Day 44, Dolores to Blanding, 86 miles

A slow start due to telephone conversations home, our ride out of Dolores was marred by a lack of breakfast and resulting crankiness. The passing landscape was fairly barren compared to previous days, as we have moved out of the foothills into the open expanses. Thankfully 30 miles into the ride, we stumbled upon the grand opening of a grocery store in aptly named Pleasant View. The most pleasant view as far as we were concerned was free apple pie; carbo-loading. With this vital fuel (and Dr Pepper)- we peddalled into 'the Beehive State', Utah.

After peddling a few hours through vast scrubby horizons, the town of Monticello greeted us with a stocked grocery and informative Visitors' Centre. There, we learned that there was free camping at Recapture Resevoir, a further 18 miles down our route. Now with the wind to our backs, we more or less sailed to the water - hitting our highest speed yet of 43 miles/hour (for a few minutes, on a steep downhill.)

Much more than free camping, this was a picturesque waterside where we enjoyed a refreshing dip. Once the sun had set and the Saturday Lake-trippers had departed, Matt set up an impressive stealth-campsite amongst the stunted pine trees. This was our first back-country campsite and we enjoyed feeling like proper-drifters! Rocks and driftwood were in abundant supply, so by 9pm we found ourselves kicking back with a roaring fire-pit and smoked burritos. Note to self; buy a harmonica.