We have entered July... Celebrating 4 months on the road! This week has been particularly interesting for various reasons. We've updated the imaginary list of our favourite cycling routes so far, with a new number one. We've also enjoyed a spa day at an unbeatable price. We've even challenged ourselves by undertaking a hike that turned into a rock climb, but the reward was amazing, one of the most beautiful lakes that we've ever seen. And when everything seemed like a garden of roses, to spice things up, we've had one of our worst days. Where Murphy's law took over, leading to an unfortunate chain of events. But as the saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! So let's get into it with a week that see us at the one third point in our the adventure...

We start the week honouring the local aquatic centre in town where, after spending the afternoon in the hot tub and going down the water slide, we nearly turned into raisins with dehydration! And all for the incredible price of $5. As not everything should be so fun, and we are so responsible, we also made the most of it to get up to date with the blog and do some bike maintenance (particularly the chains which after 3,000km deserved to be replaced).

After a few days of rest it was time to get all hands on deck and hit the road once more. But it's easier said than done... When you have luxuries like water, electricity or the internet it's hard to get away. So we started the morning with a hair dressing session, where D-Wack the beginner was about to use his scissors on Addie's long locks for the first time. With his parents in the audience as judges! We can say that it was a great success and so we celebrated it with some Tex-Mex cooking from Bret and Paula (D-Wack's parents) who had come to spend a few days with us. While the team prepared to leave, buying provisions for the next few days, Rob and I headed to the visitor centre where we had a chat with Eric and Tina and also got up to date with events from home. After all this stuff you can imagine that we didn't leave until 5pm... So we pedalled and pedalled until we reached the edge of the national forest to camp and just about got the tent up with a bite to eat before night set upon us.

Once in the forest, dirt tracks become the order of the day and in all honesty it's the most relaxing thing as there is no traffic and it's skirted by thousands of trees and aromas that charge your batteries for the next few days. I love the smell of pine trees. We also had the pleasure of crossing a river, that our friends jumped right into, and ending the day at a camping spot right on another river, where Rob perfected his hidden skill of "show cooking". It was like a TV show where Addie followed instructions to cook up a makeshift curry, which I must say was a complete success! To finish up the day on an even better note a moose mum with two babies surprised us on the river bank, saying goodnight to us.

We awoke in the knowledge that it was our fourth month of adventure! But as I've alluded to already, today was to be bitter sweet, particularly for Rob. We started with a breakfast in good spirits and very soon realised we were a penknife down... One which Rob held close to his heart. After a long search we accepted that it had more than likely been at the bottom of the washing up bowl, which was poured unceremoniously down the toilet the night before. When we had finally packed up and headed onto the road Rob's bike started misbehaving and then his new chain split... So we headed back to the camping spot to fix it up and this is where the camera got lost amongst the tree litter and disappeared forever. We didn't of course realise this until 15km down the road and a good few hill climbs. Here we met the unkindest couple ever who refused to help us... Thank goodness D-Wack's parents compensated for it all as they went in the car to try and find it, although with no luck. As well as helping us they also prepared lunch for us at the cabin where they were staying and tried their best to pick Rob's spirits up, who wasn't having the best of days. Although with little motivation, as after eating we just fancied a nap, we plucked up the energy to carry on and climbed most of the way up a tricky mountain pass that would take us to a stunning lake, where we spent the night. There we met another cyclist, Colin, who was doing the Great Divide route the other way to us, and we invited him to stay with us for the night. The family grows larger!

As Paula had said the day before... tomorrow's a new day, and so it was. We awoke by this amazing lake with all of nature's good energy and could enjoy the best cycle so far, making into first place on our list! We crossed lakes, rivers, clearings decorated with thousands of wild flowers in all their splendour, all types of trees and all this accompanied by the view of the mountains that make up the Grand Tetons National Park. With their glistening white peaks. It was a spectacular day for us but for Addie it was quite the opposite... Bad times were following her around. The poor soul's bike broke and she lost her wallet and her down jacket... We found out about this once we arrived at the first campsite in the national park, where we claimed the final spot for hiker/bikers next to the bins and where the whole team finally arrived to share the day's anecdotes.

Now where we wanted to be, we could relax and make it slowly to the next campsite from which we wanted to visit the the park over the coming days. We were relatively relaxed since we'd heard there were spots reserved for hikers and bikers, so we didn't exactly rush to get there. In fact D-Wack was the first to arrive since his parents were spending the day there and he let us know that he'd reserved the final camping spot... When Rob and I arrived later we found a note saying that they'd gone to see a lake but instead of joining them we preferred the idea of hanging around the campsite and relaxing. It was then that we found John, a cycle tourist that Addie and Austin had met some minutes before, who asked us if he could stay in our spot as well as he had nowhere else to go. We were chatting and cooking with him when suddenly we saw a couple, who were nothing to do with us, who started to put up their tent on our pad... Without wasting time we headed over to tell them we had it reserved to which they replied they'd reserved it earlier on in the day. Hmmm. After trying to understand the situation we discovered it was our fault and we asked if we could stay also. The guy said very kindly this would be fine but his other half wasn't quite as willing, although resentfully allowed it anyway. Things were getting quite crowded!

We woke up quite early to do a hike that John and mentioned and that promised to be very interesting, since it was not marked on the maps. So there we headed, up a near vertical slope that pointed to the heavens, some 600m up climbing over rocks and through parts which you basically had to rock climb. But it was all worth it once we reached the top. A lake so beautiful it would give anyone a hard on. Water so turquoise, "the" Grand Teton in the background and the most intense electric blue sky overhead. John was American but lived in Mexico and before saying our goodbyes he invited us to visit him if we passed by his home city, which of course would be good fun to do! On returning to the campsite we found another note from the guys saying that they were going to spend the night in the back country and they'd see us the next day. We spend what was left of the afternoon by the nearby lake and getting to know our new neighbours. A nice couple that had got engaged a few months previously, the "ring" however was a fossil on a necklace, breaking wonderfully with boring tradition. Once we finally decided to go to bed and watch something on the laptop, we heard someone calling our names. The guys were back but with disturbing news... It seemed that they had somehow lost Addie in the woods on the way to where they were to camp and didn't know what to do or how to find her! Scary stuff... Well thank goodness that while we were talking in came a text from a satellite phone saying she was safe and well with another group in the woods. This put our minds to rest as she was no alone. Although the following day we were to find out it wasn't quite that way...

So you may have observed, it's been an entertaining week. And now we are just a stone's throw from Yellowstone, all this time the final destination of our first cycling leg, and continue to bond with our new friends, who have in the end decided to split from the Great Divide route and join us in the next national park. So let's enjoy this next part of the journey altogether!