29 miles, 4:01/5:30

We sleep in today as last night’s errands kept us up late. We do a quick bit of email and get out of town at 11:00. It felt nice not to hurry so much.

We are climbing right from mile one today, and end up climbing 4,000 feet in about 23 miles. The last twelve miles are once again railroad grade, so it goes well and we can enjoy the scenery. Once we get to this point we can settle in to a good pace where we can chat with each other. We often chat in the morning if the road allows, and it can be my favorite time. Today we are joking around and having fun. Dave said that whenever he meets someone named Carrie (or Kerry) he wants to sing that song, and then he busts out a full volume rendition of this horrifying, uh, tune, which is nothing like the “Carrie” I’m thinking of from around the 50s, but instead is something one of those awful hair bands from the 80s sang and he’s really doing his best to get it all right, but he says to imagine it an octave higher.

Yikes.

So I say, well, I guess that’s like every time someone meets me they want to sing that Beetles song, “Michelle, my Belle” but they never know the words that come after that line. And I’ve heard it about three thousand times in my life and I can’t remember one person who could actually sing the next line so finally some time last year I Googled it and found out it’s French, and I understand it (having recently taken French) and I get all excited and blast out my best version at the top of my lungs, “Michelle, my Belle, sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble… I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOOOOOVE YOU…” and then Dave and I are simultaneously singing our songs at the top of our lungs together. And then I can’t stop laughing, and then I really can’t stop laughing, until I nearly ride right off the edge of the cliff that we’re so gently climbing at railroad grade. And I look down from the edge and see a quiet little lake just down there with fishermen floating and I wonder how often they hear that kind of quality singing out here in the woods.

Late in the afternoon after topping Marshall Pass we descend just a bit down to about 10,000 feet and get to the recommended free-camping area. We see Dee Jay and Kerry setting up camp just below a huge aspen grove in a grassy meadow above the creek. We set up camp too, and spend a bunch more time chatting. We get their email so we can keep in touch. They have done many bike tours and also canoe tours in beautiful places and have lots of experiences to share with us.