Today we rode from the Teton Reservoir Campground 16km south of Rawlins, Wyoming, US to Brush Mountain Lodge, Colorado, US. Sunny weather with clouds. Road conditions included paved roads and gravel roads. Highlights of the day include Brush Mountain Lodge!!.

Riding statistics: on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, day 24 on the route, it took 10:43h (08:19h moving time), between 07:22 and 18:06, to cover 115 km (71 miles), including 1695 m (5561 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14 km/h (9 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 71 km/h (44 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 30 °C (86 °F) with a minimum of 5 °C (41 °F) and a maximum of 43 °C (109 °F).

Totals: So far, it took 7 days, 4 hours, 58 minutes, and 0 seconds of cycling time to cover 2551 km (1585 miles), including 29049 m (95310 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 15.0 km/h (9.3 mph).

For this morning we had set our alarm clocks again at 6am so that we could leave early. There has been no wind during the night and, despite a barking dog of new visitors in the evening, I slept great. Not so much for Anna. Her tent was closer to the late visitors, and she had much more disturbance from noise and bright lights. The sun was already up, and although a bit chilly, it was not too cold. We took a quick snack and left the campground. We’re not totally sure where we would end up for the night. It will be Colorado, we’re pretty sure about that.

When we left the campground, we were back on a paved road. Today most of the roads are paved. And we were happy about that because there was quite some uphill in today’s forecast. The morning still started in a scenery of empty, sagebrush covered, mountains. During the day this changed into bigger, sharp edged, mountains, covered with big forests. Today we will be leaving Wyoming, and it did not disappoint. The diversity of this state is huge. From big mountains covered in large trees, to hilly landscapes with not much more than gravel, rocks, sand, and little vegetation. We enjoyed it all.

We’ve been happy again about our decision to take as many water as we could carry. There have not been many options along the route to resupply or filter water. In the afternoon we entered the state of Colorado. Just before leaving Wyoming, we saw a big (dead!) rattle snake at the side of the road. Somehow, I was surprised that these snakes lived here (although I should have known better based on previous holidays). Only a few minutes into Colorado we entered Slater. I very small settlement with only 2 trailers and a post-office. It is thanks to the post-office that this settlement is even on the map. Unfortunately, there were no services at all. We looked forward for a cold snack. We took a short break to decided what to do. There was an informal campground close to Slater, but we felt like moving on. Roger, who was still in front of us texted that the campground Slater was a big disappointed. Normally the decision would be obvious at this point, not too far away is Brush Mountain Lodge. A lodge ran by Kirsten, welcoming (mainly GDMBR) cyclists in summer, hunters in fall, and snowmobile riders in winter. Unfortunately, Kirsten has posted on social media that she would not be there this summer. The lodge would be closed, but she would try to make water available. We decided to continue anyway, and hopefully there was water, and maybe we could find a little area where we could setup our tents.

Just after Slater we turned onto a gravel road with many (many!) up- and downhills. Rolling hills as we have seen more, and they got us tired. The road traversed at the edge of a large valley. There was a big river at the bottom, and the mountains were covered with forests. From here it was about 20km (12.5 miles) to Brush Mountain Lodge. It was a hard last section and we had to stop for a few minutes a couple of times. The warm day had me exhausted. After every turn in the road, we tried to see if we could catch a glimpse of the lodge. According the GPS we should almost be there.

Finally, after taking one more turn in the road we could see the lodge. To our big surprise there were people sitting on the porch. At first, we thought it were other cyclist that decided to just spent the night here as well. But almost immediately we saw smoke coming out of the pizza oven, and Kirsten entering the porch as well. The lodge was open and welcoming guests. This was a big, and welcome, surprise. We were immediately greeted by Kirsten. She had us sit down on the porch with the others, brought cold fresh water to drink, and asked already if we wanted soda or beer after the water. She was already heating up pizzas, so we arrived at the best time possible. Staying at the lodge is based on donations (except for room, these have a fixed price). You pay what you think is worth your stay (of course taking everything you consumed into consideration).

Once sitting on the porch, we had a chat with the other cyclists. First, there was Nathan from Australia, he was biking solo. Then, there were Tiago (from Sweden) and Chuck (from the US) who were riding together for a while now. Finally, there were three Brits, Barry (dad) and twins Ricky and Gavin. They were riding the Great Divide for charity and in memory of their mom. They had 6 months to complete the whole route. Some of these people were already one or more days at the lodge.

The cabins were all rented out, but we could just pitch our tent in the yard. We had a great evening together, and it was already 11pm when we went to our tents.

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