Rawlins to Colorado Line I appreciated my “day off” in Rawlins after a couple long days across the Great Basin. I caught up with my ride updates, did some laundry, checked my bike over and generally ate like a horse. Oh, and I went to Walmart. Not much else to do in Rawlins! I spent ample time in the porch swing in front of my little KOA cabin. R and R complete, I was excited to get back on the road south. My planned route for the day had me going just into Colorado. When I say just in, I mean my tent is about 50 yards inside the Colorado border. I got on the road reasonably early—8:30ish, and started the long gradual climb out of Rawlins. A few miles out of town, I caught up with a bike packer couple from Prescott, AZ and we chatted for a while before we parted ways and I forged ahead. As happens in this part of the country, a relatively calm morning sorted itself out into a nice headwind in the open landscape I was riding through. Still buoyed by my luck with the wind across the Great Basin, I took it without initial complaint. The miles dragged on, with pretty steep pitches and overall elevation gain combined with an ever increasing wind. I kept my spirits up, but wouldn’t necessarily call today’s route fun! Eventually I slogged my way into the woods, and a relative calm as the trees shielded me from the wind for about 20 miles. This was my favorite part of the day; vast acres of aspen forest stretched to the horizon. I had never seen such forests! A grove here and there, but these were mature, white-trunked aspens as far as the eye could see! Beautiful. The landscape was now green and lush, quite a contrast to the first 40 miles of desertscape earlier in the day. After the very last climb of the day, I dropped down once again into drier sagebrush country, all the way down to the Little Snake river valley—my destination for the evening. I pulled into a private campground that fit a tired hungry bikers’ needs just fine. As I write this, I am treated to the brightest stars I’ve seen on the entire trip. How lucky am I to be here, now.