A Glacier Experience - Day 2

Day 2 - Sunday, June 24 – Wray CO to Steamboat Springs CO

I set my alarm for 5:30 AM MST.  Kathy woke up at 4:30 AM MST, thinking it was 5:30 because her phone did not pick up the local time change, where mine did.  Not sure what happened there.  Anyway after tossing and turning for around 40 minutes more, I got up and began the packing for this second day.  Around 6:00 AM, our neighbors in the motel were getting ready to head out for work.  One of the guys looked like he wasn’t too happy about that, but I can understand why.  I wouldn’t want to be working on a Sunday either.  The truck said ‘Mobile Home Installers’ and as the story goes, there was understanding abounds.  If you still need more information, it went something like this.  Skeery!

Foggy Start in Colorado

We packed up and headed west via 34 Hwy.  It was a pretty foggy start as we passed several cow farms, cow feeding farms, stink farms, and lots of cows.  I mean a lot of cows!  As ‘Dean’ a blogger I found through a quick google search stated on http://catbirdblues.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/oregon-trail-day-2-2/

But the idyllic ranches along I-80 was a thing of Nebraska. I was in eastern Colorado now: the land of factory farmed cows. Along my route down I-76 since entering Julesburg, I was witnessing the monstrosity of the giant feedlots for what would be the first time. I’d seen chicken and egg factory farms in Illinois, Iowa, other states, and even Israel, but not these. Every dozen or less miles was another concentration camp. I was driving about 72 miles per hour and it would take me over a minute to pass up these bio-generators from end-to-end. (Check out Google Maps: A mile and 15 miles north-east of Sterling. A mile from the Brush Municipal Airport. A half-mile east of the Empire Reservoir.)

The largest of all was not a filthy, ugly, barren dairy cow factory (with hundreds of “replacement calf” shelters), but a “beef” feedlot–much like the one seen in the opening scene of Food Inc.–on US-32, one mile outside of Kersey. Google maps confirmed my mental note that these were “mile-long factory farms.” The shit lagoons alone were the size of city blocks in Chicago. From the satellite image, the factory farm not only has more bovine inhabitants than the entire population of humans in the town of it belongs to; it is also larger than the entire down town area. A city within a city.

According to my friend in Greeley, the people (in general) are quite proud of their agri-business. It’s not something to hide, but to embrace as part of their identity. (The local roller derby team name is Slaughterhouse). This was even the case several years ago, before legislation was passed banning the burning of blood at rendering plants. The smell and toxins under the right (or wrong) wind conditions could fill the city for days and even reach Fort Collins, 20 miles to the northwest.

Big Thompson Road Nearing Estes Park

Enough about that…  Our first stop was going to be near Fort Morgan for breakfast, which we landed at, yet again, another McDonald’s.  I know I just ranted, through Dean, about cow farms, but have you had one of their steak breakfast burritos yet?  If not, I suggest you try one.  As we made it through Greeley then Loveland, we stopped for gas and spoke with some locals about the fires around Fort Collins and even in Estes Park the day before.  A couple of the guys, one with handlebar mustache, provided us with some advice of not trying to go through Estes Park of Rocky Mountain National Park to get to Granby due to the park being shut down on Saturday.  Turns out there was a house fire on Saturday, which spread in the Estes area and got 21 homes and 20 acres total, but they had it under control and in ‘mop up’ stage.  Once we got in to the Estes Park area, we were met with some of the local smoke.   However, the first part of the pass was awesome as we ran on Big Thompson Canyon Road next to the Big Thompson River. 

Chilling Chipmunk

We made it up to the Estes Park Visitors Center to get some information about the fires from someone we thought would have good info.  After we chatted with the park ranger behind the information desk, we proceeded up the northern pass towards the fee gate.  Once at the gate, I approached the ranger collecting fees about an annual pass.  Turns out, if one bike rider signs the $80 America The Beautiful annual national park pass, and if another one signs it, both bikes get in, regardless of passengers having a pass or not.  So, Ronnie and I split the fee and headed up the mountain.

Chipmunk saying 'Cheese!'

Since we had a long first day, we took it pretty easy and had plenty of stops.  The altitude gets up there pretty quickly, so not to far up, we paused and made friends with a pretty cute chipmunk.  The traffic was pretty heavy as well, presumably due to not being open the day prior.  The wildlife was not as prevalent as what we would have hoped, but we heard there were Elk near the top.  Sure enough, we got near Medicine Bow Curve and there they were, around 20 of them.  We paused again; I took some photos then continued down the pass towards Granby.  We arrived at the Brick House 40 for lunch and a beer, but as it turns out, they only have a buffet breakfast brunch on Sunday mornings (and expensive drinks).  So we had one and motored down a couple blocks to Maverick’s Grille, which donned ‘biker friendly’ signage out front.  We ate, we drank (water), and we had a great experience. 

Estes Park / Rocky Mountain National Park

Once done with lunch, we had a little bit more left in us, so we headed towards Steamboat Springs.  We got to a gas station and began calling local hotels and motels for availability and rates.  After a few calls, Kathy landed a couple rooms at the La Quinta. 2 king beds for us, 1 king bed for Ronnie and Theresa, and adjoining rooms.  This was probably going to be the best hotel of the trip for the price, since this ski town is proud of their area and the hotels know it.  $79 each room, plus tax – we thought we got a great deal, since most were around $149 per room everywhere else!  We had some beer at the hotel, enjoyed the indoor pool and hot tub, then ordered dominoes pizza and hit the beds around 10:00 PM.  Heck, John Wu, the front desk guy even gave us bike rags to wipe our bikes off in the morning.  What a nice gesture!

Other highlights:

·      National/State Parks: Rocky Mountain National Park; Roosevelt National Forest; Routt National Forest

·      Miles: ~ 350

·      Route Map: http://tinyurl.com/0624-Day2


Click Here for Day 3!