It’s getting colder at night and the tent gets really wet with dew and condensation on the inside. I can’t stand putting the tent away wet and dirty, but we’re trying to get out earlier so I must. But I just can’t stand it. So messy! We have lots of climbing today, but we’re also rewarded with the biggest descent on the whole Divide route today, something over 2,000 feet in just four miles or something. It’s crazy. We start in the pines and descend through pinon and juniper to the sage brush and then the Colorado River. Yes, it’s all the way up here and it’s surprisingly large at this point. Radium is not really a town, but a handful of houses and a railroad. We free camp just outside of town just as it’s getting dark.

We get out of the Lake a little late because it’s raining when we first wake up. It’s a beautiful ride down to Steamboat Springs. We meet up with Dave’s friend Joshua and have pizza and chat it up all night. Dave and Joshua trade traveling stories and I enjoy every detail. Joshua camps with us and then we talk again over pancakes in the morning.

We sleep in, make pancakes and coffee, eat ice cream from the little store, take showers, and make it back to the tent in time for reading because it rains like crazy. All evening. Dave sets up the rain tarp for cooking and eating. Then it rains all night. Literally. It’s a wonderful rest day.

Today’s ride is absolutely beautiful! We are finally back in the trees and green and the mountains say a friendly hello. Ah, this is much better. My knees take a surprising amount of climbing today without too much complaining. Good knees! We get to a beautiful campground with walk in locations on a peninsula in the lake. It’s just lovely. Rest day location at last!

Today is the hardest day for me so far. My knees hurt worse than any day so far and my muscles are burning with fatigue. I know I need a rest, but hate the thought of staying in Rawlins. As we’re climbing out of town, facing a huge day of climbing overall, Dave and I chat about taking a rest day. I’m frustrated with my knees and feeling the pressure of staying on schedule so we can meet our ride at the end (it’s going to be so fun, Susie!) so I say we should rest tomorrow. We’ll find a great site and rest tomorrow. OK. Let’s go. And it becomes the longest and hardest day so far. In fact, this is the day I fall asleep right after lunch and Dave gets a picture (in the gallery). But when we get to the recommended camping spot the creek is dry and it’s crawling with hunters on 4-wheelers. Ugh. No rest day here. Some very friendly people offer us water so we can camp (I can’t bear the thought of another mile), including some of the 4-wheeler folks. I can’t stand the 4-wheelers, but the people can be quite nice. Anyway. We make a plan to try for a rest-day location tomorrow.

This town is not the refreshing oasis we’re needing after several days in the desert. In fact, the RV campground we find to camp in is smelly and extremely noisy with interstate traffic and trains. This is not our rest day location, even though I’m feeling tired and in need of a rest.

Today is the big ride I’ve been a little worried about for a week or so now. We must ride nearly 70 miles from one water source to another, crossing the Divide Basin in the process. It is dry and windy, we hardly see any cars all day (and when we do they are trucks, always trucks), but pronghorn are everywhere. In fact, we find out it’s opening day for pronghorn hunting season. I’m tired starting the day and it’s hard going for me, but feel surprisingly well at the end of the day. I can’t believe what my body can do! I may come back to this day to describe it better, but these last several days have been so long and I’ve been so tired that I’ve fallen behind on my journaling. My notes add up to a couple bullet points each day, waiting to be developed into stories.