Wyoming: Halfway There

I made it into Wyoming in relative struggle. I had a heavy headwind the whole day, which got worse over the last 25 miles. I climbed my way out of Montana for a bit under 50 miles and had a good headwind that kept me out of my saddle much of the time. I eventually started downhill, which was the trend most of the rest of the day. I took a pic by the welcome sign and then headed on. Much of Montana and Wyoming's back roads had sections just recently refinished, giving me a lot of great blacktop to ride on. This was relatively true in Wyoming. I learned that in Wyoming the roads are hired out to different contractors for small sections. The state apparently doesn't regulate how they need to be done, so there are multiple types of surfaces and rumble strips occasionally thrown into the mix.

Once at Lovell I decided to see how the weather was going to be and if I wanted to call it a night there and push on tomorrow. The report said 5mph headwinds today and 15mph headwinds tomorrow. Also, Greybull is lower in elevation by a bit. It was another 30 miles and I decided to go ahead to Greybull today and do a short ride the next day to Worland and get a motel. I pushed on and it started out uphill out of Lovell. Also, the winds were much greater than 5mph and were closer to 20mph. They also switched from headwinds to crosswinds. The best part was the 15 mile climb out of Lovell. Over the last 30 miles, 20 were uphill! The downhills were not a break since the wind blew so hard I had to pedal and with all my strength I barely stayed above 5mph. It was an exhausting day.

As I crested the hills, I got more and more frustrated. I started to yell at the tops like the world's strongest man competitors do when moving heavy things. It worked well. At the last hill I hollered out, "this has got to be the last one." And I was excited that it was. The last few miles into town, however, were gravel due to construction and I struggled a bit more to make it there.

I wheeled into the campground and got a site and then decided to set up camp, shower, and then eat. I was looking forward to A&W, but at just after 8, when I was done with my shower, it was closed (on a friday!). I headed to a different restaurant that was a little nicer and got some food and then headed back and fell asleep. Of course I forgot to cover my bike seat with a sack and it decided to dump rain that night, so I had a wet seat the next day.

The scenery today made the ride much more bearable. I was surrounded by the Absarokas and Bighorns and a few other ranges throughout the day.