Day 4

Monday, July 7

We camped along Tramway creek  last night at 7,700 ft elevation and about 33.4 miles from Denver. 

Cooked a delicious scrambled egg breakfast and filled our water in the stream for the day ahead. 

We've been using a katadyn water filter and it's been working great! The water is soo clear, fresh, and pure! 

The happiest dishwasher in the world.

The trail today was another gorgeous day of awestruck beauty. 

As we were traversing up our hill climb for the day, we intersected with a friendly mountain biker named Nathan. He expressed his awesome Colorado hospitality by inviting us to his nearby cabin for some breakfast. We must've looked hungry. We graciously declined and continued on our way. 

'Biker Nathan' and Zippy 

Several minutes later up the trail, we saw two day hikers trekking up the hill like a steam engine heading straight toward us. We quickly moved out of the way and to our surprise, we met a transformer! Biker Nathan turned into "Hiker Nathan" and brought along his sidekick nephew from California "Alex". And out of their pockets like a magician pulling a bunny out of his hat, they presented 4 clif bars! Those were prized items and so welcomed!! They hiked with us for the next mile or two with great hiker conversations and then we parted ways and continued on! Thank you Nathan and Alex for being trail  angels!! 

Five miles thru a winding trail of forests and streams, we enjoyed our solitude. 

Then, we approached a dirt road in which the trail continued across the road and there under a tree was another fellow  CT hiker. We named him "Road Warrior". He was quite entertaining with his little hiker buddy "Ace". 

We became quick friends as we were both waiting for our prearranged rides. Ours was arranged to take us to the little town of Bailey to retrieve our first resupply box, but our ride never showed up and the thunder storms started coming instead. So, we decided to start hiking in the direction of town..

Two miles later with 8 more to go, a great white angelic truck with a halo on it appeared. Or so it looked that way in our eyes. We were offered to go to the post office!

What a great guy! Thank you for the ride! 

Our box arrived safe and sound. We were so happy!

Now, onto the next task to find a place to stay for the night. Easy right? Haha....no. 

So, we thought the general store might have more information. 

There was definitely a halo on the "Bailey Country Store" as well. In discussing our dilemma of where to stay and what to do, a local, very nice couple offered us a place to stay for the night!!! Of course we said yes! They told us to load up our packs in the car and just a hundred yards away, there was a funky, roadside diner called "Cutthroat Cafe". It was recommended to us by our new biker/hiker friend Nathan. It was perfect and we ordered four homemade cinnamon rolls to go! They were so good! 

Mmmmm...best tasting veggie burger ever!