DISTANCE TRAVELED: 42.17 Miles
AVERAGE SPEED: 8.03 MPH

          At 6:15, I heard the groceries being pulled out from under my vestibule and I thought to myself that I still had 1:15 left to sleep. At 7:45, I finally decided to get up and pack. After packing everything inside of my tent, I ate oatmeal for breakfast, made a sandwich for lunch, and took my share of food for the following meals. I packed my bags and found that I did not have enough room for my food so I unpacked and repacked to fit in 10 pounds of food that I had. By the time I left, it was 10:30 so I rode quickly on the first three miles of pavement. For the next 5 miles, I climbed 1,000 feet to the dirt road that would take us over Marshall Pass. I crawled up this hill at 3-4 mph, met up with Tom and Marnie, (Picture145) and continued cycling at this pace up the next 14 miles to the top of the pass. The views were great looking back at the Collegiate Peaks – all 14,000+ feet. (Picture146) The road was an old railroad bed that had been torn up so it was an easy grade. (Picture147) However, I was still slow since I was very tired. We passed beaver dams and through Aspen groves, which, along with a cool headwind, kept our bodies, cool. With four miles to go, we stopped for lunch and lay down on the road for a while. At 2:00 when we reached the top of Marshall Pass, Continental Divide Crossing #16, we laid down again to gain back some energy. (Picture148) By this time, I had cycled 23 miles and had averaged only 5.66 mph! After taking some pictures, we began the 20-mile descent (Picture149) to Sargents. (Picture150) Along the way, there were many ruts in the road. One was a foot deep and spaned the entire road. I jumped over it at 25 mph but the BOB hit hard and bounced around afterward. When we arrived in town, we stopped at a local café for a root beer float and a piece of cherry pie. After this short stop, we rode the final two miles to our campsite that was in the middle of a closed forest road, bordered on one side by a river and on the other by a large highway. I set up my tent on top of about 15 small anthills and then washed off in the river. For dinner, we had breaded chicken breasts with spaghetti that was the best meal of the trip. After sitting around the fire, I went to bed at 9:45.