Day 1. We Ride at Dawn! Almost.

Beeep. Beeep. Beeep. Beeep.

"I don't want to ride at dawn!" - Anders.

We woke up in time for first breakfast at Macdonalds. 5:00am. $41.99 later, we were getting ready to leave and Crazy Larry showed up for a farewell. He rolled out with us for the first few kilometers, as he does with the Tour Divide riders. What a treat.

Not long into the ride, we spotted an animal on the path ahead of us. His name was Benjamin Cyprus and he was riding a unicycle. To Mexico. Solo. Awesome.

That was not the only wildlife for the day. We spotted two bears in our path, within 25 km of each other. One brown. One black. Crazy Larry was still with us for the first. For safety, he kept his bear spray out and ready to go after that.

This is a tricky thing to do on a bike on a bumpy road; even for a pro. So, it wasn't too surprising when he rolled up shortly later with a brown coat of bear spray covering his wool pants.

Larry turned back after that and we carried on, eventually crossing paths with the Tour Divide northbound leader, Chell. He was packed extremely light and in great spirits, particularly considering that it was raining by now.

The rain became heavier and the road slower. Then the snow started. We carried on. Elk Pass was a mess of fresh snow and puddles and mud. Kim changed our motto to "WE RIDE TILL DAWN!"

At the 114km mark, just a little after the Pass, there was a small, open cabin with a fire going in a wood stove. Short of our destination for the day but we decided to camp inside. So that we could dry things out and get warm.

There was a bird surveyor ad his dog there, but the bird man man room for us by the fire. Ah, to fall asleep warm and dry!

Sent using a Blackberry that I'd better not lose.