Andy awoke to a shaggy hippy man coming over to talk to him while A was still brushing his teeth. Fortunately he realized that Andy might want to finish brushing his teeth by himself and retired back to his van, but soon after he was back and we were into a good conversation. His name is Greenlight and he told us about his many adventures, including walking cross country in '84, and told us about how he travels around hunting mushrooms and other herbs and lectures at various fungi festivals (that's not what he called them) around the country.
We continued our conversation at breakfast at the Dugout, and by the end of our time together I think Andy was totally hooked on mushroom hunting (although I think we'll save that for another trip- the books are too heavy to carry.) I tried to order granola, which they were out of, and so tried eggs instead, but this ended up not being the ticket at all for my tummy. Our waitress told us how to make all sorts of homeade schnapps which wasn't of too much interest to us and also told us about a hot springs somewhere north and east of where we were going that she couldn't remember where but we should really try to find. Oh well, she was sweet and poured A about 6 cups of coffee while we sat there.
If you want to know about the first 20 miles of the trip ask A, because my stomach was in total agony. I remember we had to be piloted through a construction site for about a mile, which had some drivers on the otherside angry, and several had dismounted their motorcycles to see what was going on.
We had a little over a 60 mile day planned, with no services between Hot Sulphur and Walden, except for Saw Mill Gulch campsite that had restrooms and water after the first 20 miles. We stopped here for probably an hour, I took a nap, Andy explored the river a bit, and had our seperate and unequal meals.
After that we both felt better though, and prepared to go back over the continental divide at about 9500 this time. The climbing was tough, but grand, but the summit had absolutely no view. What came after however was a gorgeous 30 mile wide valley where the Ute Tribe used to hunt bison. Apparently it used to be black with them. Now it was just gorgeous open space surrounded by mountains all around the perimeter.
We took a break in serviceless town of Rand, enjoying the shoulder and the view, and then did our last 20 miles to Walden through a wildlife preserve. The only wildlife we saw was a momma duck that we separated from her ducklings as they were crossing the road. We did see lots of cows. Moo.
Walden was a grooving town, esp. after 60 miles. We made it just in time to use the library quickly, eat at the Moose Creek Cafe (simple salad and baked potato- i learned by lesson, bbq and vanilla creme for A), and then off to the city park where we would camp next to a baseball field that had a game going on. The sheriff gave A the number for a woman to let us in the athletic club and we took showers for a bargain of $3 a piece, since camping was free.
The sky got super dark while we were there, and a storm was definitely coming from all directions. It looked super cool as the sun set under the dark navy clouds. We staked our tent down to the brown grass (where the sprinklers don't soak you), hung our food from the baseball scoreboard, and passed out.
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