Trans Am Week 9, WY

Day 63: still resting—and rafting! Colter Bay

Spent a quiet morning on Jackson lake.

Then we headed into Jackson hole for lunch before our rafting trip. Saw a herd of bison along the way.

Ate at Yeah Buddy Pizza. 

Sandy was our rafting guide. Although I suspect that wasn’t his real name! Everyone out here in the outdoors has a “trail” name. Deidre and I haven’t embraced that tradition yet. Perhaps we are just D1 and D2. 😂

The river was beautiful. I hardly took any pictures, knowing they wouldn’t translate. Instead, I tried to just sit back relax and enjoy the view. It was so calm, this wasn’t difficult until a brief class 2 stretch where I got bounced out of my seat and landed in the seat behind me—which was pretty fun! 

We saw so many bald eagles: some in pairs, some fishing, some soaring, some adult, and some juvenile. We also saw bank swallows flitting in and out of their mud homes along the shore and several marmot, which was a first for me, and I can’t forget the lone white pelican, apparently left behind in the most recent migration because it has likely yet to find a mate. We were sorry for him!

On the river, we got a glimpse of some elk in the woods, but then had a much better sighting on the way back to our cabin when we saw a bull grazing on the side of the road. 

Now we are all packed up for the morning and a huge storm is thundering outside. Time to sleep!

P.s.

I have one more day in Wyoming but this week contains most of the state, so here is Wyoming officially checked off! 

Day 62: no miles! Colter bay

It was so blissful to get in bed last night knowing we could sleep as late as we wanted. I didn’t eat breakfast until 9:40. Usually I’ve ridden about 30 miles by then and am long past second breakfast. 

We took our time getting going then headed to Jenny Lake to hike to inspiration point. When we got in the car, I was struck by how much the car changes our perception of space and time. The world is so much smaller with a car—meaning we can reach so much more of it. For over two months, my access to the world around me has been so much more limited—with us only considering destinations within a mile or two. Now we are suddenly going for a hike somewhere 20 miles away without a thought. It felt strange. 

But then the park was a mob scene, and as we circled the parking lot for a spot, I started thinking what a burden the car is. All these people were trying to be on vacation and relax but they were driving around in the hot sun trying to unload their cars before they could start the fun. 

But I also felt completely serene. I have already seen and done so much. I am so satisfied. Anything we do here is just a bonus. So I was like, “yup, I’m sure we’ll park eventually, no worries.” But it is the bike that gave me that feeling. I hope I can stretch it out—keep feeling satiated as a result of this trip for a long time to come. It is a very low-stress way to be. 

That’s a lot of talking. Here are some pics from today. They view across Jackson Lake from colter bay. 

Hiking to inspiration point. 

Hidden falls.

Zooming out to show the irony of the name “hidden” falls. 

Inspiration point. 

Doug on the way back down. Deidre had turned around a few minutes before, so missed this pic.

Here’s Deidre in the sunlight marching down the mountain. 

After the hike we went to Jackson Hole for dinner, which involved arugula (!) and a s’mores milk shake. Jackson Hole is a cute ski town. Apparently, they have a lot of elk antlers around these parts!

It’s nice to have a rest day that involves rest and not bike chores and planning. And we get to do it again tomorrow, which makes this feel like vacation. The only problem with that is that it makes me miss the fam. Hi fam!! 💜

Day 61: 64 miles. Dubois to colter bay (grand Tetons)

Today we crossed the Togwatee pass and rode into grand Teton national Park. As soon as we left Dubois, we came to a sign on the highway that said stay in your car, do not approach bears on the road. I thought this a pretty good indication that we would see bears on the road, which I wasn’t excited about. But we passed through without incident. There were also signs warning us to be bear aware.

I leapfrogged with these bike-and-build folks for most of the day. Tough to get away from that big group.

The views were immediately amazing. 

I felt nervous about bears at the beginning, but the more I rode the more I gained confidence. As we got higher, I also had a false idea I would be less likely to see a bear. I was just enthralled with my surroundings.

About a mile and a half from the top I came to this sign that said “do not stop to view the bears.” I assumed this was a standard sign to stop people from parking in the road on the steep incline to the summit. I slowed down to take a picture of the sign, kind of laughing about how I would certainly not be stopping to view the bears if I saw any. But as I was taking the picture, I jumped and cut off the sign because I saw a bear walk into the road around the corner. He is in the background of my pic!

Here is a zoomed version. 

I backed up a little bit and watched him meander across then wander around by the guard rail. At one point, he looked over at me, but did not seem interested. At another point, I turned my bike around to return down the hill because he started to walk towards me. But then he turned back, so I did too. In this pic, you can see him behind the guard rail. This is zoomed in—i wasn’t this close! 

