38 miles, 3:07/4:30

We wake up to a clear morning and beautiful sunshine. Dave is upset that he didn’t get a picture of his rain tarp setup, and so am I because it was so darn clever. We eat breakfast and clean the dishes in the tiny creek. It’s so clear, something rare in cattle country. I notice two things: there are no cows as far as we can see (must be out on national forest land for the summer?), and the creek appears to come from a fenced off area just up the hillside. Must be a spring. That’s about the only thing we see fenced off from cows.

Today’s ride is the antithesis of yesterday as it is smoother and almost all downhill! What a beautiful thing! In fact, it becomes our favorite part of the ride so far, as we roll down into river valleys and see cliffs, rocks, and aspen and mixed conifer stands. The last bit is on pavement, so we make great time.

We get to Lima and go the post office to pick up our resupply box of food. Then we get a site at the only place for camping in town, an RV park and motel right by the highway. The owner tells us our friend is waiting over in room 12 for us. “Robert?” I ask, and he says, “That sounds right. We’re not expecting to see Robert again because he really had a tight schedule with only a month to ride and was ending somewhere in Colorado. We set up our camp and head over to room 12 to invite Robert to dinner and get the scoop.

We’ve enjoyed seeing Robert at the end of the day at several of our camps. We’ve shared dinner and stories and discussed the day’s ride and rolled our eyes at his really terrible jokes. We’re happy to see him, but know that since he’s here he must have had a change of plans. He tells us he’s enjoyed the riding, but is really tired of the setting up and tearing down every single night, the pace that keeps him moving and unable to hike and look around and relax. So he’s decided to hop on the bus and spend his last two weeks in one place, and it might as well be the biking Mecca: Moab. Dave knows Moab well, so they discuss good camps spots and fun rides. After dinner we’re sad to say goodbye to Robert, but we hope he has a great time in Moab.