Cowboy Country: Flagg Ranch to Pinedale
July 15, to Falls Campground
Distance: 49 miles, Average speed: 8.3 mph., Elevation gain: 3337 feet
The traffic was steady on the highway until Moran Junction, where the route turns off on a gravel road and starts to climb Togwattee Pass, maybe 20 miles away. For about 4-5 miles the route follows the Buffalo River, relatively flat. Then the route starts to climb steeply on a fairly rough dirt road. It comes close to the where the guide warns about a tough road, so Lisa and I switched to the paved highway a little early. Later we heard that the route road isn't so tough and would have been a better choice. The last three miles up to the pass are fairly steep, the six before that rolling and mild. The long downhill from the top was fast and fun, with some stunning views. I took my time along with Jim-BillyBob to enjoy the scenery.
July 16, to DuBois WY
Distance: 24 miles, Average speed: 13.6 mph., Elevation gain: 186 feet
A nice and easy day, almost all downhill, if maybe 10 or so miles off route. DuBoise is a nice little town set out in the desert with quite a few facilities for tourists. We all especially enjoyed the restaurants and great food. We did have a mishap, Mike parked his bike and BOB in a parking lot at the grocery store, only to have a new driver back his truck into it, bending up the BOB pretty badly. Fortunately, the young man's mother stepped up and did the right thing, paying to get the trailer fixed and back on the road that afternoon.
Mike rolls on toward his BOB's fateful encounter with a truck.
July 17, to Park Creek Meadows
Distance: 38 miles, Average speed: 6 mph., Elevation gain: 3165 feet
A tough day with two 4-mile steep climbs back to back but what a reward. Up here on the divide at Union Pass I think comes to closest to looking like the old west. Big views of valley and distant mountains, most valleys like this would have already succumbed to intense ranching. The long flat valley has meandering streams and in a different time of year might team with wildlife. I saw a few antelope from the distance.
A great little spring along the road offered some cold refreshing water only partially defended by mosquitoes. We camped in an old hunter campground, intense with mosquitoes but beautiful and lonely. Just after dinner an intense thunder storm drove us into our tents but it relented about 8pm so I came out to enjoy the post rain smell and light show in the distance.
This is me except it's Mike!
Mark and unknown butt getting water.
Guy feeds me some more dust.
July 18, Pinedale
Distance: 52 miles, Average speed: 10.4 mph., Elevation gain: 948 feet
Beautiful riding in the morning as we continued in the large open valley south of Union Pass. No game despite an early start but it's not hard to visualize the valley full or Elk during the rut. Eventually we started the long drop down to the Green River which we followed to Pinedale. I didn't get to the mountain man museum, just too tired. It seems the mountain man rendezvous occurs the second weekend of July. It was hot once we dropped down to Pinedale, a foretaste of days to come.
Morning on the wildlands.
Great Basin: Pinedale to Rawlins
July 19, Little Sandy Creek
Distance: 51 miles, Average speed: 9.1 mph., Elevation gain: 1981 feet
A harder day than I expected, I got off about 8am taking the 191 to Bolder. At Bolder the route follows State Highway 353. Eventually the pavement ends and the road turns sandy with bouts of washboard, and HOT. I think it was hotter on the dirt than the pavement as it seemed to reflect the sunlight up at you instead of absorb the sun's blast. Just before Big Sandy Jim Billy-Bob and I sat in an irrigation ditch to cool off and eat our lunch, too bad we didn't wait for Big Sandy, it was big enough to swim. At Big Sandy the route climbs steeply back up into cooling forests, just in time for a big thunderstorm. As usual, I didn't put on my rain jacket right away and so got pretty soaked and rather cold. Unfortunately, the rain turned the road into a sticky substance some called mud but more resembled glue. Pushing and biking in that got the temperature right back up. Finally, as we dropped down toward the Little Sandy the road dried out and it got hot again.
