Camping at Sawmill Gulch was nice because the campground was clean and quiet. Although, after Labor day, one can expect that most campgrounds will not be full, and the stay at Sawmill Gulch lived up to that expectation. However, we did meet three men that were camping here, while they were enjoying their sixth annual religious retreat. Doug sparked up a conversation with one these guys, and learned that they both had something in common; both of them are Boy Scout leaders.
It was a very chilly evening and the warm comfort of our sleeping bags was a welcome relief from the cold. The morning sun didn't appear over the mountain peaks until later in the morning, which made for a bone chilling experience when climbing out of our sleeping bags well before seven o'clock. There was a thick layer of frost on everything, including a thick layer of ice that formed in our water bottles, overnight. In order to try to stay warm, we drank plenty of hot tea and coffee with our breakfast.
Once again we broke camp and packed away our equipment to make ready for our day's ride to Winding River Resort. Our bike ride today would take us further south on Highway 125 where it intersects with US Highway 40. We turned east onto highway 40, and rode for about two miles, and then turned left onto US Highway 34, at Granby. From Granby we rode to Grand Lake, where we stopped for a nice lunch at the Bears Den Restaurant, before riding onto the Winding River Resort. We also stopped into a grocery store at Grand Lake to buy some fresh vegetables and fruit for our supper tonight.
The pictures, below, were taken along Highway 125 as we continued our descent along the Willow Creek drainage. While we were riding south on HWY 125, we met two young men who were riding their touring bikes north towards Willow Creek Pass. We stopped and talked with James and John for several minutes, and learned that they were riding from New Hampshire to Oregon, on a their first cross country tour across the United States.
The picture, above, is of Lake Granby, and the next picture was taken at Winding River Resort where we setup camp for the night.
More pictures and tour information can be seen on the next page, Day-5
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