I was over by the pulpit. Caroline was perpendicular to me, and my head was at Olive Oil’s feet (CDT hiker). It was actually okay. I had a great chat with Caroline, and found out more about how the Bike and Build ride works (lots of individual fundraising…$5000, but that gets them a bike that they get to keep if they complete the tour). They were all up and packing at 5:00. They were on the road a little after 6:30.
Two vans carry all their stuff.
Once they were gone, it was just the CDT hikers and us. One of the hikers made some cinnamon rolls, and offered me one.
Doug and I were packed and on the road by 7:15. Doug lost one of his Voile straps, so he retraced our ride to the laundromat, but didn’t find it. I would have had a spare, but I sold them to Matty back in Oregon. He made a bungee work.
We had more of the colorful layer rock.
Not far out of Dubois.
We went by the National Museum of Military Vehicles…didn’t stop, however.
Didn’t even stop to take this photo.
More red rock.
And the Wind River, which we crossed many times today.
Pretty awesome looking.
I even took this portrait of Doug with the red rock behind him.
He said, when I showed him the photo, “Gee, I don’t even have a goofy look on my face!”
The tailwinds had returned about 9:30. We were also going downhill a fair amount. Miles were ticking by pretty quickly. By Crowheart, we had done just under 30 miles in 2 hours! We stopped at the convenience store, and had a snack, then we were back to flying down the road…for awhile. At about mile 41 for the day, I noticed the wind had shifted. While not a full on headwind, it was definitely no longer a tailwind. We were also doing more climbing. It was all my fault the wind shifted. I had been thinking we were making such good time, that maybe we could go further than Lander, our planned stop for the day. Oh no…that wasn’t going to happen if we had more of a headwind!
The landscape became quite barren. Long straight road too.
We pulled into a highway rest area for a break. It was about 11:00, but neither of us were ready for lunch. We decided to wait until Fort Washakie (another convenience store option).
We were on highways 26 and 287. They divided, and we continued on 287. From the division, we had the longest climb of the day. It wasn’t really that terrible, but without our glorious tailwind, it was less pleasant. A sign said 15 miles to Fort Washakie, and 30 miles to Lander. Okay, lunch would be a little later than planned.
The area reminded me of the Great Basin (which actually isn’t all that far away). We even saw some horses (but they weren’t wild) and some deer (maybe they were antelope, but I think they were deer).
Deer or antelope…you decide.
We finally arrived at Fort Washakie (named after a Shoshone Indian Chief). We just got stuff to drink (and dessert), but ate our own food. There was a nice picnic table in the shade across the street.
After lunch, we had 15 more miles to go. We did have some good downhill, and occasional favorable winds, so we made good time to Lander.
Lander is a pretty big town (7000+ people). They even have a Safeway! We stopped to get a proper resupply for the next three days. So many choices!!!
As we were pulling out of the parking lot, headed toward the city park, Doug yelled that he had a flat tire. It was the front. We pulled over to some shade at the Holiday Inn Express. It was quite warm out. The Holiday Inn looked pretty inviting…I said to Doug that he could change the flat, then we could go on to the park, or…we could stay here, and he could change it in the air conditioned comfort of a hotel room. First, though, I went in to inquire about their cheapest 2-bed room. Well, it was a little more than I expected, and I figured Doug wouldn’t go for it. We talked it over…we hadn’t stayed in a hotel since Baker City…we’ve had several nights of either free, or really cheap camping…okay, we decided to do it! I booked us in, and we have a night of comfy beds! I even went in the hot tub while Doug fixed his flat (in the air conditioned comfort of the hotel room).
We did 74.3 miles today. That exceeds Doug’s longest mileage day ever, by 10 miles! Our average speed was 12.2 (it would have been better had the wind not shifted on us). It’s back to trending uphill tomorrow.
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