Walden, Colorado

We rode out of Rawlins shortly after the other bicyclists, but I soon caught up to them. I found that it is no fun drafting a recumbent because of their aerodynamic properties, but I stayed with the group anyway. We began to spread out over a couple of miles, and I was in front with one other bike. We just skirted a heavy storm, and found ourselves to be lucky when the others arrived absolutely drenched. Steve said the water level on the road was over the rims of his wheels. I didn’t even put on a jacket. I decided not to present this fact to the group of wet riders.

We stayed in Encampment, camped on the lawn of the library. The sprinkler system began watering the lawn and our tents, so we covered the sprinkler heads with our cooking pans and water bottles. We got wet.

We rode through Cowdrey, whose main feature happens to be a little store. The store closed about ten years ago. Steve mentioned that he had stayed in this town the first time he toured the trail, and was trying to remember which of the few houses in Cowdrey belonged to Bonney and Marvin, the couple who let him stay in their trailer. Steve asked the first man he saw in the street if he knew the nice people, and the man said he ought to: they were his parents. We met Bonney in the same house Steve remembered staying in 25 years earlier. Marvin passed away eight years ago. We met Bonney’s three children, and talked in the garden for a bit. We were offered a place to stay, but we insisted that we move on.

Fierce headwinds whistled through our helmets and spokes as we narrowly avoided a thunderstorm. We arrived in Walden, which was wet from rain we never saw fall. We are camped in the city park, a great place to spend our first evening in Colorado.