Day 322
Windy Wyoming
Now I clearly wasn’t concentrating, we had entered a new State, Wyoming, and I had forgotten our Warmshowers host Mark’s advice, ‘treat every state as a new country and you’ll be fine’, he just forgot to add, apart from the wind!
We had a fun evening with the locals in the Split Rock Cafe. Many moons ago the McGregors’ forefathers had emigrated from Yorkshire, my home county, hell, we were almost family! ‘Bob’ was a late arrival, but he made up for it by being the life and soul of the party, buying us all drinks and knocking back the shots. I longed to see the bottle being pushed speedily along the bar as you see in old Western films but it wasn’t to be. We had plans to be up and away by 6am, so reluctantly we left the boys to party and headed off to bed.
As planned, we were up and away by 6am to beat the wind. The wind though had turned up early. It was a slog from the get go, though to start with not quite as bad as yesterday. We had a 30-mile steady climb, then hopefully when we headed down into the valley it would get better. I mean, we would be riding downhill, so it had to be easier surely?
Wyoming is simply stunning, we were riding through the Sweetwater Valley, our wheels so close to where the wheels on the wagons of those travellers heading west had journeyed 150 years ago. The area is a massive plain, home to a vast array of wildlife, but apart from a few deer and the call of coyotes in the night we saw none. Under the marshes a thick layer of ice used to form, and when the pioneers tried digging for water, they found ice instead. This they would bag up and have the treat of cool water to drink that day. Unfortunately, the changes to the climate means this ice no longer forms.
After just under 4 hours, we had ridden only 20 miles. This was turning out to be a brutal day. We decided to stop and eat our lunch at the only place of shelter we would see during the 60-mile journey, the toilet block at Sweetwater Station. You take what you can get! Back in 1856 the Willie Handcart company got stuck here due to a severe blizzard, fortunately a rescue party came from Fort Bragg, I needed those guys today!
We buoyed ourselves up with the knowledge that in just a few miles we would crest the high point and then be whizzing downhill to Lander, 30 miles away! Oh, that fickle finger of fate! We had views to die for, long sweeping downhills, fantastic red earthen valleys to roll through, it should have been awesome, but for one thing. Texas and Oklahoma may be windy, but Wyoming has WIND! It was gusting at 40 plus miles an hour, we struggled to ride above 5 miles an hour downhill, and don’t get me started on the side winds, I’m not sure quite how I managed to stay on my bike. Mike, our WS host for the evening had kindly ridden out to join us, so all 3 of us battled our way. Eventually, after over 8 hours of pain we made it. A warm shower, great company, fantastic home cooked food was just what we needed to sort us out. We just hope when we set off in the morning the wind will have eased.
