Day 8

Waking up in the Elk Meadows campground was easy, after all, we were woken up by someones car alarm going off. This was 0530. We were so happy we didn't oversleep. OK.....

Taking down the camp went well. No issues other than the tents blowing away if not weighed down.
Pam and Doug seemed to have problems staying on the air mattresses overnight. No real problems, just going to sleep on a mattress, waking up an hour later in the corner of the tent somewhere. Not a problem for me any way.
Naturally, the mornings entertainment was watching me bungee all my stuff to the bike.

I'm actually getting better with time.
First stop of the morning was new underwear for Doug, cough drops for Pam to feed the local wildlife with, and a quick gas stop. Then it was breakfast at the Other Side. The other side of what we don't know, but the food was good. Pancakes, eggs, corned beef hash, all the good healthy breakfast foods.
After breakfast, it was back on the road. Sandy and Doug headed to the fudge place so Sandy could pick up some fudge. When she bought the stuff, the salesman asked if she wanted some plastic knives, forks or anything. She said no, she was just going to pack it up. The salesman asked if she was going to share it with her friend, and said you're on a bike right. To this Sandy replied "yeah, how'd you know that?" The clerk just pointed to the helmet still on her head. Alrighty then.....She will be joining Pam wearing the helmet off the bike.

Then, there was this one;

Anybody notice the problem?
Like maybe the helmets on backwards?
From there we left for the next stage of our journey. Into the Rocky Mountain National Forest.
We were headed first, to the Chasm Falls on the Old Falls River Road. We parked in the Endovalley picnic area and hiked up the dirt road to the falls. 

Above is the hike up to the dirt road from our picnic area. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but they didn't provide elevators so.....

The hike up the road was worth it. There were some interesting views from the road.

Above and below: The falls themselves are just off the dirt road about a couple hundred yards. It was a very rocky climb.

We're here!
Next, back on the road.
We left Chasm Falls and headed for Waldon Colorado to spend the night in a KOA there.
We drove over the Iceberg Pass, past the Lava Cliffs, and across the highest point on the road at 12183 ft. A tad on the chilly side it was.
There was some interesting wildlife on the way, and we stopped for a quick romp in the snow.
Doug and Jim in the snow

 My foot in the snow. There you go folks, snow in August.

The road was filled with  spectacular views.
Here is the view from a scenic overlook.

 The crew at the overlook

 The road we took to get there

We rode through the Kawuneeche Valley, through the Arapaho National recreational area to pick up highway 40. We decided to take 125 across another pass to save some time. Not the best idea of the trip. The weather started turning as soon as we were in the mountains again.

About halfway across it started raining. Jim and Pam were quite a way ahead of the rest of us. We didn't see them as we headed toward Waldon. Doug saw the turn off to the camp ground so we turned around and went back to the turn. Here we found Jim and Pam in the yard of a farm house talking to the owner. They had turned in to ask if he would let them stop long enough to don the rain gear.  He was happy to oblige. Doug, Sandy and I pulled right in behind Jim and Pam. We stayed there about a half hour to forty five minutes talking with Him. He was very informative about the area and the best way to get where we were going. As we spoke the sky cleared somewhat and the rain almost stopped completely. We thanked him for his hospitality and the information, and saddled up again. The road to the campground was weaving through the rain for us. We were thankful for that.

We finally arrived at the campground office. The clerk didn't seem too happy to see us at first. Sandy, of course, bought an ice cream, then Doug bought one. As I was checking us in, Sandy noticed the pictures of moose in the campgrounds and asked the clerk if they had moose just walking around the grounds. The clerk replied "only when they're not driving" That broke the ice, we were ok after that. I have to stop and here and thank Pam and Sandy, they went right to work. They got our laundry done and Pam reorganized Jim's pack. He really needed that. It was getting really disheveled looking.
Here is home for the night with the bikes tied to the hitching post and blanketed for the night.

As I will be in just a minute or two.  Until tomorrow.