Tour Divide: Wyoming

We left the Squirrel Ranch and, thankfully, didn’t see the bear that had been hanging around the last two days. We rode into Wyoming early in the morning and managed to grab breakfast at the Flagg Ranch Lodge with minutes to spare.

Our goal was to reach Lava Mountain Lodge, so we kept the pace up and stuck to the road. The views were just as impressive, and it was a much faster option.

We ran into another southbound rider from Australia and shared an ice cream break. While writing this post, I just realized I actually had ice cream three times today. 😂🤦 When you’re in Grand Teton National Park…

We knew that today would be hard given the amount of climbing and the rolling high alpine hills that followed. Richard and his friends recall this section of the route as one  that seems to drag on and on. We took the Great Divide Route, which differs slightly from the Tour Divide race route. It ended up being roughly 10 miles longer, and looking back, we think we would have stuck to the race route.

We left the Lava Mountain lodge around 6am and were greeted with 41 degree temperatures. We started off with almost all our warm layers, but quickly started to loose them as the climbing began about 2 miles in. Along the way we started to encounter ATVs, many of the drivers and passengers cheered us on in encouragement, which was cool.

Once we finally reached the “top” of the climb, we were treated to the most beautiful high alpine meadows, which we had much to ourselves. The pictures don’t quite do it justice. We stopped to filter water and take a much needed break. While doing so, we saw about 20 ATVs drive by, we were amazed by how many there were in this seemingly remote area. 

We finally reached the end of the rolling hills and starting our true descent of the day. On our way down, we ran into Mike, who we’d shared a shuttle with to Antelope Wells back in June and started northbound together before Richard got sick. We were wondering when/if we might see him again. It was really cool to see how far he’d made it and that we were fortunate enough to cross paths again. We enjoyed catching up with him and sharing stories about our journeys. We learned from him and the other riders we met along the way that there was a big festival in Pinedale, which meant everything was sold out. That was our original destination for the night. 

The way down was very rocky and loose. This caused my knee pain to return. We think it’s related to my eccentric muscles becoming fatigued.

We made it to “The Place” Bar, about 30 miles north of Pinedale, and grabbed some sandwiches. We contemplated our decision-making after getting caught in an afternoon thunderstorm and then being swarmed by mosquitoes.

Using the guide we’d bought ahead of time, we were able to phone up a local who allows cyclists to stay in their cabin for free! It was only a mile down the road from “The Place. It was incredible. Lucy and John built the cabin in 1986 and lived in it for three and a half years while they built their primary home. The craftsmanship and attention to detail were amazing, and we couldn’t believe how lucky we were to find it. It was incredibly generous of them to let us stay there, and we hope to be able to do the same for cyclists someday ❤️

We gave ourselves the gift of sleeping in today (what a luxury 😅). Woke up in a cozy cabin feeling pretty dang good about being out here. The facilities included a very primitive outhouse. The owner John came out to say goodbye and open the gate for us to take off. What a legend. 

We luckily had a tailwind and smooth pavement to town. We decided to eat some real breakfast and reset in Pinedale. All the admin stuff with these trips really take a ton of time. It’s more than pedaling. Today we resupplied for the Basin, around 200 miles worth of food to carry. Also did laundry and washed the bikes. We lucked out by finding a hotel that had a cancellation and got a much needed shower in. Ashley’s pain seemed better today but we wanted to take it easy and give it time to heal up a bit before we push into the Basin.

Also, side note - this means we’re officially out of Grizzly Bear country 🐻🎉❤️

When our 4:15am alarm went off and I rolled out of bed in our Pinedale hotel, my left knee was feeling stiff. I was hoping the easier day prior would have allowed for some recovery, so I was starting to worry about heading into one of the most desolate areas on the route for the next 2 days - the Great Basin. It’s an area of land in the Red Desert of Wyoming. There’s hardly any shade to be found. We knew it would be in the 90s on our crossing and that we’d have to carry extra water to get us by between water sources. Going out into this environment on an injury had me very nervous. Was I making a mistake? Should we take one more rest day? Would my knee feel better after getting some movement in?

