Lighten Up

Today started in Rawlins with a breakfast trip to McDonald’s and eating our breakfast in their parking lot. This was appropriate as this was our last day with Pat Graham fro Cheyenne. We spent the first morning we traveled together, in Corvallis OR doing that same thing. Pile in some breakfast calories in hope of keeping the tank full as long as possible. 

So long to Pat, who was a great “third wheel” that stabilized the tricycle. We had a lot of fun together, watched Pat sell a lot of property while cycling, so I hope it was a successful trip for him all around. We’ll miss him but I hope we’ll see him again on some future Ryan trip. 

Pat headed back to Cheyenne

Today we finally pulled the plug on a load of items we’ve been carrying around a while. Stuff like some of the cookware that we’ve been lucky enough not to need because restaurants have been open. Also cold weather gear that I don’t think we’ll need now that warm temperatures are here. I even eliminated a pair of shoes because they were so heavy and took up space and I rarely used them off the bike. Anything that was simply being carried from place to place needed to go. We are heading into this highest peaks in the coming week, so there’s no need to carry so much weight. We went to the post office in Saratoga WY and got some flat rate cartons to mail back home. I ended up with a large and a medium box and filled them both. I think I eliminated 10-15 lbs. from my bike and for the most part I don’t think I’ll miss this stuff. If I do, there are lots of stores. 

Boxes of stuff headed home to lighten up

Today’s trip was scheduled to be a short one of about 60 miles. We did what we could to plan out our stops to get us an average of about 75 miles a day, but it’s not always possible when the towns with amenities don’t cooperate and space themselves out correctly. This was the case today as we are making our way out of Wyoming and into Colorado. We settled that we would likely have to do 3 straight days at about 60 miles each in order to make it to Breckinridge CO and our next day off. Without amenities such as hotels or restaurants or camping facilities some towns just have to be bypassed, if there is a town at all located where we want it. Today’s plan was to end up a short day in Encampment Wyoming, then go another 60 miles the next day and the next. 

Then we got to Encampment and our plans changed. Encampment was a copper boom town in the 1880’s that collapsed and never came back. There was a few old “hotels” but nothing seemed open and it was a horrible dusty town with no visible redeeming qualities. Jerry and I looked at each other and immediately set off for the next viable town, 50 miles away! That’s how bad this was. 

We entered Colorado with 23 more miles to go

Luckily we had the wind at our backs for most of the trip, but as you can guess, almost doubling our journey today to over 110 miles wasn’t easy or quick. Rain threatened all day long but somehow was blown down the road where we could see the storm but never participated. 

The last 10 miles were a really hard slog and most of it was against the wind. We didn’t arrive until about 7:30 so we went to the closest restaurant we could find and beat their closing time by about a half hour. We both ate everything we could find and headed out to find a hotel, which we were lucky to do because it was Rodeo weekend here and not much was left. Success gave us a nice room and we collapsed into it. 

The last miles we’re mighty tough

Today’s stats: 111 mile ride with 5,200 feet of climbing. Anything to escape the encampment!