Day 51, July 8th 2008, beginning in Steamboat Springs, Colorado

I obviously woke up well before Paul, so I headed over to a local bagel shop in hopes that I could eat while getting online. The food was great, but the wireless was protected. I wrote in the journal instead… digital of course. When I got back, Cole had his father on the phone and handed it to me. I talked to him for a while about our path, as he and I basically were thinking the same thing. He did get me thinking of a different path, however, but I would have to check the mileage difference once I could get online. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready to leave, no one was around to get a picture. We would have to keep in touch, and not rely on a photo as a memory.

14 hours later when Paul got up (jokes), he got some food at the bagel shop and met me at the library. I ended up deciding on a different path through Wyoming, which seemed more populated and actually a bit shorter than the original one I had considered.

After scheduling a few blogs, we set out for Craig, Colorado, our last town before Wyoming… tear. Once in Craig, we stopped at a grocer which had super cheap gatorades, good pastries, and good fruit. We ate and hung out for a bit, as our day would consist of mostly two long stretches, with one in the bag.

We left Craig for a Baggs, Wyoming. The entire ride seemed to be uphill with a headwind. I think Colorado wanted us to stay. It took us a long time to finally cross the border, which was quite the hill. Baggs was downhill from there, where we would make our last stop for food and the like for another 51 miles. As we entered, the city sign said population 348. Yikes, would there be food? Sure enough there was a Mexican American joint. We each got massive burritos there and stocked up on some water.

The plan was to ride another 10 miles or so before dark, and set up camp on the side of the road. We would get enough water to last us for our long ride the following morning to Creston Junction, which was 51 miles from Baggs. We didn't have any water on our short trip to end the day, and we found a good spot to pitch the tent.

We went to sleep under the Wyoming sky for the first time. The stars were out in full force, and it really was beautiful. We had planned well enough that we wouldn't be too thirsty or hungry before we would make it to Creston Junction, which had food according to my biking map. Feeling connected with nature, we went to sleep.

Life was good.