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Before I left, my friends gave me a pack of ‘Unicycle’ cards on which they’d written notes and inspirational comments. Well, I don’t really know if they’re inspirational because I’ve only looked at two so far… I plan to resist the urge to look through them all at once and instead look at one each night. Last night’s card had a drawing of a prairie dog and a hammer, like those games you see at the video arcade where something pops its head out of a hole, and you try to bop it. Wouldn’t you know it, early this morning, I came across a colony of prairie dogs. No, I didn’t bop them. I hope there are no cards here about making friends with a grizzly.

In other news, I made my first Continental Divide crossing at Elk Pass. I came across the first snow on the way up, but it was minimal and patchy enough that I could just ride around it. One of the scavenger hunt requests was to do a cartwheel at the divide crossings. Here’s my first cartwheel!

Just after the pass, I came across two hikers. Other than them, the only people I saw today were two guys in a truck who stopped to ask if I needed help. I declined and pushed on. I don’t think they quite understood what they were looking at.

The weather was pleasant most of the day, except for getting hailed on in an afternoon thunderstorm. I had just finally dried out my socks and shoes, too…

Tonight, I’m camped out on an emerald blue pond. The water is crystal clear, but the storm washed all the pollen out onto the surface. It still tastes good, though! I spent what felt like 40 minutes trying to hang my bear bag. It’s way up there tonight. I woke up last night thinking a bear was trying to push over the tree with my food in it. Eventually, I realized it was just two trees rubbing together in the breeze.