Day 53: 59 Miles

Jeffrey City, WY to Lander, WY

I woke up this morning in a huge empty church. No one else showed up last night, so I had the whole place to myself. This worked out well because I was able to choose the only room with a full size mattress. The all you can drink beer last night made the morning a little rough, but I was on the road by 7:15. The day started with mosquitoes everywhere. I’ve never seen swarms of mosquitoes like this before. As I rode it sounded like a light rain was falling, but it was just the mosquitoes bouncing off my jacket. This was great motivation to keep moving. Anytime I stopped I was covered in bugs.

The ride today was relatively easy. I lost about 1,000 feet of elevation from start to finish and there wasn’t much climbing. After a couple of hours of trying to outrun mosquitoes I arrived at Sweetwater Station which was the only stopping point on the ride today. The only thing in Sweetwater Station was a rest stop with a bathroom. I took a short break to eat a snack inside where the bugs couldn’t attack me and then quickly got back on the road. About 5 miles later I hit an amazing stretch of road. I saw a sign that said the next 5 miles would be -6% grade. I usually only get rewarded with a stretch of road like that after I’ve spent an hour climbing. The road dropped 1,000 feet in 5 miles and I didn’t have to pedal much over that stretch.

The rest of the day included some rolling hills and quick downhill sections that I got through without much effort. About 10 miles from Lander I ran into some new friends I had made at the bar in Jeffrey City last night. The Jeffrey City bar was mostly filled with ranchers wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots, but there was a table of people who looked about my age. The University of Wyoming runs a study on sage grouse out of Jeffrey City and there was a group working for the university living in Jeffrey City for the summer. I had a few beers with them last night and they were now headed to Lander to pick up groceries for the week. At 60 miles away, Lander is the closest place to pick up groceries and supplies. They spotted my riding and stopped their truck to let me know they’d be getting lunch in Lander and I was welcome to join them.

I got into Lander and almost immediately saw Chris riding his bike down the street. I was happy to see he was safe in Lander. It turns out that after leaving Rawlins, Chris and the couple he is riding with got to the town they thought had services. When there was nothing there, they pushed on to the convenience store down the road. With 22 more miles until Jeffrey City, they then decided to hitch a ride the rest of the way. They arrived at the church in Jeffrey City late, and with 10 other people already there they decided to stay at a motel instead. That is why I didn’t see them signed into the guest book at the church. They rode from Jeffrey City to Lander yesterday and are now taking a rest day in Lander today.

After talking to Chris for a bit I went to the Lander Bar to meet up with the bird study group. It was nice to have lunch with some familiar faces, even if I had just met them all yesterday. After lunch, I checked into a motel and relaxed for a while. The next couple of days are going to involve a lot of climbing. I’m currently at 5,300 feet elevation, but will be climbing back up to 9,500 feet before I get to Yellowstone.