We chugged through the extremely dry region of the Great Divide Basin. It was mixed climbing, flat and downhill, without a continuous lot of any one terrain, but the sun and the 70 miles took its toll. It is difficult to imagine the task it was to cross this in a wagon over a hundred years ago.
Jamie and I left Roger and John at lunch and ended up way ahead of them, because Roger lost something off his bike and went back for it.
The sagebrush rarely grew over 2" and you travel over a hundred miles without a natural source of water on the route. There was a well 12 miles into the ride today and we saw a lake off in the distance, but we had filled all our bottles and reservoirs.
The only signs of civilization were a cow camp, where we stopped for lunchtime shade, a couple of oil pumping /collection sites and a few vehicles.
The reservoir was a truly welcome sight. The water was cold and refreshing, so we "swam". Nancy was already there. Since we got there at 3:30, we mostly lay in our tents and drank water.
Stats:
Start 1624
End 1693
Total 70
Max 32.1
Avg 10.3
Time 6:41
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