With all these worries bouncing around in my head, we set off at sunrise for an easy 12 mile section of pavement to the last “town” we’d come by for another 70 miles - Boulder, Wyoming. It was chilly, making it hard for my knee to warm up. It was also mainly downhill, making for a quick ride. We pulled into the only store in town to grab a muffin and coffee. Since we arrived so early in the day the coffee was free, which was a nice surprise. This was the last chance to pull the plug or continue on into the desert. We decided to continue.

After the sun came up the temps quickly rose and the wind direction was all over. Headwinds, crosswinds, tailwinds.  

We went through tons of water and were very excited when we came to a rest area 70 miles in and were able to get some nice cold water and shade. With water now in abundance, we resorted to spraying each other with a bottle of water to help keep cool. It felt incredible!

At 82 miles we came upon a miners festival in the small ghost town of South Pass. They were having a Miners festival, which meant the town was hopping! Apparently they were blasting an anvil 100s of feet into the air. We heard the blast but missed the show. We were able to get a couple cold Root Beers and chat with some other bikepackers, Tim and Darrell from Calgary. They were also heading to Atlantic City, which was just another 4 miles up the road. So we all had dinner together at the bar and grill. 

While preparing to head to camp, we ran into the YouTube documentary maker Ryan Van Duzer in Atlantic City and ended up sharing a campground with him. He was super nice and even gave us all the extra quarters he had for showers.

Super fun day. It was great meeting interesting people out here. There so were many riders out today. So grateful we are able to keep this tour going and that my knee seems to be doing better 🤞

Today we take on the Great Basin - a treeless and almost waterless desert. We woke up at 4:15 in our tent. The campsite at Atlantic City was not the greatest. The facilities were nice, but the tent area was rocky and filled with small thorns pretty sure Richard’s sleeping pad has a small leak now. 

We left by 5:30, always takes forever to get going. We did the steep climb out of the town and were treated to the most beautiful sunrise and a cool desert morning. It was a fast ride to the Doagnus well where we topped off our water bladders. This was our last water source for the next 55 miles. 

The miles went by quickly until the sun rose higher in the sky. There was no shade for around 75 miles and the temperatures climbed to 95. It definitely slowed us down. In the past Richard doesn’t remember it being this hot. While it was hard to ride through the heat, we also got to see some really cool animals - so many Pronghorn, a herd of wild horses, a badger and a fox. ☀️

Our goal for the day was to reach Bairoil - a tiny town of 65 people. It was a company town for the Bair oil company back in the day. We stayed at the church which was an old house. One of the caretakers runs a small museum and we paid a visit. It was very cool to see such a small town with so much pride in their own history. Some of the graduation classes there were only 2 people. There are only 6 kids in town now, so they had to shut down the school in 2013. It’s quite sad to see the state the place is in now compared to its hay day. We are grateful though for the people who still live there who welcomed us into their community for the night.

We had a great pasta dinner with new fellow bikepacker friends; Ryan, Hannah, Kevin and Brian. The six of us shared some of our memorable bike packing experiences. It was a very memorable experience. 

Lazy morning and pancake breakfast with our new friends at the Bairoil church. One of the legends from Buffalo, NY made coffee and I made pancakes for everyone. It was a super memorable breakfast eating with them all in a church!

We decided to do a short day and stay in Rawlins the first half of the ride we had the wind at our backs and were absolutely cruising. The road turned up a bit and the backside gave us a headwind. 

We headed for the Golden Arches when we got into town for some ice cream and lunch. A lot of the other patrons were curious about what we were doing, asking us lots of questions about our journey. We don’t have a dog, but showing up with a bike and fully kitted out seems like a similar social ice breaker. After lunch we went over to the store to stock up with food for the next couple of days. Brush mountain lodge tomorrow!