YEAH YEAH
i know i am not very good at keeping up with this whole blog thing. i'm only about 3 months behind, weird. anyways, waking up to leave saratoga on a (finally) calm and a beautiful day was pleasant. healing my body in natural hot springs, rafting one last time for the season, shooting and eating my own duck for the first time ever, and learning a great deal about native american history were all unexpected highlights too.
I WANT TO GO FAST
after all this is america! but, for whatever reason, after leaving saratoga, i lost that sense of urgency i had before. before i was pushing on, fighting weather, wind, field mice and climbs. at this point i would have been content with riding 20-40 miles a day, giving myself time to explore new places and meet new people. why rush right? i was really enjoying the miles on the bike, even with the headwinds. i knew that i would likely get to jackson someway or another, and really enjoyed exploring all the new places that i would otherwise overlook if i was in a car. so my first stop after saratoga was rawlins, 42 miles, which included 18 miles on I-80. I-80 was slightly stressful because of strong gusts from side winds and insanely busy traffic. here's a photo of the oil refinery along the highway:
I HEART SEMI’S
it’s good that bicyclists and semi drivers get along because i doubt a bike could win that battle. by this time in the trip i had learned to love semi’s. they tend to really push you along on the road - like hitting the turbo button for a few seconds. on top of that, they are professional drivers and see you from miles away. they also communicate with each other on their radios and work together, while most people don’t realize it, to manage traffic. i got the chance to meet a few along my travels too and they all seemed stoked on my bike adventure. i had always imagined semi’s to hate bicyclists, but that isn’t the case at all. they are in fact your best friends on the road.
AUSSI ON A MISSION
so while riding on this beautiful country road out of rawlins i saw what seemed to be a vague image, a mirage almost. turns out it was, wayne, an aussie who was biking down from alaska eventually to make it to the southern tip of south america. i suddenly realized i wasn’t as cool as i thought i was before. we talked for about 10 minutes on the side of the highway. apparently there is a small network of people who pack it up on bikes and head out for years at a time. wayne’s blog is with the others at crazyguyonabike.com. he asked me how i was doing and i said “well i feel a little dodgy riding solo and all” and he quickly retorted “what? you think it’s dodgy? i don’t think it’s dodgy, do you?” while looking at me like i had just asked “hey did you see jesus, joseph and mary skipping up the road too?” he was legitimately comfortable riding his bike solo anywhere in the world that he wanted. sick. at the end of our conversation he told me to go past muddy gap – my destination at that point - for 24 more miles to a town called jeffrey city – population: 106 (that's a lie, it's probably more like 30).
here's his verson of the story from his journal: "I cycled over the Continental Divide again at Muddy Gap. It wasn't much of a pass, but the wind was strong in my face. I then turned south and met another cyclist heading the opposite direction. That's right, heading north, at this time of year! Well, in fact he was on a relatively short trip. Andy was moving from Fort Collins to Jackson; he'd sold his car and decided going by bike was the best way. He was riding a Surly Long Haul Trucker with an xtracycle, the first time I'd seen one in real life, though I'd read about them on the internet. He was even carrying his skis but I forgot to take a photo."
JUST IN TIME
upon wayne’s recommendation i stopped at an art studio (previously a gas station). the extra 24 miles he convinced me to ride were rainy and beautiful. i barely made it to jeffrey city before pitch dark. i walked into the empty shop to find a sign on a piece of cardboard that said something along the lines of “thanks for visiting my studio, feel free to look around and if you would like to purchase something i am at the bar across the street.” so i went across and ordered a burger and found byron. at this bar was another wyoming hater, this time the lady serving me from behind the bar. she overhead my plans and interrupted to say "you'll never make it over togwotee pass on that thing!" thanks lady. anyways, byron, like many residents along the transamerican bicycle route, allows cyclists to stay at his house for free. back at his art studio/gas station he had some friends visiting for a hunting trip. we all stayed up around a fire drinking whiskey and telling stories.
SANDSTONE ART
waking up to see (in the daylight of the huge glass gas station doors) a kick ass art studio was amazing. looking out the window to see a small cow being blown down along the highway, not so much. the wind was the worst i had seen it. so i drank a few cups of coffee waiting for it to let down even a little bit while byron threw some clay. while i waited i got to look around at a lot of byron’s art and listen to his ideas of turning part of his gas station converted art studio into a bicycle hostel.
TO LANDER
i finally realized that the wind wasn’t going to let up and i was just going to have to go for it. i was so miserable riding uphill into headwind – at about 3-5 mph - that i didn’t even turn my camera on until about 20 miles of this until i saw a sign that said “6% downhill grade next 6 miles”. i actually starting laughing and crying. that was the toughest ride of the entire trip. it was followed by the best descent of my life.
FINALLY
i made it into lander at dusk and i was starving. i rode into the main part of town and asked the first pedestrian i saw where i could get a burger and a cold beer. i found myself at the 'lander bar' and before i could walk inside someone said “so you must be mr. zimmerman!” i thought those cowboys from saratoga had caught up with me but it was just juan, one of the people i had sent a message to on couchsurfing.com – a network for global travellers. he saw my bike and knew it was me. he was going in to meet some friends. small world i guess. to be honest i couldn't appreciate this coincidence because i was focused solely on the two burgers i was about to order. juan seemed to know everyone, and was a very interesting character, who, as far as i could put together was one of the original founders of NOLS and eventually was kicked out because he was too wild. he was a photographer, caver, climber, skier, world traveler, dumpster diver, handyman, and happened to do the plumbing for a lady who lived at the base of togwotee pass, my final exam for the trip, which would be in 3-4 days. he hooked me up with her so that i could have a place to stay when i made it there. i didn’t know it yet but i was making 5 star couch surfing reservations.
