Great sleep in the canyon. Got up early. Filtered some pure mountain stream water. Started a fire and got the coffee going. Some little critter was rustling around my tent last night but one whack on the side of the tent and it scooted off.
Mike got up and tried some fishing and caught a nice sized brook trout. He put it on the grate with the coffee. Not a cloud in the sky. Just a perfect morning. No one was in a hurry to leave. There was a French gentleman motorcycling on a rented Harley who camped next to us. Out for a month. We chatted for a half hour or so. You see a lot of the Euro-types out this way doing that. A couple of days ago we met a Swiss couple.
It was after 10 when we finally got loaded and headed out of the canyon and down into town. Fueled up and headed towards Rawlings, WY. Clear skies but very windy. Rode through some very bleak landscape. Devoid of trees. Lots of sage bushes. Tumbleweeds in the making. Sweeping vistas. As far as you can see, mountain ranges sweeping up from the desert. Nothing to break the view. No trees. No houses. No roads. Riding in areas such as this is not fun. The wind makes you work the bike, constantly making minor adjustments. Not hard. Just tiring. Two lane roads. Lots of truck traffic. And they like to go fast.
Stopped in Jeffries. A modern ghost town. Once was a booming uranium mine town. When nuclear reactors lost favor, the mine closed down. Everyone left. They had built a brand new school and never opened its doors. The streets are beginning to be taken over by weeds, disintegrating. Really surreal.
Pressed on.
After well over a couple hundred miles or so, a few passes, continental divides etc. we pulled into Rawlings. Fueled up and lunch at Rosie’s. A tiny little Mexican restaurant. Again, muy good. Got on the interstate for twenty or thirty miles. Tight staggered formation. Got off and headed south for Encampment. Mike has a place up there. We are going to use that as our final stopping point in the west. Tomorrow we begin our eastern journey back to Michigan.
60 miles or so of beautiful ranch country. Took our time. Stopped at the IGA in Saratoga. Picked up some ribeyes, asparagus and salad for dinner. A couple of bottles of bottom shelf, but fully workable spirits. Oh yeah, a bag of potato chips. We actually have been staying away from that stuff as much as possible, but sometimes you just cave in. We got to Mike’s place. At 7600′, and just a few miles from his favorite snowmobiling, its a great staging area. We unloaded the bikes, got right back on them and took off for ‘Battle Pass’. A 10,000 foot pass and continental divide just outside of town. Jonathan rode Mike’s Honda CBX. A vintage 1979 6 cylinder rocket that Mike has been riding on the trip. Borrowed from his cousin Pat who was with us for a few days last week. At any rate a big change from his Yamaha. Fun road. Heck, they all are. Its nice to see the boys develop their riding skills and confidence.
Back at the house, we sat in the garage while a brief mountain thunderstorm barreled over the mountains.. We celebrated by beginning happy hour. After a bit we fired up the grill. Alex was the master chef. Grilled asparagus, ribeyes and salad ala Jonathan.
Great meal that hit the spot.
We played cribbage til late. Probably had a few too many after dinner drinks (or was it the before dinner drinks?). You can tell the level of bonding that occurs by the nature of the ribbing that goes on. It was going on between all.
Tomorrow, Wednesday we begin our trek home. A couple of thousand miles, give or take, of experiences left. The current thought is to drop into Colorado and head east into Nebraska. Then at some point, drop down into Kansas. East towards Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana then north to Michigan. We make up the routes as we go. Pulling the map out at fuel stops. Always 2 lane roads. Interstates are a last resort. Finding a spot to sleep when the day is ending.
LIfe is good.