Day 86 - 91 The Endless Rain

September 12-18th

Around 100 Miles

Into Steamboat Springs to Grand Lake

So over this week is when we got hit with the rain that also made its way on the east of the divide and flooded parts of Colorado in the Boulder area. Spins and I hiked into Steamboat Springs in torrential downpours that lasted hours and hours. We followed mostly ATV track and flooded trail, more like little raging rivers and getting to town was the number one priority  so we could finally be dry. We got a hitch into town from a father and son out driving around instead of fishing due to the weather in their rental which we tried not to mud-ify from being soaked all the time and landed up at the 'cheapest' place we could find. I went out to eat and got great Thai food and then went out for drinks with Panama, Beth, Qball, and Safety Officer at the brewpub after drying off and getting clean. We spent the next few days in Steamboat with Spins' brother watching movies, eating, eating some more and exploring around Steamboat Springs. It rained heavily for part of the day when we were in town. 

Hitching out of Steamboat was a bit tough but our ride was a super kind woman from Fort Collins who also had a home in Steamboat and we got to the trail and got hiking something serious. It was really cloudy today but it didn't rain!! Crazy I know! We hiked into the night and set up our camp dry which was refreshing even though we were exhausted. We got up early the next morning and continued to haul to get to Grand Lake by the night. There were certainly more climbing to be done today and a large chunk of the second half of the day was uphill before defending down to Grand Lake. We made it up to Bowen Pass in the afternoon and it was one of the first great views we saw without rain clouds hovering low.

There were two choices on routes: one on top of the ridge to the right and the other a little longer down the valley to rt 34 and then down into Grand Lake. The longer route was actually quicker because it was less strenuous and we hustled down to town. We reached the road to trail closure signs a all throughout Rocky Mountain National Park due to the storm and multiple people stopped and asked if we were alright due to it being dusk and all the trails being closed. Rangers also stopped and gave us the low down and were quite nice. We made it into town got food at the market and went to bed with rainouts looming in the nights sky.