Reached new heights for the trip today, crossing the Snowy Range over a pass of nearly 11,000 ft!

Had a great breakfast to start off the day thanks to our hosts Evan and Kennedy. Evan, an avid cyclist, joined Dane and I on the climb, which started a few hours out of Laramie.

It’d been a long while since I’d done much climbing (Missouri?), so it was a bit of a shock to get back into it. But, it was certainly one of the (if not the) most beautiful days of the trip so far. Snow covered peaks, streams, trees, cliffs, amazing views, antelope–we even saw too mooses (meese?). Fantastic.

Dane and I pedaled a good 80 miles or so on to Saratoga, which has public hot springs! Neither of us had ever experienced these, so we were truly startled when we found out how hot the water gets. Really hot. Almost painfully hot. Still felt strangely good.

After the hot springs, we biked out of the city and just threw our tents down off the highway a bit. Apparently you can do that sort of thing in Wyoming.

Epic day today.

Met back up with biking friend Dane (with whom I biked Kentucky and Illinois) in Fort Collins and set off to the northwest.

We met some pretty good climbs right away, eventually getting up to well over 8000 ft (from about 4800 ft in Ft Collins). Definitely the highest point for us on the trip so far. Harder to breath up here.

The second we hit Wyoming (holla — state 7!!), the shoulders disappeared and winds kicked in unbelievably. We could barely move. It was so bad that we put in a good 45 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to hitchhike out of there.

Luckily it died down eventually and we were able to bike the rest of the way into Laramie, WY. Here, we are being hosted by a great couple (Evan and Kennedy) who have made us an amazing enchilada dinner, let us shower and given us each a bed to sleep. After a long day and expecting to do some back yard camping, this has been the perfect end to the day.

Evan is a cyclist and may even join us for part of the ride tomorrow, where we’ll be climbing over our first Rocky Mtn pass (10,000+ ft) to get to Saratoga, WY.

Had a great rest week in Windsor, CO.

Arrived just in time for a killer BBQ on the third, saw some great fireworks in Fort Collins on the forth, enjoyed many great Colorado beers, saw the entire Librarian movie trilogy, got tea with housemate Heather and schoolmate Heather in Boulder (different people), helped friend Thad monitor a U of Northern Colorado music lab in Greeley, caught up on a lot of sleep, lost bitterly at a bar’s trivia night in Ft Collins, met some new friends (Diana, Joe, Jesse), was fed like a king, and generally had a great time.

Thanks so much Brent, Liz, Ashley, Thad, Bridget and Rascal for having me! You’re the best.

Rough ride off route to Colorado Springs. Outside of the major cities and interstates in Colorado, turns out there aren’t too many paved roads. I headed out north from Pueblo only to find my nice quiet road turn to trecherous, bumpy, thick gravel. Defintely the worst 20 miles or so of road on the trip thus far. The swarm of biting horseflies following me the whole way didn’t help either.

After getting to Colorado Springs, I was able to duck into a Burger King to avoid a colossal rainstorm coming over the Rockies. Soon as I pulled in, I noticed my back tire was flat, so I thot Id call it a day and wait there for my good friend Ashley to come pick me up. I’ll be spending some days off the trail with her and her family in Windsor, CO. Think I mentioned this in the last post. Oh well.

After several burgers and about 7 or 8 soft drink refills, Ashley arrived and we set off to the north, stopping by the Garden of the Gods along the way. Waay cool.

Half day of riding today. Biked 40 miles into Pueblo, CO which is the largest city on the route so far. Spent most of the day napping before hitting up the local bike shop (had to buy a new pump after mine broke) and the Shamrock brewery in town. Town reminds me of San Jose, or somewhere else in California. Not Colorado tho.

Finally actually started seeing the Rockies come into view, which is both exciting and intimidating. Been a long while since Ive seen even hills. Thus it’s also been a long while since I’ve climbed any. Yipes.

I’ll be jumping off the official route for a few days, tho, to visit my good friend / past housemate Ashley in the Fort Collins area. Hooray!

Surprised by how barren eastern Colorado is. After passing through Haswell ( town with a couple creepy playgrounds, apparently, the nation’s smallest jailhouse ) there was a long 35 mile stretch with no water, food, gas stations, or much of anything else. Ended up running out of water 5 miles before hitting the next town with any services, which was cutting it too close for me.

Stopped into a cafe after finally making it into that town, and the sassy lady running the place takes a look at us and says something like “Well don’t expect me to feel sorry for ya. You’re the ones who thought it’d be a good idea to ride through the empty desert in he middle of summer. Stupid cyclists. I suppose you want something to drink…” Had a great time chatting with that lady.

Also met some good folks in Onley Springs who let us camp outside their restaurant, Kiki’s Place. Chatted with the owners for an hour or two about life in Colorado, the history of the little railroad town and their plans to fix up a little hostel for cyclists. Great evening.

Made it to Colorado today!

Although I’ve enjoyed the flatness of Kansas, it’ll be nice to have a change of scenery soon.

The weather is still rather unpredictable out here. Walked into a little convenience store with a cloudless sky, and came back out a short time later to find a monsterous rain storm heading our way.

Steve and I decided to try to race the storm to the next town some 25 miles away. Probably the hardest I’ve biked in a long time on this trip. But, we were right on the edge of this ominous cloud for miles, and hail was pelting the ground just behind us. Felt like I was trying to outrun a tornado or something. The winds luckily really kicked in in our favor and we flew out of there going 30mph for at least 10 miles. Pretty awesome.

Joined back up with Steve (after we ended up accidentally getting motel rooms across the street from each other in Ness City) and took off toward the west.

Two great milestones: hit 2000 miles on the odometer and went through ‘Scott City’! Fantastic.

Ended up camping at a pretty nice city park in Leoti, KS. The park had a big playground, and at about 9:30 a group of maybe 8 or 9 children ran in and started going absolutely berserk. Running around, screaming, dragging each other around on the merry-go-round, screaming a lot more.

I felt like I should have been annoyed, but I couldn’t stop laughing at how outrageous these kids were. I guess I’m not around children very often. They’re pretty ridiculous people.

Pretty uninteresting day. I didn’t even take any pictures!

The weather is starting to cool off tho. First day below a hundred in a while and the humidity is disappearing! Awesome.

105 miles. 106 degrees.

Whew.