I stayed with Rick and Dana for another night and left
their place the next day (June 11th) around 11pm. I took Hwy85 up north
until I hit Hwy14, which led me west through Ft. Collins, Laporte, up to
Poudre Pk., along the river "Cache
La Poudre" and through the Roosevelt Natl. Forest. I crossed the Medicine
Bow Mts. at the Cameron Pass (10.276 ft.), cruised
through vast cattle farming areas and still following
Hwy14 I finally reached Steamboat Springs.
Rick had told me about a place close to Steamboat, which
is called "Strawberry Springs". It's a natural hot spring in the mountains
and despite the 6 mls of unpaved dirt road I decided to follow Rick's recommendation
and stay there for the night. Well, the road was that bad, it took me almost
an hour to get there, but in the end it sure was worth it!! The guy
who owns this place has build a few very small cottages that he rents (no
electricity, no water :-) , a small campground, and two pools in which
he collects the hot water from the spring.
The only drawback is, he doesn't sell any food or drinks
there, only bottled water... boy, I was sitting in that hot tub, hallucinating
of an ice cold six-pack !! ;-)
Unfortunately, all the pictures I took from that place
are gone, you'll hear later how that happened...
The next morning I left early, took Hwy131 until it hits
I70 in Wolcott. From there I called John Bevins to see what he's doing
that night and he said he's free. So I headed back east on I70 into Denver,
looked for a Harley Dealership and found Freedom-HD. I bought 3 quarts
of motor oil and a filter, and when I asked the guys in the service dept.,
they borrowed me a drain pan so I could do the oil change in the parking
lot.
After I was done with that, I tried to call John on his
mobile, but whenever I tried, I got a "...could not connect..." message.
A little later in the afternoon it started to rain pretty bad, so I took
shelter at a gas station, had a little lunch and tried again a couple of
times to call John, but again, no luck. Sorry John, that it didn't worked
out :-(
So finally I took I70 westwards again and made it to Glennwood
Springs that evening where I stopped at a Motel. When I asked the lady
at the front desk if she'd have a save and dry place for my bike, she yelled
over to her husband: "Oh my gosh, we gotta find a good place for his bike,
otherwise he'll put it right into the room!!" And with a smile she turned
to me and said: "I know you guys, my dad's one of you and he does that
all the time." :-)
from Colorado to California...