Today I started In the cool mountain air at 9,000 feet and had to descend to the Colorado River at Hot Sulphur Springs to rejoin the route. It was frigid going downhill on my bike before the sun came up. I followed a series of bike trails and a dirt road to get back to the TransAmerica.

From Hot Sulphur Springs the trail follows the Colorado River through a tight canyon, again with a railway line, and then it opens up into a wide valley. We’re actually going west here, the wrong way! At a town called Kremmling we leave the Colorado River and follow a tributary, the Blue River, upstream due south, and I kept following it for the remainder of the day, until I got to Dillon Reservoir where I’m camping tonight.

The Blue River goes through the Green Mountains (I guess they liked naming things after colors, the mountains are in the White River National Forest). True to their name the mountains are green. Further beyond there’s a jagged mountain peaks with snow patches that you associate with the Rockies, but they always lie at a distance. The mountains are hard to capture in photos as dramatically as the appear in person.

As soon as I set up camp the winds picked up and the dark clouds that were hanging over the mountains blew over and opened up, ripping with thunder. I took shelter in my tent, and mostly stayed dry, popping out to cook dinner. The reservoir is surrounded on almost every side by mountain peaks off in the distance.

Tomorrow I’ll pass over the highest pass on the TransAmerica, although I already have that beat with my side trip through Rocky Mountain National Park, but it will still be fun to go over a high mountain pass.