8/6/15
We wake up and prep to take off. Our biking goal is Sweetwater Station, WY, 41 miles away at about 6500' elevation. Coffee drank, water filled, one last life story from a biker passing through and we are on our way kicking off with a nice steep hill straight out of the gas station. I take off without looking back and reach the top waiting for Emily to video her arrival. 5, 10, 15 minutes pass by and Emily is nowhere to be found. For .5 seconds I'm not so happy that I have to go down and possibly back up the hill again, but then I start to panic. Down to the bottom of the hill, Emily is still at the gas station with a family and another tour biker all working together to help her fix a flat. The tour biker's name is Anika and I think she's around our age. She's peaceful, beautiful, and a total inspiration-biking from California to Georgia by herself. Soon enough we take off. From the moment we take off we are experiencing our first encounter with strong headwinds. Combined with hills, a road with a tiny shoulder, and the wind pushing us as trucks whizz by, Emily describes our ride as "like trying to run in mud alongside the ocean." We usually average 10 miles per hour, this ride takes us 3.5 hours to ride 20 miles. We make it to the halfway point, Jeffrey City, population 47. There is a church, a pottery shop, a "motel" (motor home) and a bar/cafe. We fall into the bar for food and rest and the hope of recouping to face the winds another 19 miles to Sweetwater. We meet Dusty, who refuses a photo with a blushing smile, and, after leaning back and putting his feet up on the bar, tells us about grizzly bears ("the grizz") and drops knowledge such as "Round here they will only give you one hard thing to deal with at a time (referring to weather) ". We have a huge and satisfying lunch and spend some time with our maps. We meet 2 different and amazingly kind couples and share stories. One demands to pay for our lunch, the other joins in on our mapping and essentially plans the rest of our route for us in a far more efficient way than we could have ourselves. We also meet Andre, another tour biker, who rolls in off his bike smiling, cheerful, and glowing- he's spent the day riding east with the tailwinds. We are jealous, but Andre is awesome and gives us great tips on where to stay and what to look out for on the route ahead. He gets us really excited for Lander which is coming soon- it has over 7,000 people and a bike shop that we so desperately need.
A few hours quickly pass by and our bodies are not changing their tune, we will stay in Jeffrey City for the night. Dusty directs us to the church where bikers are welcomed to stay. We approach and find a sign on the opened back door specifically inviting bikers in and to help themselves. We find a full kitchen, water, bathrooms, shower, electric outlets. We couldn't be happier. Yes the church is a little bit creepy, but it doesn't matter. Until it does. We enter the church to see a huge open room. Emily goes back outside as I unpack my bike. I start to hear footsteps down the hall, then in the ceiling, and finally I watch the hall door on the other side of the room open and close by itself. I was prepared for the possibility of sketchy humans on the trip (hence whistle and mace keychain) but not this. Em escorts me the rest of the night- to the bathroom, shower, kitchen, all of it. We finally get into our tents in the backyard and close our eyes. Minutes later an unidentifiable sound begins- like something is throwing pebbles at our tent plus crunching and a rustling of plastic. It's one thing for me to feel a little nervous and grab my mace, but when Emily appears worried and grabs it, I'm completely spooked. We manage a few restless hours of sleep and ae awake and on the road by 5am the next morning.
We wake up and prep to take off. Our biking goal is Sweetwater Station, WY, 41 miles away at about 6500' elevation. Coffee drank, water filled, one last life story from a biker passing through and we are on our way kicking off with a nice steep hill straight out of the gas station. I take off without looking back and reach the top waiting for Emily to video her arrival. 5, 10, 15 minutes pass by and Emily is nowhere to be found. For .5 seconds I'm not so happy that I have to go down and possibly back up the hill again, but then I start to panic. Down to the bottom of the hill, Emily is still at the gas station with a family and another tour biker all working together to help her fix a flat. The tour biker's name is Anika and I think she's around our age. She's peaceful, beautiful, and a total inspiration-biking from California to Georgia by herself. Soon enough we take off. From the moment we take off we are experiencing our first encounter with strong headwinds. Combined with hills, a road with a tiny shoulder, and the wind pushing us as trucks whizz by, Emily describes our ride as "like trying to run in mud alongside the ocean." We usually average 10 miles per hour, this ride takes us 3.5 hours to ride 20 miles. We make it to the halfway point, Jeffrey City, population 47. There is a church, a pottery shop, a "motel" (motor home) and a bar/cafe. We fall into the bar for food and rest and the hope of recouping to face the winds another 19 miles to Sweetwater. We meet Dusty, who refuses a photo with a blushing smile, and, after leaning back and putting his feet up on the bar, tells us about grizzly bears ("the grizz") and drops knowledge such as "Round here they will only give you one hard thing to deal with at a time (referring to weather) ". We have a huge and satisfying lunch and spend some time with our maps. We meet 2 different and amazingly kind couples and share stories. One demands to pay for our lunch, the other joins in on our mapping and essentially plans the rest of our route for us in a far more efficient way than we could have ourselves. We also meet Andre, another tour biker, who rolls in off his bike smiling, cheerful, and glowing- he's spent the day riding east with the tailwinds. We are jealous, but Andre is awesome and gives us great tips on where to stay and what to look out for on the route ahead. He gets us really excited for Lander which is coming soon- it has over 7,000 people and a bike shop that we so desperately need.
A few hours quickly pass by and our bodies are not changing their tune, we will stay in Jeffrey City for the night. Dusty directs us to the church where bikers are welcomed to stay. We approach and find a sign on the opened back door specifically inviting bikers in and to help themselves. We find a full kitchen, water, bathrooms, shower, electric outlets. We couldn't be happier. Yes the church is a little bit creepy, but it doesn't matter. Until it does. We enter the church to see a huge open room. Emily goes back outside as I unpack my bike. I start to hear footsteps down the hall, then in the ceiling, and finally I watch the hall door on the other side of the room open and close by itself. I was prepared for the possibility of sketchy humans on the trip (hence whistle and mace keychain) but not this. Em escorts me the rest of the night- to the bathroom, shower, kitchen, all of it. We finally get into our tents in the backyard and close our eyes. Minutes later an unidentifiable sound begins- like something is throwing pebbles at our tent plus crunching and a rustling of plastic. It's one thing for me to feel a little nervous and grab my mace, but when Emily appears worried and grabs it, I'm completely spooked. We manage a few restless hours of sleep and ae awake and on the road by 5am the next morning.