Finally, he walked down the bank out of sight. I hoped if I couldn’t see him he couldn’t see me and figured it was time for me to sneak past. I booked it around the corner. Once I’d gone up the hill a ways, I turned to see if he was still there and discovered there were actually two bears. Now I wonder if they were grown cubs, which makes me worry about where the mother was. 

Another zoomed version

A little ways further, I noticed I was really out of breath and thought “wow the elevation is getting to me.” Then I realized it was because I was riding way too fast— still running away I guess!

I came to the Summit of the pass and thought I was done climbing.

But it turned out. I had a bit more to go before I crossed the continental divide.

This day was filled with wildflowers: purple, pink, white, yellow, red. Perhaps I was still filled with adrenaline, because the sight of the flowers with the mountains in the background choked me up. Again.

The ride down was stunning.

And all of those views were just on the approach to the park!

Have I mentioned how Wyoming smells like sage? It’s like one big herby potpourri basket.  But today after I entered the park, the smell suddenly turned to pine. It was wonderful.

Then I met Amber, the first solo female cyclist I’ve met on the trip. We stood and talked for an hour in the hot sun on the side of the road. I wish I could’ve talked with her more. She has been planning this trip for seven years— waiting to divorce her husband and move back east to be with her mother and sister. She said she got on a bike seven years ago to ride to work and it was like a lightning bolt struck her. She said she didn’t ever want to be in a car again. The riding gave her the courage to make other big changes in her life like the divorce and eventually this move. She had already shipped her things East, so this ride is her actual move. Amazing!

My cabin at Colter Bay. We will be here for three nights. A little bit of luxury for a change.

I think I can count on one hand the number of beers I have had this summer! Of course, I can’t say the same thing about hostess products. 🙄

And other wildlife news, I also saw a raven up close today, little prairie dogs, and some sort of not-a-fox foxy looking animal I’ve yet to figure out. 

Day 60: 61 miles from Fort Washakie to Dubois

We woke to an amazing, brief sun rise. The sky only looked like this for about five minutes.

But the whole morning with beautiful.

It seems like I should stop taking pictures, but every corner brings a new view, a new hue, and a new angle on the landscape.

This guy was literally eating the flower blossoms. He was up to his neck and purple flowers when I arrived.

I was so excited about this lunch. I ate the entire quart of strawberries over the course of the day. 

Right after I saw this sheep crossing sign, I saw a sheep! He was far away, so this picture is terrible because I have zoomed way in. 

I know it’s so many pictures, but I just couldn’t stop.

When I arrived in Dubois, I was a little bit annoyed because I have plans to stay in a hostel in a church, but when I got there, I discovered the bike and build group had already taken it over. It was supposed to be first come first serve with a maximum of eight guests, but their drivers had arrived in their van, and also had prearranged their stay. That is all fine, but it is a real bummer for us to be on the same schedule with them. I ended up staying in the hotel with Deidre and Doug.

Dubois was a quaint little tourist town. I went into this general store. Apparently it is the same as it was in the 19th century when Butch Cassidy used to shop there. 

While waiting for Doug to arrive, Deidre and I did laundry in the laundromat and ate pizza. 

Day 59: 58 miles, from Jeffrey City to Lander then 15 miles from Lander to Fort Washakie. 

We were excited to have a 50 something mile day. It seems lately that every place to stop is at least 60 miles away.We got up early, at 4:30, to be able to use the bathroom and kitchen ahead of the group of 23 bike-and-build cyclists who were also staying here. 

All of these days have involved 60-something miles with no services such as bathrooms or places to buy drinks in between, so it was novel to see this porta potty parked in the middle of nowhere. If I hadn’t just taken a trip into the bushes, I might have gone over to see if it was usable!

This was a new flower for me, and there was only this one bush randomly on the side of the road amid all the yellow flowers we’ve been seeing. After this, however I saw many more.

It threatened rain most of the morning, and eventually the clouds came through on their promise. But there was no thunder and lightning, so it really just gave the landscape a new and different beauty.

I was excited to arrive at sleeping, bear RV park in Lander. We planned a sort of rest day the next day because we thought we were a day ahead of schedule, which mattered because we had reservations in the Tetons that we couldn’t change.

We thought we were meeting Deidre‘s boyfriend in Dubois in two nights. Dubois was 75 miles away and uphill so we had hatched a complicated plan to ride 15 miles the next day and be driven back to Lander to sleep in the tv park again, because there was nowhere to stop between Lander and Dubois. The same person was going to drop us off at the 15-mile mark the next day so we only had a 60 mile ride to to Dubois. 

Excited about the prospect of only having a 15 mile ride the next day, I took my bike to the bike shop in Lander to have some minor work done, then I went and sat in a coffee shop and had a sandwich with avocado and sprouts on it. It was so delicious—vegetables have been a scarce in Wyoming as they were in. Kansas.  I also had a chai latte and a cinnamon roll, while journaling and reading my book. It was so relaxing until Deidre called to say she and doug had figured out our spreadsheet was wrong and we were supposed to be in Dubois (75 miles away uphill), the next day— not in two days like we thought. Because the day’s ride had been easier (lots of downhill), we decided to pack up and do the extra 15 miles that night. Incidentally, I had also discovered a campground 15 miles away that we had been previously unaware of. So we had somewhere to stay. I know that’s so complicated. Don’t know why I bother to put the details down. But the point is, in the middle of what we thought would be a rest, we had to pack up and ride further that night then have a hard 60 mile ride the next day. 

