More lightning and a little more rain come through during the night, making some more Sticky Mud for us. Luckily it dries over the morning, but the first miles aren’t easy.

We see lots of water that looks fine, but our map reports that surface water in this area is very alkaline. We don’t try any of it, since we’re lugging several liters.

Pete finally gets a phone signal and eventually we arrange to meet Bob near Rawlins.

The BLM route seems to disappear into a sea of sagebrush, so we try a stretch on highway 71. Pavement just hurts too much, so we make our way along a line of telephone poles back to the BLM route, now on old doubletrack roads.

Prickly pear is blooming here.

Just beyond Rim Lake recreation area we climb a crazy jeep road that climbs 450 feet straight up the mesa in about a quarter of a mile. It helps reinvigorate us, especially Ann, who powers up it faster than me.

Bob picks us up on highway 71, sparing us a couple of miles of pavement into Rawlins. We’ll have to do it tomorrow.