A few miles north of St. Francis, there are sculptures along the side of the road memorializing the location of a Cheyenne camp. The camp was made by survivors of the November 1864 massacre at Sand Creek, CO. They were joined by other plains tribes and attacked Julesburg, CO in January 1866. The signs didn’t say what happened to them after Julesburg.

This morning, I road out of the South Fork Republican River valley and into the North Fork Republican River valley. That meant a fairly long climb, then downhill into Haigler, NE where I joined up with US 34 again. That is the same highway that took me out of Lincoln. When I crossed back into Nebraska, I crossed into the Mountain Time Zone and gained an hour. I found a picnic table in some shade in Haigler and used the extra hour to take an extended break. I forgot that the sun was going to set an hour earlier tonight.

I have been having trouble getting vegetables, so started drinking V-8 with my lunch and dinner a few weeks ago. In Haigler, I found some tomato-chile cocktail and thought it would make a interesting change. It wasn’t as spicy as I expected. It also had a huge amount of salt. Judging by the salt rings on my shirt, which look like some sort of tactile topographical map of a lunar landscape, getting some extra salt probably isn’t a bad thing.

From Haigler, the highway follows the river valley. It was a gradual incline to Wray, CO, where I was able to find a place to camp at a small campground. When I arrived in Wray, I saw a bank clock that said it was still 93 degrees outside. It didn’t feel that hot, so I checked the weather. It was 93 degrees, but the humidity was so low that the “heat index” was in the upper 80’s. I don’t think I have ever seen the “feels like” temperature lower than the actual temperature in the summer.

The campground is nice, and I considered taking a rest day tomorrow, but the forecast is for winds from the east and I want to take advantage of the tailwind.