67.4 miles, 1753 ft ascent, 7.1% max grade , 5:32 riding time, max/min elevation 7227/6184 ft.
This morning I had breakfast at the Hampton Inn, and then said goodbye to my riding companions a I headed out for the first solo day of my entire tour so far. I was sad to leave them behind, but also looking forward to re-joining Brian in Lander WY. At about 7:20 am I started heading north with little to no wind.
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| The view headed North |
The very long straight roads are intimidating to me. We don’t have anything quite like them in Maryland. It feels like I will never reach the end, but then I do. The scenery changed from grass and sagebrush prairie to bare dirt spots.
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| The appearance of dirt and sand patches in the prairie |
I crossed the Continental divide twice today, which makes at least three times so far. I was told that this route will cross multiple times. Just a note to those of you with pickup trucks, don’t use black rubber tie-down straps if you are traveling on a highway at high speed. I have seen about 100 of these on the shoulders of the road in the last couple days. About half of them are broken.
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| Tie-down road litter |
As I headed north I was also dropping elevation, so I was able to average just under 18 mph (which is pretty fast for a touring bike). Overall I dropped 371 ft in elevation today. At Muddy Gap I stopped for lunch, and afterward my route headed west. The wind that had been light tailwind shifted to the southwest, so now it was a headwind. I stopped at Split Rock, which is a rock formation that served as a landmark for travelers on the Oregon Trail.
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| Split Rock |
The settlers could see the notch in the rock from a couple days journey away. As I rode away I checked, and you really can see it from far away. These are the first rock mountains I have seen since I left Colorado. As I headed west the wind increased in speed. About 10 miles from Jeffrey City I was battling a direct headwind of about 15 mph with gusts of up to 30 mph; it was exhausting. I just kept telling myself, imagine this is a long hill. I spent most of those 10 miles looking down at the road. My average speed dropped to 8 mph. Going forward I will try to get earlier starts each morning.
Tonight I am staying at a church in the town of Jeffrey City.
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| Church and Cyclist Hostel in Jeffrey City |
The church created a cyclist hostel in the bottom floor of their under-utilized building. The town is a classic story of boom and bust. In the 1950’s uranium was discovered in the surrounding hills. The prospector that first found uranium created a company and the city grew to support the mines over the next 30 years. In the 1980’s the mine went bust, and so did the town. I rode up ad down wide streets with sidewalks on both sides. Apartment buildings were boarded up and decaying; there were concrete foundations for houses that were never finished. A gas station, bowling alley, stores and other businesses are nothing but boarded up buildings that weather had taken its toll on. The only businesses left in town are a gas station and the Split Rock Cafe. I had dinner at the cafe, and it basically a bar for locals that is run by one woman that is bartender, cook and waitress. The menu was very limited, and when I ordered chicken-fried steak, she said they were out of that and recommended the pork shops. I got the hint. I think pork chops were for dinner. The locals sitting at the bar did not make any effort to acknowledge me, even though I was the only customer ordering food. This was not a place I would ever stop at if I had a choice. The whole experience of the town and the cafe was depressing. Unfortunately, this story has taken different forms, but with the same ending, in many towns I have traveled through in Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. It gives me a better understanding of the populist movement that led to the election of Donald Trump…..TWICE!
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