Field Trip 21

 Day 29 In keeping with our plan to take Sundays off, today we spent in Fairplay Colorado.  Fairplay is just downhill from Hoosier Pass, and at the northern end of South Park.  I have never driven to Fairplay, but years ago when I was in Denver, I rode my bike to Fairplay, spent the night and then rode over Hoosier pass, and back down to Denver.   Here's the Hotel where I stayed: (That's me with the hat.  We walked by on our way back from church. So Far, I've ridden 1524 miles and climbed 59026  feet.  One more day in the mountains, then we will be in the plains for a while.  Tomorrow, we ride out of south park to Florence CO, on the way to Pueblo

 Day 26.  The last report describes the day going from Jeffrey City WY to Rawlins WY.   In Jeffrey City, when we connected up to power, the line was 220 instead of 110, and blew out our refrigerator.  When Leslie got to Rawlins, she went to an RV repair place.   The main circuit board for the fridge had to be replaced. Fortunately she found one( our refrigerator is no longer in production.) She ordered it with overnight delivery.  They screwed up the overnight delivery, so the part wasn't delivered until 2/16.  The circuit board was replaced, but the fridge still doesn't work.  We decided to move on with ice and dry ice.  There was no original plan to spend more than one day in Rawlins, so we drove to the site 3 rides further down.  I missed 3 segments,  which included one climb over the continental divide and a ride through a burned out forest, not to mention 11 miles on the shoulder of Interstate 80. Today's ride was fro...

 Day 22 Today the route takes us further east and south from Jeffrey City to Rawlins.  Rawlins sits along interstate 80.  In the course of  the ride,  we cross the continental divide twice.  The continental divide hiking trail and the Great Divide Bike Route (offroad) converge on Rawlins.   As I set out this morning, about 8 miles down the road, the crew was out paving.  I had to stop for a while and was chatting with the flagger. He mentioned that they were expecting a storm.  I looked around and saw a bunch of ominous clouds behind me and some virga.   Not too much farther down the road, it started to rain.  Out comes the rain jacket and hat.  By the time I got situated, it stopped.   This happened again further down the road.  It was a strong headwind the whole time.  The first continental divide climb wasn't too steep, and the wind died down slightly.   The background is a good repres...

  Day 21 Today we leave Lander Wy and make our way south and somewhat east towards Rawlins. The geography is hilly with wide expanses of open land covered with sagebrush. The wind has no obstructions so blows steadily, there are warning signs along the road indicating road closure if the lights are flashing. There are snow fences along the western side of the road, my guess is that this is the direction of the wind in the winter. I had a block headwind most of the day, so speeds were fairly low. Most of the exposed rock was slanted upward to the west, indicating the direction of faulting. This next is a picture of a feature called "Johnny behind the Rocks".   I thought it had something to do with a place for early travellers to relieve themselves.  Turns out this has a good trail system for mountain biking.  We are spending the night in Jeffery City. Back in the 60's and 70's, there was an active uranium mine here, and the population was great...

Today we took the day off in Lander Wyoming.   Formerly supported by natural resource extraction and agriculture, mostly hay and cattle ranching, it is today sort of a tourist center due to being the jumping off point for the Wind River Mountain Range which is just to the south. We walked into town just after breakfast and checked out a couple of shops.  So far, I've cycled 1315 miles and climbed 48,484 ft.  We have 3 more days in Wyoming before we cross the border into Colorado. The sky here is grey from the Pacific Northwest wildfires. 

 Day 21 The route leaves Dubois and heads downhill in the Wind River Valley.  Gone are the strong tailwinds from yesterday.  Interesting Rock Formations on either side of the road. The road is combined route 20 and route 287.  After the junction, we follow 287 to the southwest. Several short climbs and a change to a headwind as we leave the Wind River Valley. Just outside of Dubois is the National Military Vehicle Museum.  Who knew? At this point, you enter the Wind River Indian Reservation.  Mostly dry hills, some cattle, and wind. After several hrs,  We arrive in Lander Wyoming.  Home of the Wyoming Catholic College.  Home of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School).    Tomorrow, Rest Day. Morning Ride Distance 77.65  mi Elev Gain 1,437  ft Time 4 h  53 m Try this route

Day 20.  The day started most of the way up the western side of Togwotee Pass.  I was looking at 9 miles of climbing, topping out over 9600 ft.   As I started at a comfortable pace,  another rider caught up with me. I figured he was going faster than I was but he was more interested in conversation.  Turns out he too is from Spokane, and we've actually met on one or more of the Saturday morning rides out of North Division Bicycle Shop.  His name is Don.  We rode together to the Continental Divide. Don is doing a Cross-country race from Portland Oregon to Washington DC.   About 20% gravel. There was another rider at the same place named Andy who is bringing up the rear in the Transcontinental Race.  From here, just a  little further along was the actual summit. Then it was basically downhill with a tailwind for the rest of the day.  Final destination Dubois. Don continued on down the Wind River Valley.