This morning we woke up to the sight of Lake Granby. Not bad at all! Chris had an early start so we took our time before heading out. We took a walk down by the water to get the day going. It was so beautiful, the water was positively glittering. If I lived anywhere near here, I would be here on vacation a lot. No swimming though, we went down to the pier last night and put our feet in and it was ice cold.
For some reason, a lot of people who RV also have dogs. There are always lots of them around. I'm pretty sure August thinks we are on the Dog Tour 2015, instead of the whole bicycling thing. He has met so many dogs, and loves to hug and pat them. Today we met a tiny little dog named Buster and a gigantic Great Dane named Zeke. It's hard for a mommy not to be nervous around a dog that comes up past your elbows, but we managed to have a good time petting him a bit.
After soaking up the lake views as much as we could, we moved on through Arapaho National Forest and towards Wyoming. This area is beautiful and largely unspoiled by the effects of humans. We saw quite a few fly fishermen and also quite a few TransAmerican riders going in both directions. At a construction stop this rider was right in front of us. Turns out Chris rode with him for a while yesterday. His name is Dave and he's from San Francisco. The hat and cape looked a little crazy, but probably a great idea for keeping the sun off of you.
We caught up with Chris around Walden, CO and decided to grab lunch there. We have been having a slew of regrettable meals lately and unfortunately this was one of them. Anyone who knows me knows I will happily fork over my money for a good meal out, but there is just a pit in your stomach when you drop $35 on a meal you wish you had never eaten!
This particular place looked like a quaint little cafe, and had a standard small diner menu. Chris ordered a beef manhattan and a cinnamon roll, and I got the fish and chips (you can only order so many burgers and there wasn't much else on the menu). His beef was tough, and my fish was just deep fried planks with below-average fries on the side. The highlight of my meal was the average side salad. We wanted to like the place, we really did. The upshot at least was that sitting in booth next to us was a family from Elkhart on vacation and it was fun talking to them.
We moved our sad little stomachs out and Auggie and I hit up the library while Chris rode on. It was a good time, though August got another bump and bloody nose. Something about libraries just gets him so excited that he falls all over himself! His favorite thing at this one were the small desks. Not too long later we got a text from Chris that he had had to turn back because of a lightning storm. So, we were reunited a little earlier than planned and decided to head to the campground for the day.
The campground, located in Medicine Bow National Forest, is by far the most remote we've stayed at. It is 3 dirt road miles off the nearest road, and there was not a soul representing the campground. We gather that the only people who use it regularly are the people heading down to the river nearby to fish. Unbelievably, a lot of people will bring raft-like boats here and haul them down and then back up this fairly steep half-mile trail to get to it. There were a couple that were left there, and Chris lifted one up to see how heavy it was. Mr. Bikes 90 Miles a Day said they were crazy.
No hookups here, so we are boondocking and enjoying a primitive night. No electricity, no water, no cell service, no internet (which is why this will be published a day late).
I made spaghetti for dinner and we took a hike down to the river afterwards. On the way back we saw a huge jackrabbit crossing the path and I grabbed for the camera but there was no way I could have been fast enough. We are not used to seeing rabbits that big, so it might as well have been a kangaroo to us. It stormed off and on for the rest of the day, so we were glad that Chris hadn't pushed on riding.
In a place like this you really have to watch your food stores. There are critters everywhere, and they would all love to get at your food. Mainly you can avoid problems by not leaving anything edible out of doors, which is pretty easy to do when you're in an RV. We keep having problems with one particular animal though. I managed to catch it on camera this morning and am learning this is one hunter that is hard to outsmart.
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