Day 21 (7/13): Wyoming/Colorado State Line --> Timber Creek Campsite, CO (104 miles)

Days mileage: 104 miles

Maybe it's something about the mixing of air currents between Colorado and Wyoming b/c it was pretty darn cold when I first unzipped the various zippers to the tent. I could have sworn I saw my breath freeze in mid-air as I breathed in and out, out and in. I put on all of the clothes I had been traveling with and ate all the food I had left in my panniers. Lately, my stomach seemed to have no bottom to it and eating seemed to just make me more and more hungry. Luckily, there was a small town within 22 miles of the border (Walden). Stephen and I got rolling towards the heart of Colorado by 7am and were just looking forward to re-stocking our stomachs and panniers with copious amounts of convenience store quality food.

Fog still slept in deep slumber as we pedaled through the early Colorado dawn passing over the Platte River a couple times and making sure to be visible targets for the scattered traffic that, I'm assuming, was meandering towards the town of Walden where "early bird specials" from local cafes welcomed all who passed by.

The weather was dandy, so to speak. Not much head wind...or any wind for that matter. It was a still day in sunny Colorado and we were quite glad to proclaim such observations. Eventually we rolled through a small town called Rand....and it was anything but grand (good rhyming eh?). Basically, long story short, Stephen and myself were about out of water and had planned on restocking at this lovely ghost town before climbing up Willow Creek Pass (9,600 feet)...and since our maps indicated a rehydration station was there...we walked through the only store that was open and asked the man if he had a sink...he looked at us kinda strange (prob cause we both looked kinda strange) and said the only water he had was in bottles which he would only sell for real-hard-cash/credit cards....otehr than that, he said, the nearest source of water was 30 miles in either direction....whatever.

We walked out and away from that sleeze-bag and began our search of the town for several drops of water to quench our unforgiving thirst. We hoped a few fences...found a water spout, but no water.....found a firestation, but no water (not sure what the point of having a firestation is if no water)...found a homosapien puttin new shingles on roof, but he had just moved to the town and hadn't had his well hooked up yet (not sure why a homosapien would move to Rand to begin with)....found a small post office, and...found a postmaster who had plenty of water.

Whew...if we hadn't run into that lady we would have had to pay that sleeze-bag for his overpriced bottled water...

Well, we climbed the climb and took random photos of us acting triumphant at the top where we passed, yet again, the Great Divide.

So...anyways...as I was saying...the plan was to get off of the TransAm trail in order to get to Boulder, CO. We restocked in Granby and then figured we'd bike until it got dark and see as many miles into Rocky Mtn National Park we'd get....basically, the more miles we got done tonight the less we'd have to do tomorrow to roll into Boulder the next day....

We got up to Timber Creek campground and were fortuante enough to find the openness of a couple from Quebec who were willing to share a campsite. It was good to chat wtih them about their journeys across the U.S.

We called it a day after eating more than our fair share of garlic/wheat pasta (with olive oil of course). We had a big day the next day and wanted to get as early a start as possible to beat the crowds of reckless RV drivers....