Smoke on the Water, Fire in the Sky

We’re on a little 4 day cycle tour from Eagle, CO to Aspen and back.  Our original plan was to make it a 6 day trip from Frisco but we just seem to be running out of time this Summer so we drove about 60 miles to the Eagle County Regional Airport Long Term Parking and started our trip from there.  This is one of our favorite touring rides although we’ve never gone all the way to Aspen, so this will be a different kind of trip. 

And the Amtrak train that runs from Chicago to San Francisco through Denver and Glenwood Springs is our favorite train ride. 

And our different kind of trip became an adventure after we dropped into Glenwood Canyon with only about 5 miles to go and we encountered this towering smoke plum above the canyon walls ahead of us. 

We continued riding down river and we’re advised to turn around by highway workers or firemen several times. Apparently the fire had only started about an hour before but was expanding fast. They had already closed East and West bound I-70 but we were one way travelers with a confirmed (and paid for) motel in Glenwood Springs!  And we had the Colorado River for safety!  Turning back meant riding with the strong westerly wind AND the fire up the canyon. We chilled for about a hour or so within a few miles along the river and by then the fire had moved on up the canyon with only smoldering fire to deal with and much less smoke. 

We stopped to help some kayakers that said they had found a “bad line” and needed to go back upstream.  We helped them lift their kayaks about 9’from the river shore to the path so they could portage.  They were nice fellows and we saw them later down stream after the fire had abated.  Angela says “Hey buddy!  Don’t you know there’s a fire down there!?” 😁

You don’t get to see this up close very often. This big boy hovered just a few hundred yards downstream and sucked up water for about 5 minutes before it headed west to make a drop on the fire.  Very cool. 

We made it to The Best Western Antlers Motel only a few hours later than we expected. It was an adventurous and exciting day and we celebrated our successful challenge of the fire with margaritas, quesadilla and ice cream!!