Saturday, August 27, 2011

Day 50

Friday, August 26

Miles today: 76
Lander to Dubois, WY

It's late and we are tired so here is the quick version of today's events:

We rode 76 miles and gained about 1,600 ft in elevation (5300 to 6900). This is in preparation for tomorrow's climb over Togwotee Pass at about 9600 ft. It is the second highest pass on the route. We've been informed by other cyclists that there is construction on the other side of the pass, so after we climb it we get to celebrate by taking a truck ride from the construction crew down the other side. There is no option- they won't let bikers ride down. This is no fun for us and we are jealous of the people coming up the other side because they don't have to climb but can enjoy the downhill!

We passed through the Wind River Indian Reservation for a while today. It didn't look any different than the rest of the state, but they did have a trading post which was very commercialized and nothing was actually handmade.




The town of Crowheart was named after Crowheart's Butte, this odd formation that stands just off the road


There is a gas station/post office combination store in Crowheart so we stopped for a break. A storm hit just as we were getting ready to leave so we waited it out for 30 minutes and got back on the road as the sun came out. About 8 miles outside of Dubois we were caught in another storm, this time with nowhere to take cover. We had our rain jackets so we were fine and just rode through it.

At breakfast this morning, a man from Lander who had ridden from Oregon to Maine a few years ago told us to go to the Cowboy Cafe in Dubois for excellent pie. As soon as we got to town, we looked for the cafe because we were afraid the would be closed after we cooked dinner. (FYI, Dubois is pronounced Du-boys, not the French way, but it's hard not to say it that way!). We walked into the Cafe and a group of guys immediately started asking us about our trip. There were 6 of them, all middle aged and they were on an 8 day mountain biking trip around Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. One of them was from Jenkintown, which is right near Ben's house. There were no seats in the restaurant and these guys had two extra at their table so they invited us to sit with them! They were a fun group so it was cool to hang with them for a little while. Ben got forest fruit pie and I had blueberry almond crunch, both a la mode. The pies definitely lived up to their reputation! The other biker guys even picked up our tab, which was so kind and awesome!

We went down a few blocks to the KOA campground and set up our tent, went swimming (indoor pool), showered and cooked some delicious pasta under a patio while it poured again. It's so awesome to have a waterproof tent! It stopped raining (these storms pass pretty quickly usually) and we packed up and got in the tent. It's rather cold out tonight so it's a zippered-up sleeping bag night for sure.

Looking forward to tomorrow's climb and getting to Jackson Hole!

Some more pictures from today:








2 comments:

  1. I approve of eating dessert before dinner -- it eliminates the risk of being too full for the good stuff. And you can't beat getting free pie. With all this VIP treatment you guys must be getting big heads.
    Hurricane Irene is coming our way tomorrow and RI may lose power and cell phone, so if you don't hear from us here its not from lack of caring.

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  2. Everybody is excited and nervous about the impending storm, but I am too cool for that.

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