Day 7

302 miles today and now into Colorado – Silverthorne to be exact. Early morning was a delightful ride in pine forest and then we took a wrong turn and it all turned to shite. Steep and long rocky downhills, wheel deep ruts, mud holes and finally a river crossing with a viscous rocky uphill. Frank, bless his cotton socks, full of bravado attacked the (very deep) bog hole with gusto with the inevitable result. I was too concerned that he might drown in the bog to take a picture – long story short I had to hose him off at a local car wash. He smelled like the downhill side of a feedlot.

Afternoon much improved with excellent road surfaces through high plains meadows with grazing cattle and the odd antelope. Met a shepherd walking with a couple of dogs way out in the wap waps. We tried to talk to him but Lord knows what language he spoke. Heard wolves howling last night and this morning got a glimpse of one darting into the bush just ahead of us.