Walden, Hot Sulphur Springs, and Silverthorn

A lot of miles (too tired to compute). Altitude is plagueing us.

Yesterday, Bill caught us almost at the top of Willow Creek Pass, so we dumped all of our gear in the van and finished the climb, moving a few mph faster. Let the sagging begin!

At the top of the pass, we met a few girls riding the Great Parks Loop. I guess I can't complain too much about all of this climbing, their whole trip seems to be a string of passes. Yikes, it sounds like an uber exhausting route, but beautiful.

Swiffer, a trail buddy from the AT, joined us to camp. It's been exactly 2 years since I last saw him, so it was great to catch up over a beer. The last time we hung out, he took me backpacking in the Rockies and taught me how to fly fish. Swiffer is quite the outdoorsman.

Today I felt more exhausted than ever on this adventure, I barely had any energy. At one point, I dropped a hand signal to McKinley that I had to pull over, and stopped just before a guard rail. For the first time, I cried a few tears of pure exhaustion. I think the quick elevation gain over the last few days is making us feel shitty; we both have been off our game a bit, even with barely any weight on our bikes, which is moderately insulting.

Towards the end of the day, McKinley started to feel awful; we seem to take turns. So, we did what any normal person would do to remedy that: headed directly to Target to go shopping! I bought new ipod speakers so we can jam out on rough days.

Tomorrow, we finally go over Hoosier Pass. Once we cross over, we will be on our way out of the Rockies, and back down to a much lower elevation. I'm ready to stop climbing hills for a while, it's exhausting the crap out of both of us. Bring on the flat plains!

Photo: the best sign a cyclist will ever see