Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Day 36: Wednesday, May 10

The sprinkler system went off in the middle of the night and sprayed water into the shelter where we were sleeping. Thankfully it only lasted about 45 minutes. This morning there were droplets of water frozen on the surrounding trees. Despite the nocturnal interruption, today turned out to be a great day! We rode the additional seven miles on Interstate 80 before turning off and heading south again. Twenty miles later, we arrived in the town of Saratoga. After eating a delicious breakfast, we learned that there was a hot springs run by the city that was free and open to the public. We went and soaked for about twenty minutes. It was a perfect way to let our muscles relax and our food digest.









The wind was at at our back's for most of today. By late afternoon...









...we crossed into Shayne's home state of Colorado!
There was a huge wooden sign that had fallen off its post, so we picked it up to take pictures. There was no place to camp after we entered Colorado, so we ended up riding an additional 22 miles to the town of Walden where we are camped in the city park. Today was our longest day of the trip as we rode 96.5 miles! Shayne's and my odometer are a little off. His says that we are over 2,000 miles from Portland tonight while mine says that we are about 14 miles short of that mark. Walden is above 8,000 feet and the temperature is really starting to drop as the sun sets tonight. Tomorrow we hope to cross Willow Creek Pass, which is about 32 miles from here.