Day Forty-three (57.64 miles, 2033 total): I Guess It's Called Wind River Valley For A Reason!

I'm staring at the ceiling waiting for the alarm to go off. I didn't get much sleep last night, tossing and turning. 5:00AM arrives and I pull myself off the floor to let Ella out. No one is up yet and the church is silent, almost eerie in the grey of morning. Ella paces around out in the sand, not too much energy this morning. We walk back inside and I lay down on the floor again. I close my eyes for fifteen minutes of shuteye. Bill finally gets up and we start packing our gear. I finish up putting my pannier together and walk out to fill up my bottles. Carol is in the kitchen and pretty much ready to go, as usual.

I wheel my bike outside and lean it against a post in the sand. Almost immediately after stepping through the threshold, I am swarmed by mosquitoes. I leave my gear, ready to go, and run back in. Now Ella is running around like a little spaz. Dashing madly back and forth, Ella slides across the concrete floor of the church. By 6:00am Bill and I are almost ready to roll. Carol has already made her way out of the church and down the road. Bill is almost good to go, so I hop on my bike and fly down the sand road back to the main road. While waiting for Bill, I ride in circles, over and over, to avoid the barrage of mosquitoes. Bill makes it to the road and we race through Jeffery City to escape the never-ending horde of blood suckers. Bob was having another slow morning, so we left him in the church and would meet him again in Lander.

It is another cool morning in good ol' Wyoming and an extra layer is needed to keep comfortable. The slight chill makes it an excellent morning for riding as we make our toward Lander. With good conversation and a cup of coffee to keep us going, the growing hills don't appear nearly as long as they really are. A brilliant orange glow burns its way through the veil of fog and the sun peaks out of the shadows. We are basked in the warmth of the day as the sun continues to drift in and out of the clouds. As we make our way down the highway, we pass a trail marker for The California Trail, The Oregon Trail, The Mormon Trail, and The Pony Express. It was kind of surreal to see the terrain so many had traveled before in long caravans of wooden wagons. I can also see how hard it would have been for them to cross such rocky plains through a state of constantly changing weather. All I can say is thank God for paved roads!

We continue on through the roller coaster of hills. Thankfully for us, the roads are not too busy this morning and we can ride along without having to dodge traffic. By mid-morning, we finally catch Carol at a rest stop. Wyoming rest stops are extremely nice and kept in immaculate condition. Free road maps sit inside and I grab one just for the heck of it. We meet two more cyclists headed East, who also decided to take a break. They were touring on hybrid bikes and it was kind of a funny site to see. But whatever floats your boat I guess! Ella runs around the fresh cut grass lawns while we chat with the cyclist and Carol heads off again. Bill and I take our time as we climb back on to the bikes and set off down the road.

There is no reason to rush through the stunning beauty of the high desert. We stop along the way for pictures of the colorful landscapes that surround us. A few antelope play in the tufts of sage brush dotting the desert as far as the eye can see. Before long, we come to a sign that reads "5 miles 6% Grade". Finally a huge downhill ride for us! We crest the hill to see Carol stopped at a lookout speaking with another cyclist. The new cyclist is a credit card tourer and averages 150 miles days. He quickly heads off again and we are left to the mesmerizing lookout of the Wind River Valley.

From above, the rolling hills and canyon pitches look like a world class golf course with a river cutting right through the bottom. Carol leaves ahead of us, but it isn't long before we are flying down the hill. It's a rush to course down the winding mountain roads, guardrail on one side and speeding traffic on the other. The beautiful colors of the valley fill your vision as you twist around each corner. Bill and I were averaging 35mph with a wind at our side as we hurtled down the highway. Before we even knew it, we had reached the end of our spectacular run. Stopped by the grinding slope of another hill, we slowly work our way up to the next crest. The roads feel like they are taking forever and ever now. We felt like we were just cruising all morning long, but we had only gone 34 miles and we were starting to wear down. It was going to be a long afternoon.

Around the corner and down the next hill, we are blasted by a headwind that would last us most of the day. I can see Carol ahead of me now and slowly work my way closer. Around the bend, we hit a jam, 6 miles of road construction and only one lane available. Asphalt completely torn up, rock and debris fill the packed dirt runway and cars trying to pass on a narrow alley for 6 miles. With the wind and rumble strip road, I could never pedal faster than 6mph no matter how hard I stomped. The end of the washboard finally came at the top of a steep gravel slope. My phone pinged, so I took a breather and checked my phone for signal. I finally had enough reception to get a message out to my parents and receive an incoming voicemail. When I was done checking my phone, Bill was just pulling up. Carol never stopped and she was gone again.

Massive grey clouds begin to fill the sky behind us and slowly shadow the sun again. Pushing on, we continue our ride west to avoid the rain. The next few hours are a constant struggle against the wind until we finally reach our highway junction and turn north. With the wind no longer directly in our face, we stop to grab a snack and let Ella out for a few minutes. Soon the little fur ball is content and we continue our ride to Lander. While passing by an RV park, we catch Carol again, who had stopped for a break. Bill, Carol, and I speed on to finish the final stretch. We slowly start drifting out of the immense ranch lands and move back into trailer parks as we get closer to the city. The trailer parks quickly turn back into nice ranch style homes with decent pieces of property to accompany them. A few more long, sluggish hills stood in our path before for we finally reached the city of Lander.

After a quick deliberation, we fly down the steep hill into downtown Lander and stop for a quick bite to eat at McDonald's. In a flash, we are headed toward the public park to camp for the night. Lander has an absolutely beautiful park where anyone can camp. Unfortunately for us, there must have been some event going on, and the entire park was mobbed with campers. We decided to find somewhere else to stay. Finding a good deal on a cabin, we climb back up the hill we had ridden down into town on, and arrive at the Sleeping Bear Campground. $50 got the three of us a great little air conditioned cabin with three beds and access to extremely nice private bathroom/showers.

Bob decided to get his own hotel room instead of split with us when he got into town. After we had all showered and settled in, Carol, Bill, and I went to meet Bob for dinner. We went to the Oxbow Family Restaurant at Pronghorn Lodge, where I had a great double bacon cheese burger and chocolate shake to end the day right. Back at the cabin, I called my parents to update them on the last two days and sat down to catch up on a bit of writing. The weather finally came and we were all inside our nice little cabin when it did. By about 10:00PM, we wound down and called it a night. Except for Ella, she decided she wanted to sleep with Carol! Ella and I hope you are enjoying our adventures and appreciate all of the support you send us. Ella wants to thank all of her fans and hopes they continue to follow her as her human pedals on west!