Distance = 7 Miles; People Met = 21
The weather today was almost as bad as two days ago. Fortunately, I originally scheduled low mileages through here, on what was supposed to be the “vacation” part of our journey. We stalled some more, getting a lates start out of Dillon and pulling up short at Keystone, to allow good weather to finally come through before we have to head back up to the Divide and the highest point along the ADT, Argentine Pass.
We met many people today; a few of them had seen the article in the Summit Daily about us. I’ve got pictures, but I’ll create a gallery at the end and add them later.
One person who had seen our article was Deb Steiner. We walked alongside her for a short while on the bike path through Keystone as she pointed out the direction we needed to go for a coffee shop where we could wait for the weather to get better before leaving town for a camp site.
Deb offered to put us up in a hotel as an alternative to the bad weather. While we would have loved to take her up on yet another act of kindness bestowed on us, we had faith the weather would clear by the end of that day and we wanted to shorten our climb for the next day. She told us to give her a call if we changed our minds.
Soon after we met a group of young women while we all were waiting out a rainstorm in a bus stop. Jaclyn is getting married in three weeks, 10/8/11, and was having a get together with the friends in her wedding party. Two were from her home town in Texas, the rest were attending a seminary near Denver. When the rain let up we headed for the same destination, the Inxpot coffee shop, and joined them for more chat and coffee. Jaclyn treated us to a caramel mocha.
We hung around the coffee shop until we thought the weather was finally clearing up, accepting another round of caramel mocha, compliments of Richie and two other gentlemen who were mountain biking in the area. Ryan shared with us that his small home town of Smith River, Montana used to have community gatherings on a regular basis.
No sooner had we left the coffee shop then the weather made a turn for the worst again. We made it as far as a bus stop outside of town where Reid from New Hampshire was finishing up painting the bus stop. Reid’s father had hiked the Appalachian Trail and that spirit of adventure was in his blood as well, though he hoped to move back to New England some day.
The coldest and windiest period of rain of the day hit us and we gave Deb Steiner a call. She arranged for us to stay at the Arapahoe Inn back in town and Reid transported us there. More trail angels to the rescue! This meant a long day and climb over Argentine Pass for the morrow, but staying in a warm room makes it easier to get an early start for the morning.
Ed and Barb from Arizona stopped because of the Summit Daily story
Matt, Max, Lucy and Colleen chatted with us at lunch
Jeff and Patty were attending a conference in Keystone
Cindy with Fred Wumboldt (sp?), who works at a medical center in Denver
Trail Angel Deb Steiner
Wedding Women at the Bus Stop: Julia, Lauren A., Laura, Jaclyn, Lauren G., Leah
Ryan, Richie, Dan relaxing after mountain biking
Reid from New Hampshire and Alex, resort workers
Hi Kirk and Cindy,
We met you on Saturday between Dillon and Keystone and recommended you stop by The Inxpot. We thought about you later when the strong rain and wind came up. It was good to see that you found a warm bed for Saturday evening at the Arapahoe Inn (across US Highway 6 from our condominium). It was a beautiful Sunday and we hope you had a wonderful hike up to ArgentinePass. Good luck with your mission of getting community involvement to improve problems with housing, health and hunger. We need more people like you and your wife who care.
Ed and Barb Haugland
Thank you! It was a pleasure meeting and chatting with you. We had a great day going over Argentine pass, as my next post is about to communicate.