Saturday July 6th: Dillon or … give Peace a chance and smell the sage bushes!

An early start today in the crisp morning: low clouds were still hanging over the hillsides. 

Pacing ourselves is the keyword. The first 20 miles to Jackson we hardly saw a car passing us. We did see lots of critters crossing the road and watching us. The birds were doing their best, singing whatever they felt good about. Those yellow headed, black birds were all over the place. Getting closer to Jackson the road started to roll more and my woman wondered how the Oregon couple (Jack and Amy) had coped in Jackson. This town with normally 50 people living here got the Rainbow Gathering: people who want peace…From all over people had come here to join in a hippie kind of peace ceremony. Just out of Jackson – on the uphill out of town- we noticed two silhouettes walking along the road.. At first we thought it was the couple, but they had no bicycles. My woman told me:” there are some hippies walking there – see the weird hair? I was ready to protect my woman, if they had something evil on their mind! But wait… those aren’t hippies, unless women in their sixties who are exercising belong to that same tribe! The terrain rolled more and more and then we saw them: the Oregon couple was crawling up the pass.

 At the top we had a talk – taking a break from the climb, which was even for them harder than yesterday’s. On the downhill my woman kept in mind that the carrier on the back of Sweet Machine is still not 100%. So slow down and keep away from the cracks in the road surface. At kilometer 65 we started another climb and boy – we stopped a lot. Meanwhile I lost track of the State Police troops car that crossed us… all to keep the road safe (hey, don’t the Rainbow people want peace?). Every two poles my woman got her but off the saddle and her feet on the ground. I told her not to give up – she was debating on walking a little bit uphill. But then -  at last  - the top at kilometer 75. 

From here it was all downhill to Dillon. Along the road we met another couple and a small kid going towards Jackson. They shouted at us because they saw the Belgian flag on our packs. People came from Ghent! My woman wished them good luck with their climbing job. Down we rolled into Dillon. In town we immediately noticed a lot of young and old people hanging around, laying around… The Rainbow People… we thought! We were glad to call it a day after 103 kilometers.