As Steamboat seems like a nice place, I decided to stay for a rest day. Also because I had ridden for five days and have a big pass outside Steamboat.
There is a bike path all along the river through town. Really convenient for getting around plus it means you aren’t on the road. It is a beautiful ride with the river and cottonwoods. I spent an hour in the new, beautiful library copying files from my GoPro memory cards onto the hard disk. I wanted to go up to the Strawberry hot springs but the shuttle bus stopped running a couple days before. It is in between seasons. Ski season starts after thanksgiving.
Instead I visited the world headquarters of Honey Stringer. They make honey based energy food for sports. I got to try their new waffles that Lance Armstrong likes. (He owns part of the company.) I ended up buying some of their gels and chews.
One store I didn’t visit was F. M. Light. Starting about 100 miles from Steamboat were signs advertising for it. They sell cowboy equipment like boots, hats, and pants. I was thinking about visiting just because of all the signs, but without a sign in front of me I forgot. I did visit a thrift store. I wanted to pick up a light fleece. Ski towns often have decent thrift stores for gear. I found a nice, lightweight Columbia Titanium black fleece with a hood. Perfect.
Steamboat is a small town. Permanent residents are only about eight to ten thousand so everyone knows just about everyone. I went out to dinner the night before with a friend of a friend from Antarctica. (My friend is in South America installing radio telescopes on mountain tops.) My host from warm showers, Andy, came too. Everyone almost knew each other — one person away.
Nick and his bike
I left in the morning and decided not to bring my rain gear. Mistake. While I was in Safeway buying groceries, it started to pour. Outside Safeway I met Nick, another cyclist riding through and had contacted Andy as well to seek refuge from the rain. I was impressed at his minimal gear. But he spent many, many months riding around on his bike so knew exactly what he needed. He was heading south to Mexico for the winter taking more or less the Adventure Cycling Great Divide route. The three of us went to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Another nice things about Steamboat: variety in food!
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