Into the Great Wide Open

Many miles covered since the last posting!

We spent three nights in Lander, taking an unprecedented TWO days off riding. I think our bodies and souls needed the rest! We spent it well, exploring Sinks Canyon with Trent, eating some good meals and spending Saturday at the Lander Brew Festival. Thankfully, our arrival in Lander also brought us a weather change. SUNSHINE finally!

June 15
Lander-Muddy Gap Junction
82.5 miles
Long stretch of lonely, but starkly beautiful Wyoming scenery; gradual uphill or flats most of the day; perfect riding weather; camped in someone's yard and were nearly eaten alive by mosquitos!

June 16
Muddy Gap-Saratoga
95 miles (including riding around towns for errands etc; 86 map miles)
Not a hugely exciting day; much of the same scenery as previous day; two hours spent in the dusty town of Rawlins for lunch/bike repair. The best part of the day was the destination. Saratoga was a nice town with friendly people. We had Mexican food for dinner and met a woman who found us some free quiet camping on some perfectly manicured grass! Before turning in we went to the free hot springs in town and enjoyed some muscle relaxation.

June 17
Saratoga, WY-Walden, MT
70 miles
Three long days in a row certainly began to take their toll on us. We were pretty exhausted and feeling sore knees, tingly hands, blistery arses.....We did get a treat, however, in that Geoff and Danielle have a friend who has parents who have a condo in Walden. They told us to make good use of it when we passed through. We got to town at a reasonable hour since we left Saratoga early. We grabbed groceries and proceeded to the condo where we gratefully spread ourselves out and had a "normal" night of cooking, listening to music and just hanging out. Thanks so much for the invitation!!!

June 18
Walden-Kremmling
80 miles
Another long day! The ride had quite a bit of gradual uphill but the scenery began to get more mountainous and this was a nice change from the sagebrush and emptiness of Wyoming. Danielle spotted a moose early in the day-the first spotting on this trip! As we figured out dinner and camping, Gift met a woman who said we could camp for free outside her hostel. We were excited about this and also about the prospect of going to bed early after covering so many miles in four days. We set up tents, showered, and were all in bed by 9:30. Too good to be true? Uh huh. Some drunk guy showed up around 10:30 or 11:00 and, to put it mildly, was a real jerk. He was apparently staying at the hostel because he went inside and then came out onto the balcony shortly thereafter-the balcony that was just above our tents. We weren't sure if he threw the contents of a beverage down on us, or if he relieved himself on us....but there was some liquid that came down from the balcony onto Gift's tent. At that point, around midnight, we'd had enough! We packed our things in record time, turned on our bike lights and backtracked about a mile out of town to camp at an RV park. Quiet, clean, no idiots.....though we slept less than we'd hoped, we at least slept peacefully.