Day 13: Rest day in Frisco, CO


I spent the first half of the day resting and recovering.  Brian and I went to a Enza’s Deli & Market for breakfast.  The food was good (and plentiful) and we had an excellent conversation.  I then did some shopping for food and essentials to prepare for the next leg to Hot Sulphur Springs, and I did some bike maintenance.  In the afternoon Curtis and Ellen picked me up and I went to their house to do some laundry and we spent some time catching up before walking to dinner in Frisco.  They live in a small town where the downtown area is within walking distance from their condo. 
If I were to assign a theme to my TransAm experience from Newton KS to here, it would be “HOW THE NEED FOR WATER HAS SHAPED THE WEST”.  Riding past vast seas of grain in Kansas, it is easy to miss the competing forces that make that possible.  It wasn’t until I learned about the fate of Sugar City CO that I began to understand.  The farmers were dependent on a single buyer for their crops.  When that buyer went out of business, the farmers ended up selling their water rights.  Without water, it was not possible to grow crops.  This led to the decline of the town.  (If you are interested, use Gemini and enter this search term,  “The story of Sugar City Colorado, beet farming and water rights”).  Riding through western Kansas and Eastern Colorado I saw many dry creek beds and other signs of significant drought .  I did not see signs of water in the landscape until I got to Pueblo and saw the Arkansas river.  The land was not as dry as I climbed up onto the high plains and foothills of the Rockies.  It was green and there were trees and shrubs.  But, the problems with water were not behind me.  When I got to Frisco, I saw this.
 
View of Dillon Reservoir from near Frisco

The reservoir is down 20 ft and there isn’t much snowmelt feeding into it.  It is the water supply for Denver and is run by the Denver Water Authority.  Denver will continue to draw down the level of the reservoir as time goes on to meet their water needs.  I learned that if Denver wanted to, they could drain it dry and Frisco could not do anything about it.  As climate change becomes more evident, where will this lead?  Water rights could be a significant issue that shapes the future of the west.

Ellen offered to give me a guided tour of Frisco and the surrounding mountains and passes, so I decided to take one more rest day tomorrow. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Part 3: Prologue

It is hard to believe it has been 7 years since I completed Part 2.  A LOT has happened since then (COVID, my daughter’s wedding in Austria, a struggle with Cervical Radiculopathy, 4 grandchildren, and two hip replacements), which is why it has been 7 years.  I have never given up hope that I might someday get a chance to finish what I started, the entire TransAm from Yorktown VA to Astoria OR.  This year I will pick up where I left off in Wichita KS.  I will fly my bike to a shop in Wichita and re-assemble it there.  Then I will head North to pick up the TransAm route where I left off.  I was not able to complete the entire route in one part because my job and family did not afford me the flexibility to take that much time off.  Last December I retired after 23 years as a Professor in the Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering department at the United States Naval Academy, so I no longer have that constraint.  Consequently, it is my goal to finish ...
Read more

Day 2: Nickerson to Great Bend KS

Image
54.7 miles, 885 ft ascent, 5:02 riding time.  Johannes and I started the day with a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon at the exotic animal farm while we waited for it to stop raining.  It did stop around 0930, at which point we went to the grocery store in town to pick up food for lunch because there were no towns between Nickerson and Great Bend.  It was overcast, with temps in the upper 60’s, occasional rain and a wind of about 10 mph that changed direction during the day.  We rode from primarily farming country into prairies and grasslands with grazing cattle. The cattle must have thought we came to feed them. This is big sky country with loooong straight roads.  We are gradually going up.  By the time we reach Pueblo CO we will have increased our elevation by 2,000 ft.  About the last 15 miles into Great Bend the route turned North directly into a headwind with gusts of about 13 mph.   Our route took us along the edge of the Quivira Wildli...
Read more

Day 5: Scott City to Tribune KS

Image
49.5 miles, 1,294 ft ascent, max grade about 2 %, elevation 3,616 ft, 4:46 riding time.  We started out day with breakfast a the Best Western, which was pretty good for a hotel. We continued riding West on the same Rt 96 we picked up back in Great Bend (which was 166 miles ago). Today the wind was out of the South and SouthWest, but the gusts were not as strong as yesterday, so it was not as difficult a day.  I have noticed there are big grain silos spaced at about every 10 miles, and there is often a town at each silo.  However, many of them are small and there are no services.  Bill described the silos as sitting on small islands of trees in a vast sea of wheat.  On a clear day like today you can see the silos from about 11 miles away.  If you see a water tower near the silo, then it is a bigger town with services.  The distances are very misleading because the silos are so large.  You think you are getting close, and it is still miles away. I w...
Read more