Day 46-Not Stopping for Lunch Until Colorado!

Turns out there were 7 of us cyclists at the Riviera Lodge last night. Met two other Westies this morning. 

Doug and I left at 6:45. It was awfully quiet in Saratoga on this early Monday morning. 

A much nicer day than yesterday. 

It was 18 miles to Riverside. It was mostly rolling with an uphill trend. Saw this eagle early on. 

I kept hoping he would take off, but he was content to sit on the telephone pole. A huge hawk had flown right in front of us earlier. Actually, we saw quite a few dead birds on the side of the road today…more than usual. 

We stopped at the Sinclair in Riverside for our mid morning snack. I packed out a Vitamin Water to have with my lunch, since there would be nothing between Riverside and Walden. After our snack, I did a little gratuitous hill climbing to take this photo. 

Soon, we would be leaving Wyoming!

 

We did have some headwinds during the morning, but nothing like yesterday. 

From Riverside, for the next 11 miles, there was road work. They had chip sealed the road, but the shoulder was nice and smooth. 

We rode pretty solid until the sign for Colorado came into view. It was about 45 miles into the ride. I had wanted to eat lunch at the state line. We made it there about 12:45. 

Woo Hoo! Goodbye Wyoming, hello Colorful Colorado! First thing, before lunch, I had to pee. I decide I would do one final pee in Wyoming!

Getting ready to dine under the Colorado sign (it was the only shade).

Just as we were finishing lunch, Noel (correct spelling) rolled up. He had left Saratoga much later, but still caught us. He was also planning to go to Walden. 

Interesting difference between Wyoming and Colorado was that the road had a good shoulder in Wyoming, and nothing in Colorado. 

Everything else looked the same except no shoulder. 

We had 13 miles to Cowdery, and 22 miles to Walden. We finally had a tailwind, so except for one longer climb, the miles went by quickly. In Cowdery, there was only a post office. Doug needed water. The lady outside the post office gave each of us a bottle of water. That made the remaining 10 miles to Walden much nicer. 

We rolled into Walden, and found the city park. Noel showed up shortly after (having already been in town to the sheriff to make sure it was okay to camp at the park). The nearby pool had showers for $5.00. At least we didn’t have to pay for camping. 

Our tents in the park. 

This is our fourth night with Noel, and we’ll likely be together tomorrow night too. 

Today was 67 miles, but it was much better than yesterday.