Mon Sep 1, Walden, CO -> Riverside, WY (55 miles)

Today started off well. It was a cold night camping in the city park. My sleeping bag is made for 20 degrees, but Aaron's is made for 55 degrees. Tonight it was below 55. Aaron slept with multiple socks, a hat, pants, and jacket and was still cold. I slept in my boxers and was sweating. So after a night of sleeping in the city park and 2 hours of hanging out in the gas station convenience store, we set off for Wyoming. We finally made it. We were crusing with a nice tail wind making good time. At one point we stopped for a snack and thought, "Isn't it weird that we're on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming?"




Then the cold set it. It hit us all at once, like a ton of ice-cold bricks. Grey ominous skies came hurtling towards us while we put on our rain gear. We decided to go for it instead of waiting it out, basically because we had no choice. There was no house or even tree in sight. We were 15 miles from the nearest town. So we went for it. Biking in the ice-cold Wyoming winds is harder than it sounds. And once it started raining that ice-cold Wyoming rain we started clutching our handlebars, keeping our heads down so the rain would hit our faces and go up our noses when we breathed. The wind was STRONG. And did I mention COLD? Staring at the odometer can be depressing at a time like that. 8 miles left of this? Just keep pedaling. Once we were 2 miles away I was thinking "Man that sucked back when there were 8 miles left." But we finally made it to the Bear Trap Cafe in Riverside. It had only been 50 miles, and we were planning on doing 110, but it was just too cold. Well it turned out to be a good thing. We met Scott and Kyle, who hitchhiked once the cold rain set in because the closest thing they had to bad weather gear was a garbage bag poncho. They are from New Jersey. They both work at bike shops and are crossing the country together. They do things a little differently than us, but it's cool. They don't wear biking shirts or gloves, and they eat gas station cream cheese danishes constantly. They are fun guys though and we split a cabin with them. We went through 5 six-packs between the 4 of us - with a couple going to Chris, the Continental Divide hiker.



Chris is the travelingest dude we've met so far. He is hiking the Continental Divide from Montana to Mexico. He's already biked cross country, and down the pacific coast, and has hiked the Appalachian Trail (in 3.5 months!). The best part of this trip is the people we've met. In fact, we're even planning on biking to Rawlins with Kyle and Scott tomorrow. That should be interesting...