Mile 1264.5 - Natural Beauty

Day 17, overall, was one of my favorite days so far on the trip. It started with a camp breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese with tortillas. As I ate my breakfast I watched a small pack of antelope and a few random cows eating theirs. As the desert hills passed under my wheels, I was again riding the opposite way along parts of the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails. I came to the spot known as The Parting Of Ways, where the three trails split from each other. A little further east and I came South Pass, which at a mere 7550’ was famed for being the pass ‘without an exhaustive climb’. Tens of thousands of emigrants passed that way, for those going to California and Oregon, it marked the halfway point, but the half that lay ahead was going to be harder than what they had already traveled. I suppose if I were going to St. Louis the opposite would be true for me.

A few miles after the historical marker for the pass was the Continental Divide. That meant I was roughly 1/3rd of the way done, at least by distance. There was a rest stop a little bit after, and Penny drew a small crowd. I talked to them for a while and one of them suggested a 30 mile diversion up to Thermopolis to visit the mineral hot springs. I considered it for a while, looking at the map. The only ways to continue from Thermopolis would involve either doubling back to Shoshoni and the route I had already set, effectively giving me a day of riding without any advancement, or going north and then cutting east, crossing the Big Horn Mountains at Powder River Pass, 9666’. I think I want Carson Pass at 8574’ to remain my highest climb, thank you very much. So, maybe next time. I have a feeling I’ll be back in Wyoming again, possibly with a car.

2.1 miles later and Penny and I reached mile 1200. Again, following the projected route that’s roughly 1/3rd of the way through. The celebration was a little short lived, as I found myself climbing more and suddenly, I was above the snow line and entering the Shoshone National Forest. I climbed to 8323’, dropped back down a couple hundred feet then climbed back up 8405’, dropped again and came back up to 8460’ all within about 10 miles. As I was coming down the backside of that last slope, I exchanged a fast greeting with another cyclist climbing up the other direction. I started back upwards and hit the last big climb of the range up to 8250’. With all this altitude, I’ll consider the Wind River Range to be one of the major ones I’ve crossed, along with the Sierras and the Wasatch.

Then came my most favorite sign, a yellow diamond with a picture of a truck going downhill and the caption ‘next 4 miles’. What followed was one of the most exhilarating experiences I ever had on a bicycle. In the trailer of the movie that will be made out of the book of this experience, there will be several long shots of me zooming down this mountain. After the four miles were up it leveled out as it crossed the end of the long bright gash of the Red Canyon. The stark red of the canyon wall and green below it was a mesmerizing contrast to the white and grey of the snow and rock I’d just come through. Then, there was that wonderful sign again, forecasting another 4 mile downslope. I had a nice wide shoulder all to myself, cruising downward at an even 44 miles an hour. At one slight flat between slopes, I pushed it up to 46.7. In seven minutes, I had covered three miles. I shot down past the snowline, and everything was green again. Near the bottom of the slope, there was a long curve alongside a bright green hill covered in antelope. They clearly are used to auto traffic, but a cyclist speeding by startled them. I was soon coming going through the horse and cattle ranches to Lander.

Lander was the first town of over 500 people I’d been through since Kemmerer, two mornings previously. The town boasted of both a Pizza Hut and a McDonalds. Penny had some more young admirers going through town. On the climb out of town, I was passed by an older cyclist who was riding back to Riverton. We spoke a moment about the terrain in front of us then he wished my luck and continued on at his pace. By the time I reached the top of the hill, he was long out of sight. A couple hills and run down ranch towns later and I was greeted by the casino on the outskirts of Riverton.
Riverton has a bike path that goes almost all the way along the highway from east to west. Yay bike path. In fact, in the time I was in Riverton, I saw more cyclists than I did across all of Utah. I found a room, had a very inexpensive dinner (at a restaurant a full 3/4s of a mile away, to which the hotel owner would have driven), and hunkered down for the night.

Day 17, Camp east of Farson, WY – Riverton, WY
100.3 miles, 1264.5 total. 5:58:03 today, 109:08:09 total, top speed 46.7