pictures July 8

marker pointing out 3 billion year old rock


Summit of Powder Pass - 9666 feet


Highest point on our trip


mountain lake view


Chris powering up the 25 mile climb


Chris descending through the valley


Coffee in Ten Sleep


Mini valleys along the route - historical markers said Wooly Mammoths were trapped in the valleys and speared.

up, up, up then up-down, up-down

Worland to Buffalo, WY - 92 miles.

This was our longest day of riding - almost 7 hours of ride time. It started easy with 25-30 miles of simple rollers. Some were pretty tough, but not too steep. We had espresso at a town called "Ten Sleep" (called that because in previous times it took ten sleeps to travel between towns). It was fun because there were so many cyclists doing the same.

Then the climb started a few miles later. In the end we had a 25 mile climb where we gained about 5000 feet. It was not too steep - just never ending. The worst was there was fresh chip and seal (stones and tar) for six miles. At one point Chris and I were just a few hundred feet ahead of a tar truck. We pushed hard to not get stuck in the mess.

Lunch was 20 miles into the climb. That was hard as we had good cream of potato soup and chicken curry for sandwiches. However, we had a ways to go.

We got to the summit of the Big Horn pass at 9,666 feet. Both of us felt good and were ready to keep going. Actually, each of us had leg massages by the trip masseuse last night - that helped a lot in preventing leg pain today.

The descent was "varied." We went down and up for 10-15 miles. On other passes it has been downhill after the summit. Here we had rollers where we descended a quarter mile, then ascended. They were exhausting. Finally at the 80 mile point we got a sweet five mile downhill.

We stopped at a few points for good mountain photos - including flowers and lakes.

Tonight we are enjoying pizza at a restuarant in Buffalo. I am sure we will sleepwell tonight.

July 7

July 7 Riverton to Worland 93 miles

A great day! Yesterday I was exhausted, today I feel better.

We started out a bit late, the school was slow in serving. The scenery was incredible. We biked through a canyon the first 45 miles. I have never been in a place like that. We had good wind, beautiful scenery and a generally nice road ( a bit heavy with traffic). I don't know our pictures do it justice. I looked for mountain goats, but never saw any.

Lunch was along the river - beautiful again. Chris took off after lunch so I rode alone. I stopped at the Thermopolis Hot Springs state park and looked at the hot springs. I did not swim as I still had a long ride, but it was amazing to see the rocks and pools of warm water.

Chris again set up the tent then we went for iced mochas. The coffee lady was excited to hear of our journey - a bit in awe. She gave us a bag of espresso beans to enjoy. We will need them Thursday. It will be our last big climb. We go 30 miles flat, 30 miles of climbing to about 10,000 feet (5,000 foot gain in that 30 miles) and 30 miles descent. Today we came over the top of a hill and the wall of mountains was in the distance - very imposing!

pictures July 7

view of the hot springs along the route


A train along the Wind River


Chris heading into a tunnel along the Wind River


Traveling along the Wind River


Biking along with beautiful Wind River scenery

pictures July 6

My homemade Gore-tex "lobster" mitten shells - great today!


Chris at the red rocks



Andrew riding thru the red rocks canyon



Layered red rocks scenery


Andrew "dis-respecting" the Lawyers College - with apologies to my lawyer niece Christine

July 6

July 6 Dubois to Riverton, WY 82 miles

Windy – windy – windy

We started with breakfast as “daylight donuts” - food was good but coffee was weak. We stopped at “Kathy's Koffee”and got a double espresso. Dubois is on a trans-continental bike trail so there were several self-supported (carrying own gear) cyclists. We chatted a bit about the pass we came down while we enjoyed a really good coffee. They were headed up what was a dirt road and wanted to know how bad the road was.

The whole day was windy – it varied from 5-15 mph, but was there the whole time. We had on our helmet liners and wind shells over our thermal gloves. My home made goretex shells worked great. The scenery was bizarre – red layered rock canyons along the sides. Had the sun been out, it would have been really spectacular.

We took turns fighting the wind to the 41 mile lunch spot. They had a really good, warm Mexican soup that hit the spot. After lunch Chris latched on to a strong staff members wheel (staff rides one day and works the next). The two of them rode the rest of the day together.

It was nice that the tent was set up when I arrived – that is a treat!

The wind really wore me down. I took a 90 minute nap after showering – that is really unusual for me. However, I needed the rest.

Dinner was a bit light – they ran out of food. Later in the evening Chris and I biked into town and had nacho platter at a Mexican restaurant. That really hit the spot.

pictures July 5

Riding along thru Teton National Park