We left Rawlins around 09:30 on a very cool and overcast morning. It was in the mid 40’s and we had a nice 10-12 mph tailwind. About 5 miles outside of town we came across an ice chest beside the road. It had a note on it that said for cyclists to take water and snacks! We had just started so we didn’t even open it.
The road our maps showed as dirt turned out to be freshly paved! It made for a much easier climb and we set a new trip downhill record of 42.4 mph! About 10 miles later a highway construction worker stopped his truck and asked if he could give us some water. We said sure and told him about the ice chest we saw earlier. He said one of the workers bought 5 ice chests at a thrift store and bought water, ice and snacks every morning to put in them. He was doing this for cyclists because it was such a remote stretch of road. Amazing!
It was quite cool today- we would ride up hills in our jerseys and then put windbreakers/raincoats on for the downhills. We probably changed “outfits” 4 or 5 times.
Around 4:00 we made camp by a slow moving river (Savory Creek). We set up our tents, filtered some sketchy looking water (due to many cows in the area), had 5’sies and then had a little target practice with our pistols.
After a tasty freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff dinner, a road construction company security truck pulled into our campsite and the man, Wayne, talked to us for some time. He told us we shouldn’t drink the creek water and he was going to get us some bottled water! We have met the nicest people on the road!
Daily totals: 41 miles and 3,000′ climbing, Trip total: 1,253 miles
Johnny D checking out the first ice chest we found:
It was Great Divide Basin like scenery but a cold gray day:
Savory Creek- our first water source all day:
Our wild camp on Savory Creek:
Filtering water was very slow due to all the microbes and particulate matter that was in the water:
Dave Bikes America 