Tuesday and Wednesday August 23rd and 24th
The links for pictures, pledging to Healing American Heroes and tracking our daily progress are at the end of this entry.
Left Rawlins at 9:15am for an easy ride in the morning, all pavement, no wind, and fresh legs. We made great time until we hit the gravel and the climbs, ended up only did about 4,000 feet of vertical and 54 miles for the day, but felt like a lot more. We finally got back into the trees after being out of them for roughly 170 miles. John's chain broke after a big truck passed and threw some gravel into the links. Surprisingly it took less time to fix than a flat. Camped in a wooded site with some aspens and a lot of dead pines. The pine beetle has taken all the large pines and these big trees will coming down in huge quantities in the next several years. Again I was cold as my 45 degree bag doesn't cut it when it gets blew 35 degrees.
Thursday was a little more memorable. After leaving camp went into the Aspen Alley stretch, a short snippet of road surrounded by very large aspen trees. Hitting some pavement right after we flew downhill and hit a another milestone, leaving Wyoming and entering Colorado . . . three states down and two to go. The metropolis of Slater, CO is an unmanned post office trailer and that is it, not even any water, which we were running out of with a big climb ahead. Both the UV and pump water filtration devices weren't working. A couple of miles into the climb I decided to stop at a quant white farmhouse beside the road. A elderly woman answers and let's us fill up, man was that a relief. Just before reaching her house I went right by a rattle snake sunning itself in the middle of the dirt road. Didn't realize it until John mentioned it right after I went by. I hopped off the bike ran back for a picture, don't like rattle snakes the same as badgers!
About 8 miles of constant uphill climbing we hit our lunch destination, Whispering Pines Lodge, a place all the Divide racers stop to fuel up and get water. They were closed for lunch but made us what they had, hot dogs, carrot dip and chips. The Hansen's take care of the place but really went out of their way to be hospitable. Mike Hansen was a 6 year Marine, serving during Desert Strom, and got a little choked up when I told him why we were riding. He gave us some Marine stickers for our bags which will be going on today in Steamboat Springs. One thing about this trek, you really meet the most interesting Americans, sure makes you proud about the fiber of this country, or what it could be if unleashed again.
Leaving Whispering Pines Lodge we had another 15 miles of climbing to get to the base of a very steep climb up Watershed divide. We made it there late to start a difficult climb at 6pm. This is a "pusher" climb, off the bike and pushing will all your might, the bike and the trailer up the steep incline. This went on for almost 1.5 miles. After reaching the summit at about 7pm, we got our reward - a very gnarly, rocky ride down. We had to get through the next 8 miles of steep, big rocks and endless jarring before dark. Even passed a truck with two guys from Tecoma, WA scouting for the opening of elk bow season in 2 days. Our trailers were airborne as we flew down FR 42 (hard to call it road, much less even have a number for it). At the end took a chance on a symbol on the map that there would lodging near Steamboat Lake, and hit the jackpot, a 4 star dinner and a cabin! Reflecting on the day it is clear that our morning prayers are being heard.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