For the entire 15 miles, a huge thunderstorm sat on the mountain next to us, threatening. Although it did move closer, we managed to skirt past.

Our campsite was on the wind, river reservation, occupied by the Shoshone. It was sort of a glamping tepee situation (there were two double beds in our tepee, but no electricity or running water). 

They had tarps over the beds because it was actually not waterproof. The top of the tepee had big openings to the sky.

It was a cold night, but we were warm under a pile of blankets and lucky because it didn’t rain. 

Day 58: 68 miles, Rawlins to Jeffrey city

It has been a while since I’d seen a vegetable, so I got the snap peas in Walmart. They were so terrible. I had to double check the bag to be sure I hadn’t gotten regular peas because these pods did not seem edible.

This day would be a long 68 miles with no services and ending in Jeffrey city, where there was no store—only a bar and an abandoned church we could use as a hostel.  You know your destination is small when it does not appear on the road signs. 

Sorry to include a picture of a dead snake, but I counted seven or eight, and they were all rattlesnakes. This made me really nervous about waiting into the tall grass to pee on the side of the road. But in an 8 to 10 hour day of riding, there was no choice. So now trips to the bathroom involved zero privacy and a risk of snake bite!

So many abandoned places along the way on this trip— things that used to be something. This is an abandoned restaurant.

My view of my bike from my “hiding” spot behind the tall grass.

We ran into the bike-and-build folks along the way. This was a bummer because I realized they must be headed for the same destination. Unless they were planning to ride over 120 miles, there was literally nowhere else to stay, but the church we were headed for. I worried this would mean we couldn’t stay there, but I figured we would just camp in the church yard if it came to that. 

The site of the church was beautiful and welcome in the middle of this field. The bike and build folk were in fact there, but I got a small room for Deidre and I. However, we would be sharing a bathroom with 23 other people.

A significant storm rolled in, just after I arrived.

I worried about Deidre who is still out there, but somehow she already experienced minor rain. 

This church has been used as a hostel for over a decade, and cyclists have been signing the walls since then.

I signed the wall with the phrase “ seize every opportunity” in honor of our Houston Missouri host Wes Murray’s late wife, Judy, who has this phrase on her grave stone.

After Deidre arrived, we went to town and had dinner— actually breakfast for dinner (omelettes and pancakes) as usual. A bunch of kids from bike and build were there, and I think the single proprietor was overwhelmed, but we did eventually have a good meal. We also met two other cyclists. The first, Shawn, had just ridden 87 miles on the great divide trail (gravel). When he pulled up, I tried to say hi, but he was so tired. All he could say was “I have to get off his bike.” Then he promptly lit a cigarette. At the bar, he ordered a beer and a shot of whiskey “on an empty stomach on purpose.” He was quite a character. Then we also met Josh who we had been seeing occasionally on the road from a distance. His fiancé was following in a van, so they slept in the parking lot. Josh, Shawn, Deidre, and I and Josh’s fiancé all had dinner together. Meanwhile, the bike and build folks were doing shots. They also had people cooking dinner for them back at the church. They were pretty loud that night but Deidre and I were so exhausted we slept through most of it.

 Day 57: 41 miles from Saratoga to Rawlins

We were so excited about a 40 mile day! We want to avg 50 but it seems we rarely have a 50 mile day. Places to stay out here tend to be separated by 60 miles or more.

We left from st barnabas church where we had fancy accommodations with a kitchen, bed, shower, and laundry!

The sun rising. 

I surprised myself in the reflection of this window which was as clear as a mirror. 

My first time riding on a freeway. The speed limit on most 2 lane roads around here is 65 with small or no shoulders, so this wasn’t much different except wider shoulder and more trucks.

A cyclist never wants to see “closed” and “80 miles to next rest stop”! Thankfully, I wasn’t counting on this one. 

We went through Sinclair, of Sinclair oil fame. It was kinda awful riding by it—really loud. But also strange that this is the first industrial town with a working industry that we have passed. All the other small towns in states of disrepair with the jobs gone. Of course, this town was t booming either.

This jotel spoke of better times for the town. I wanted to go in to see the architecture but it was closed—and looked like it had been rented to a Baptist church for office space. 

I got to this diner today and was so excited to eat breakfast after my ride. I got my bike all situated and my helmet and gloves off etc, then went in to find out they were closing for the day because the morning rush had depleted their resources. 😩 

But the woman recommended another place a half mile away, so I was saved.