Destination: Across The Nation
A Family-Style Epic on the TransAmerica Bike Trail
6/28/07 - Hoback Jctn, WY to Farson, WY - 117.4mi / 7:32 / 15.6mph [2440 vert] - Total So Far: 1091.9mi
Mike did the intro to this very long day with me - again, great to have him along. Woulda been even better to have him with me for the next few weeks . . . or at least for the remainder of this day. A total crusher - long-distance ride to try to squeeze off this unsavory segment of this otherwise super-cool state as quickly as possible.
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Mike along for the early part of today's ride. The Wind River Range in the background
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The ride started with what turned out to be a pretty serious climb to just short of 8000 feet out of the Hoback River drainage. I then basically stayed between 7200 and 7600 feet for over 100 miles with 90+ degree heat, winds, rumble strips . . . the whole magilla.
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The ride today was essentially 7 hours of this . . . oh, and open up your oven, put a fan in front of the door and point it at your face for the full effect.
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Amy did a magnificent job of finding us a place to stay overnight in Farson (near a school).
I can't imagine doing this ride without her along.
In a nutshell, I'm toast right now. BUT we're now in a position to re-join the classic TransAmerica route tomorrow. AND Destination: Across The Nation's goal of not suffering the indignity of a car shuttle through construction on Togwatee Pass has been met!
Random thoughts:
- I'm pretty sure I'm the first cyclist to ever ride 191 to Farson. How do I know this? Well, first . . . open up to a map of Wyoming and look in West Central part of the state - you'll see Farson parked down there all by itself in the middle of a pure wasteland. Terms like "dunes" and "badlands" and "alkali flats" abound on the map around Farson. No one else would be stupid enough to take this route. That's number one . . .
- #2: I saw probably over 100 pronghorn antelope today on the high desert plain that I crossed. I noticed that when cars pass by these guys they don't even move. Now when they got a load of ME - it's like they were shot out of a cannon. Lorne Green could not have been more pleased with the pure speed they demonstrated in getting away from me. Truly beautiful to watch but clearly they found my presence disturbing.
- Prairie Dogs should NOT build their towns or network of burrows within a few feet of the road. This is a very common practice and the carnage on the road is unimaginable.
- When you see a full-on dust devil in the Wyoming desert, don't wonder what it's going to be like inside and go ahead and ride right into it . . . I did this and very nearly wrecked. Dust devils are very powerful little windstorms and will bat you around like a toy.
- Harley riders wave 60-70% of the time. They seem to appreciate the fact that some nut is on a desolate road with them with only the morning Raisin Bran powering him along
- Those people that ride those motorcycle "trikes" wave most of the time, but for some reason those rigs are sorta creepy. Oh, and I'd put Goldwing riders at about 35% (maybe they're too busy talking to each other on those little Bryant Gumbel-style sportscaster microphones).
- BMW riders seem to be too full of themselves to do much waving - I put them at 12%
- People on any other type of bike - sport bike - crotch rocket - Kawasaki whatever . . . their waving is pretty nearly 0% of the time
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Notice this pronghorn NOT running. This picture was taken from inside the car.
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