"How do we get there from here!?": We like good dirt roads!

Chambers House B&B was a great spot for us for the past two days but, after finishing Vanessa's superb Eggs Bennedict, we set off for three nights of tenting it across the Great Basin.

The roads today were paved until the last twenty miles but the dirt roads, this time, were nicely compacted and smooth. Things were even better as we had a strong tailwind pushing us along.

East of Boulder, Wyoming--those are peaks and snowfields in the Bridger Wilderness.

The cows stood still enough for a photo, but we never managed to get a shot of the coyote or pronghorn that crossed paths with us and speedily raced away.

In the middle of nowhere, Wyoming--Check out the shirt the guy on the left is wearing. Yup, it's a Fairhaven Runners shirt. Father and son team, Mike and Ben Strom-- whom we'd heard about from yesterday's rider, Sean--caught up to us shortly after we left pavement. Turns out they're from Lopez Island, have many friends in B'ham and at WWU, and know a woman over on the island that used to live at the Borgias farm back when Alaine was just a kid.

The roads today just kept enticing us on the horizon.

We thought we were done with trees until Colorado but I guess we get to wait until tomorrow for our truly treeless days. So the rolling, rollercoastering hills with the aspens and pines were a treat near the end of our ride--and were refreshing and gorgeous.

We were surprised to find an established, seasonal, horse camp set up where we ended our day at Little Sandy Creek, a State Lands area recommended for tenting cyclists by the ACA. The camp was quiet, and Clara (who is working here for the summer) assured us it was ok to stay when she heard we were on bicycles and heading out tomorrow. And, get this, yet another home area connection: she's from the Olympia area and is majoring in Recreation at Western--September will be the start of her third year. We didn't get a pic of her, so we hope we recognize her in town, maybe at Boundary Bay some night.