 They were very happy to meet us and hear some trail tales as we rode down into Steamboat Springs.<\/p>\n

Down in town, we got a room at Rabbit Ears Motel and tackled the usual chores: 1) Shower!!\u00a0 2) Food!! (which I got from the Natural Grocery, right across the street–really great stuff we have not had in months)\u00a0 3) Get the resupply box!!\u00a0 4)\u00a0 More food!! (at a pub which was having a halfprice special on their hamburgers!) and 5) Sleep!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 We had a very varied roadwalk this morning after we packed up and left the hay barn. (We asked God’s blessing on the Russells for letting us stay there!) We watched a cattle roundup and talked to workmen repairing a railing by the road\u2014it was installed 1 1\/2 years ago and has already been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colorado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions\/884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}