Day 3/4 on CHC 1200k took us into middle park of CO! Walden is in north park, and there does exist a south park, per David. LOL. 3 big climbs today: into Steamboat Springs over Rabbit Ears Pass, then Gore Pass heading into Kremmling and finally an unnamed pass on way back to Walden. Again I rolled out at 5am Walden time or 4 am Phx. It was a wonderful and cool morning, colder than day before. Plus I learned my lesson on that descent to Walden the night before that I needed more clothes, so I wore my orange jacket and carried my blue woolie in case I was again out until midnight. Not too far out of Walden and I spotted and photographed a moose ( actuallly were 3 of them) that crossed the road in front of me and into the stream area. Cool. I am guessing it was mile 21. This ride to Rabbit Ears was a pretty ride. it was about 37F for the first 90 minutes, so I was happy to have my orange jacket. From mile 28 - 32 I hung onto the tandem that passed me. That was a nice break from what I had been riding. But of course I could not hang on. Turned onto the main road to Steamboat at mile 34.1 and took a break to eat and rest shortly after that at 34.5. There another cyclist passed me. Off I went to mark him on up the hill. Again a really pretty area, good road and not too mnuch traffic. Then mile 44.5 - 55.5 was a SCREAMING gorgeous descent into Steamboat Springs. All the way down I am thinking that there is no way I am going to survive this climb back out of here! This is 7% for miles! The road was wide, smooth, big shoulder, and looking down into the valley was wonderful. Then it started, my front wheel shudder! I am convinced now that it has to do with my brakes heating and or brakes heating the rims too much. SO I slowed down to be safe. Pulled into the store at mile 55.5 and right after that the Dan Driscoll group from the Centennial stop the day before ( minus Mimo who had DNF the night before) arrived. Thankfully they informed me we are heading out a different way. David was also a part of this group. Ate a frozen egg salad sandwich, some cheetos, gatorade and off we went. Dan was keeping the pace low. David was ok with it. So at least today I finally had someone to ride with. We would ride from there to mile 166 when again I had to stop and rest and eat dates! Sad to let them go then, but I had to. Backup to Gore Pass! It was a race to the top with Dan and David the clear winners. I was 3rd or 4th and was not trying fully, because I knew there was more coming. It was just so strange to me why we seemed to keep a slow pace on the steady climb but when the final push came, Dan and David took off! It made it hard for me to judge just how strong Dan and David were. This Gore Pass climb and 2 climbs within 8 miles of each other. The first at mile 100 and again 108. Then a fun descent to mile 120 where we regrouped for the 6 mile busy highway no shoulder ride to Kremmling. We all stopped and ate. Then set out for that final climb. That final one was again 2 smaller climbs at 154 and 172. Oh the canyon area around Hot Sulphur Springs was gorgeous! Plus the store at Hot Sulphur Springs was open so again a bathroom, water, and gatorade stop. This was where that mile 166 came and I could not hang on. Sad area as some of it had burned. I could see storm clouds ahead and was starting to worry as headwinds were getting stronger. Eventually ran started so I tried harder and harder to keep going as I could see the sky ahead was clear and plus staying in that rain was cold! Maybe about 3-4 miles of rain and then it ended! Yahoo. I was also fighting sunset. Again I wanted to make it to the top before it got dark! Turns out the RWGPS showed many rollers yet the actual topo was just a steady climb following the river. About mile 165 I caught the group, well all except Dan and David. They were changing clothes. I kept going. When I arrived at the top, there was Dan sitting down changing clothes as well as now it was dark and 9pm. Dan and I talked of how this descent would be a challenge due to the pot holes. I left first as I just wanted to get it over and figured with using my AyUp light I could see better than when all the riders were present. Then Dan just zipped by me like I was standing still. We would alternate a few times, hitting a couple small holes. It was 32 miles to Walden and mostly downhill yet there was an elevation gain of 600 ft. I was in front until I stopped to pee and there Dan zipped past me and I never caught him again. Ok, so I am learning that Dan really is a strong rider! It was hamburger night! Yummy. While sitting there the young rider that rode with David appeared. He had helped fix 4 flats riders had from hitting pot holes on that dark descent. Of course, I missed the big ones on the descent yet I had to hit one big one 1/2 mile from the end on a perfectly good road otherwise. Great ending. Another long day: 16:20 moving time and 18:34 total, arriving back to Walden at 1130pm. I knew I could sleep in a bit this night since Day 4 was shorter. I was going to start Day 4 at 6am instead of 5. Shower, batteries and just too tired to lay out clothes.