DAY 27: Dubois to Jeffrey City: "Butt stamina"

June 25, 2016

DAILY STATS

Mileage: 135.17

Average Speed: 14.2mph

Maximum Speed: 38.5mph

Holy cow. 135 miles. My first ever 100+ mile ride. It was quite the day.

Having slept inside, I had little to pack in the morning, so I was rolling by 7:45am. My morning greeted me with a blistering tailwind through gorgeous red rock scenery, sagebrush desert, throngs of pronghorn antelope, and the foothills of the Wind River mountain range. I averaged ~18mph for the first few hours of riding, and made it into Lander (74 miles) around 12:30pm.

Some of the glowing scenery greeting my morning.

With so much time left in the day, I figured I'd shoot for the next town, Sweetwater Station. But this posed a slight problem.

You see, towns in Wyoming are few and far between. Sweetwater Station is no different. It was 41 miles further from Lander, with nothing between the two. Nothing.

I was feeling great (and a wee bit cocky), so I pushed on. After all, it doesn't start getting dark until about 9pm.

Very quickly, though, my tailwinds died, and I was left to actually work to move (sigh). The scenery was increasingly desolate and bleak, with no signs of life beyond sagebrush and cheat grass. It was very warm, and the lack of wind meant that I was swearing a lot. I was also greeted with a pass to get over after having just passed the 100 mile mark. My butt was definitely startin' to feel the burn.

Eventually, though, I made it 115 miles to Sweetwater Station, where I reconvened with Roberto, the Italian fellow. We were very quickly inundated with mosquitoes, and after some stilted debate we decided to press on 20 miles to Jeffrey City, where I was told there was a cyclist-friendly church.

I might be smiling in this picture, but my butt felt like raw hamburger meat.

The mosquitoes were, to put it lightly, violently persistent. They clung to shirts, shorts, and panniers and would spring for blood even while we were going 20+ mph. It was stressful, but I found that riding on the rumble strips every couple of seconds helped disperse them.

We made it to the church, bitten and exhausted, but content with our incredible progress. My butt is...ahem...somewhat "pestered" at the moment, but a long night's sleep, a shower in the morning, and a short day tomorrow should aid its recovery.

In the brief seconds it took me to snap this picture, I was enveloped in mosquitoes. Truly in the middle of nowhere.

Cyclists are encouraged to sign their names on the church walls, so I had to.

It was neat to see all the people that have passed through here!

Today's ride: 135 miles (217 km)
Total: 1,726 miles (2,778 km)

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