A brilliant week in which we have discovered a new cycle route, new super kind and generous people and are to take ourselves to our limits. Although always ending up with a smile and the satisfaction of surpassing our expectations of ourselves day after day.

We started the week trying to get up to date with blogs and audiologs before heading out once more, which led to us leaving late into the afternoon from the campsite. And what happens when you return to the road is that uncertainty once again takes over your life. Then after climbing a serious hill that took us into the countryside, far away from civilization, we hit upon a beautiful canyon through which a train line meandered and a free camping spot jumped out at us so we could rest for what was left of the day. We quickly popped up the tent while Rob cooked some emergency noodles, which we quickly devoured while running a marathon trying to get away from the biting mosquitos that surrounded us in all directions.

Oh what a day! Without doubt one of the most bitter sweet of the whole trip. From here on out we joined a famous mountain bike route that crosses North America called the Great Divide. It's characterised by un-tarmacked roads, paths that avoid the traffic and by its great quantity of cyclists, which allows us to meet more people and have a richer experience. The name comes from the fact that the rivers that flow on each side of the "Divide" head to either the Pacific or Atlantic respectively. The stage which we joined headed up a mountain and gave us the pleasure of spotting woodpeckers, foxes, deer and lovely flowers. And it's true that there is no reward without effort, and we sweated good! It almost seemed like we had got on a roller coaster, endless uphills and downhills that were mega steep, with our friend the sun beaming down upon us. Finally the torment ended in a nice forest service campsite enjoying the peace and tranquility amongst the pine trees.

Now it was our turn for a well deserved downhill, so we let ourselves lose and headed to the town of Steamboat Springs. Upon arrival it didn't take us long to sniff out happy hour at a local brewery where we quickly set up shop. We were enjoying some beers, accompanied by tapas and incredible burgers, but in the back of our minds was lingering the thought of where to camp... And we found out that there was nowhere to do so, so we'd have to cycle 10km to the national forest and, in all honesty, we'd become serious lightweights on the booze front so they were going straight to our heads. It was when in our drunken haze that we remembered our friend Jason telling us about how he'd often been camping in baseball fields, so there we went! Once we'd arrived we were killing time until the sun went down, so as not to draw attention to ourselves, and had nothing better to do but see who could squish the most mosquitos...

The night on the sports field passed by as expected and, although we'd agreed to get up early to take down the tent before the world and his dog come by in the morning for a walk, we got lazy and ended up leaving the place mid-morning. After having a quiet breakfast in a local park, we popped into the supermarket to stock up for the coming days and it was there we first met our super friends Addy and Austin that were cycling the Great Divide with four other people. We had a chat and promised ourselves we'd meet up again further down the road. After lunch we headed off down said road once more and, before reaching the next town, someone caught our attention on the side of the road. This was Wil, a guy who worked on a nearby ranch, who invited us to spend the night there. He was a charming guy so we didn't have to think about it for long until before following his 4x4 down the road. When we arrive he introduced us to some of the people that lived on the ranch, who gave us a lovely warm welcome. As the weather was a little unpredictable, we were invited to stay inside the greenhouse there which was a funky, large, geometric structure that made a semi-sphere roof and walls. After making ourselves at home we went to bring in and feed the horses with Wil and ended up with him and his wife, Sarah, drinking tea and sharing stories.

We awoke slowly, making the most of the day to get up to date with the audiolog and Rob helped out by adjusting the gears on Wil's bike while he was out working. We got to know a few of the guys on the ranch who came up to us to chat and one of them, Tim, showed us some beehives which they used to collect a shit ton of honey each year (this made us think that in the future we should have a beehive for personal consumption and to sell to neighbours, don't be surprised if we do just that when we make it back home!). We were thinking about staying an extra night until we finally decided to keep going and we pedalled up into the woods where some big hills, rain and cold were waiting for us. When the road became rough we decided to camp, with the day ending in one of the most beautiful sunsets that we have ever seen, what an incredible combination of colours!

We knew we had a tough day ahead, but with perseverance and some good entertainment from our headphones we made short work of the uphill in a couple of hours. So we started the long decent that would end up in Wyoming but not before stumbling, first, upon some home made loos in the middle of nowhere, made of wood with a toilet seat on top by a dispersed camping spot, and next upon a bike multi-tool, that it would turn out was from the friends we'd met in Steamboat Springs! Everything was going swimmingly until we made it into Wyoming, taking the standard photo with the border sign, when I realised I'd lost my down jacket which was strapped to the back of the bike... As you can imagine, we have only just about enough clothes to get by, each with its purpose, so we turned back to search for it in vain. After a few minutes of cycling we realised we didn't have the time to go back so far so we decided to ask drivers passing by if they'd seen it. Shortly after some failed attempts we bumped into Glynda and her husband "J" that very kindly offered to turn around and have a quick look in the car. After a little wait they came trundling back towards us but hadn't found anything, however without even thinking about it Glynda offered me one of her jackets from the back seat of the car, which I ended up accepting to get me out of this little hole. After chatting together they offered also to help us out by driving us up the next, not very tempting, hill as we'd lost a good deal of time waiting for passing cars. So we chucked the bikes in the back of the pickup and made a stop in their nearby house for water and some amazing cookies that Glynda had recently baked (no need to even say that they were finger lickin' good!). In no time we found ourselves close to where we'd spend the night, on top of the hill, at a lookout where we could see the various mountain ranges surrounding us in the distance.

We got up with lots of energy and after a good coffee and a bowl of granola we carried on the planned route that would take us through a national forest, with no idea how far we make it that day. We've already said that the day started well, but we didn't realise how much better it would become. We slipped down a well cared for dirt track with the sun hidden behind the clouds, the perfect temperature and minimal traffic, while feeling nature all around. After a few climbs and descents the trees gave way to wind swept open plains. Wind in our favour! Brilliant! With minimal effort, progress was rapid. It was then that half way through the day we intercepted two other cyclists, but what we didn't imagine was that we already knew them. It was Austin and Addy from Steamboat! Thanks to the free ride on the wind we ended up in the same town and camping all together. They were travelling with more people and so there were 5 of them in total (Addy, Austin, D-Wack, Jacob and Campbell) with the parents of Campbell in tow driving their RV, and so also part of the crew. We spent the night together having a few beers and talking about all sorts, everyone was really friendly and close. They made us feel like part of the family from the very first moment.

After this stretch, another difficult one was to come, which we will talk about next week. Now, a day of rest in the campsite is awaiting us…