Day 62, Walden, Colorado to Saratoga, Wyoming.

Lisa spotted this bear as we were leaving Colorado. I stopped to photograph it. He was about a hundred yards away. After a couple of minutes, he looked like he was getting ready to charge, so I took off.

Wyoming is a land of endless plains and deep blue skies.

The cloud and sky combination brings great dynamics for photography.

We were blessed with great weather after the threat of thunder showers cleared the area.

Everywhere I looked, I saw awesome beauty.

I wish I had a bigger camera. At least one that could catch the whole spectrum of the scene.

We're in Wyoming now. Yippee!!!

We ate breakfast here. Biscuits and gravy, my favorite.

How cool is this shot? I actually was trying to capture these little chipmunks that were playing just off the road. But every time I lifted up my camera, they scattered.

Another perspective giving the scene more depth.

Rolling into Saratoga.

Some pretty neat cabins tucked away all by themselves. This is just one of many we saw.

Prong horns, we saw dozens of them.

Here's one that wouldn't budge until he got his picture taken. He told me to e-mail the photo.

Cool mountain lakes on the high plains.

I wouldn't want to live here, but simple living appeals to me.

Click on this photo. You'll see in the doorway a deer laying down. You don't see that every day.

For those of you who can't read instructions, I did this for you.

I didn't have a tripod, so I used the bike trailer to support the camera for this shot.

There's Lisa, who is better looking, the moose, or Lisa? Lisa of course. Shame on you...............

I like how the clouds gives the scene a 3-D effect.

A home on the range. I bet winter is hell out here.

A bald eagle in flight.

A bald eagle not in flight.


Day 62, Walden, Colorado to Saratoga, Wyoming. “Welcome to Wyoming”. 70 miles.

Today is Sunday, July 12, 2009. We have been on the road for two whole months. In a little over a month from now, we will be back home on Molokai, and all this will be memories never to be forgotten. So far, I have learned first hand how fortunate I am to be one of the few people in the world to call Molokai home. It is by far, the only pace I would ever want to call home. But it takes getting away for a period of time, and experience other places to really appreciate what a special place Molokai really is. The friends and family I have, I would not trade. You are all very special.

This morning saw the chance of thunder storms in the area. It did not look promising. Lisa and I checked the weather report, and talked with the locals. We had to decide soon if we were going to chance it or not. It wasn’t till 9 o’clock that we made our decision to go for it. We had a long 70 mile day planned, with only one small town in between. We left in hopes that the weather would hold at least till we were in a place we could seek shelter if it got too bad. I prayed for good weather and our well being. As we made our way, we noticed some dark clouds off in the distance, we also saw beautiful landscape, and a few wild animals. According to the elevation profile, we only had a couple of climbs, and none of them were anything like we had encountered the past few days. Traffic was very light, and we had a fairly wide shoulder. We saw several prong horn antelope, a bald eagle, and a bear. We also saw some of the most incredible wide open expanses I have ever seen. Wyoming is big, with more wide open spaces than you can imagine. We are still quite high in elevation, somewhere close to 8,000 feet. The sky still had that deep blue hue to it, and the clouds enhanced the 3-D effect as I took it all in with awe.

The ride was fairly easy, we had tail wind for the most part, and a section of down hill that was about three and a half miles long. I think we averaged close to 13 miles an hour through out our ride. For me, the highlight of the day was when we saw the bear. We had just come over a low pass, descending down through a rocky section of boulders and pine trees, when Lisa spotted a black object about a hundred yards of to the right. She pointed it our, and I moderately saw him. At first I thought it was a cub. I took out my camera as it was checking me out. When I zoomed him in, I realized then that he was full grown. As I shot him he partially stood up and stared intently at me. It looked to me like he was getting ready to charge, so I took off. I stopped further down the road, and looked back. He wasn’t coming, so I searched the tree line for more of um. Of course there were none, bears are generally solitary animals. Other than the outstanding scenery. The next exciting thing we saw a bald eagle. I saw this large hump on top of a fence off to the right. It stuck it’s head up. I pointed him out to Lisa. I was able to get a shot at it on the fence before flying off, and shot it in the air a couple of frames.

We pulled into the town of Riverside just after 1 in the after noon. On the way in, I stopped to take a picture of this really old abandoned house. As I focused, I saw a deer inside. I thought at first it was a stuffed animal. Then, I saw the ears move. I told Lisa, she didn’t believe me. I insisted, and she came over for a look. We were amazed she was in there, right next to the road, with a camp ground right across the street………………… We had lunch at The Bear Trap Cafe, a proceeded on to Saratoga. The landscape changed from dry high plains desert to greener pasture like surroundings. At one point a few miles back, it looked like we were in the middle of a big desert. Dry as can be, with nothing in sight.

We pulled into Saratoga a little after 4:00PM, and found the Sage and Sand Motel.. Tomorrow we head for Rawlins, weather permitting. Aloha from Wyoming, Ted.