Little Sandy is one of my favorite camp sites so far. It's way out here in the lonely part of Wyoming, surrounded by desert, a thin river of green winding through the parched land. I saw several antelope today and lots of evidence of coyote, in and around the camp. I climbed up on a little rock outcropping to get a better view of the surroundings, only to find that a coyote does this regularly, leaving is stinky claim to the land.
Brian from Adventure Cycling stopped in to visit, bringing cold drinks and treats. What a great wonderful thing it is to have a cold drink and sweets.
July 20, Sweetwater Creek
Distance: 48 miles, Average speed: 9.0 mph., Elevation gain: 2461 feet
A great day of cycling, we started out with about 10 miles on a ridge line overlooking a fantastic desolate basin off to the west. A short stretch on Highway 28 we turned off on gravel roads for the ride to South Pass City, a restored ghost town with many of the buildings intact. The rollers in this area are very steep. Another very steep one mile climb brought me to a very flat plateau of stunted sage and endless views. I stopped and just sat for awhile, watching the thunderstorms move across the desert. The storms made it cooler for me but didn't touch me, others got a little wet.
The camp is treeless but has a nice stream in which to bath and flat areas for the tent. Mark didn't make it into camp tonight so we're all a little concerned for his situation.
July 21, Hadsell Spring/Lost Soldier Creek
Distance: 73 miles, Average speed: 8.1 mph., Elevation gain: 2882 feet
Last water for 61 miles, my longest day.
A very long tough day. I left about 7:30am, got to camp about 7:30pm, twelve hours of long hot dusty rolling hills, barren except for sage and grass. No water after Diagnus Spring, 12 miles from camp. I needed about six liters of water to cross the desert today. Lisa and I rode most of the day together. Absolutely no shade anywhere, we had no choice but to ride in the sun, eat in the sun, walk in the sun, and rest in the sun. At one point neither Lisa or I could stand our bikes any more so we just walked for awhile.
Lost Soldier Creek is a tiny little trickle in the desert, still it's enough to nourish some bushes along its edge and slake the thirst of wild horses and tired cyclists. We saw antelope today, but the big treat were the wild horses. A small group of juvenile males came close to camp for water and curiosity. What a life it is for them out here in the Great Basin.
Guy got into camp well after dark, he had gone back to Atlantic city to check on Mark. Evidently his BOB broke and so he hitched into Rawlins to get it fixed.
A wild bunch looking for a little love. These young bachelors aren't big enough yet to have a harem.
Below, my last divide crossing for the summer.
July 22, Rawlins
Distance: 61 miles, Average speed: 10.9 mph., Elevation gain: 1343 feet
Pretty hard day but not like yesterday. The first 13 miles of double track were great. I got an early start so in the cool morning I made good time for me, about 12 mph. As the early started today I scared up quite a few groups of antelope and several loners. Eventually, I reached the paved highway, a great road connecting the interstate with a power plant out in the lonely desert. The paved road was easy cycling but boring, straight like an arrow, hot and thirsty. Tom slowed down and road with me for most of this part, which really helped.
Toward lunch I was so hot and thirsty that I crawled into a culvert under the road where it was shady and cool. When I got to the interstate I looked back and saw Nick, Guy, and Jim Billy-Bob coming along so waited for them. The TransAm connects here, while I waited an older couple cycled up on their way to the east coast. Finally, with the whole group we climbed up to another divide crossing and then the nice downhill into Rawlins.
Don't ask for whom the road beckons, it beckons for you. I must admit to a little trepidation before launching out into this harsh land with only my few liters of water and trusty bicycle to see me through. Of course, seeing the tracks of the faster cyclists ahead encouraged me to start.
July 23, Rawlins
Rest day.
Rawlins is a fairly good size town but quite spread out. It's maybe 3-4 miles from our "in town" campground to the movie house and the supermarket. Rawlins has a very nice bicycle shop near the supermarket which boxed up my bicycle and BOB for shipment home. I got the greyhound for Salt Lake City and a flight home.