Day 66: Jeffrey City to Rawlins, WY; The Wild Wyoming Wind Can Be Brutal

September 5, 2015

Notes:

1.) If you select the “Comment” link near the bottom of the page you can leave a message for me. I enjoy getting them.

2.) Climbing Today: 1,942 ft -- Total So Far; 156,169 ft

3.) Average Speed While Biking Today: 7.5 mph

4.) Mechanical Issues Today: none

5.) Miles Remaining to Canon City: about 345

6.) Miles Traveled to Date on This Half of the Journey: 1,645

7.) Money Found Today: 0

8.) Total Money Found: $1.03 (Will I find enough to buy a cup of coffee?)

9.) Current BAR (Bicycle Altitude Record): 9,584 Feet, Togwotee Pass

As you probably know from reading yesterday’s journal entry, I didn’t sleep very well last night. “Plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead,” I told myself, “now it’s time to ride.” The wind was still pretty gnarly this morning, as can be easily seen from the wind indicator carried on Harvey’s left rear pannier.

The Flag "Wind Indicator" is Already Showing Significant Wind Before Sunrise

Sunup found us in the vicinity of the famous landmark known as Split Rock. Here’s a photo right before old Sol showed himself;

Sunrise is Coming, Split Rock Is Seen on the Right

Split Rock is the cleft in the rock on the right side of the photo. Here’s a bit of info about Split Rock and how it was used as a navigational aid;

I was concerned about Harvey’s tires after having ridden on the soft sand road to access the church hostel last night and then again leaving this morning. So once it got light enough I inspected them carefully; it’s a good thing I did because I found an embedded goathead! These pesky thorns had been the cause of the only flat tire I have had so far on this half of the journey, and I’d prefer to not have another, thank you. I was surprised this morning that I have seen no deer or elk, as the fields beside the road looked like good grazing grounds for them. Perhaps last night’s storms drove them away to shelter elsewhere. I did find evidence on the road that it rained last night, even though I heard none hitting the church.

It Rained Here Last Night, But No Rain Fell Where I Stayed

This part of Wyoming was still quite desolate and lonely.

Southern Wyoming is Wide-Open And Desolate Country

Muddy Gap supposedly has a convenience store where I can take a break and stock up for the remainder of the day. Approaching Muddy Gap, it appears that the store was all there is to it.

Approaching Muddy Gap Junction, There's Only 1 Business Visible

The proprietor was a Middle Eastern fellow who was more concerned with talking to someone on the phone in his native tongue than he was interested in helping me. I asked him a question about the restaurant in Lamont and he said something like “no restaurants in 50 miles” and then went back to his phone conversation. The ACA map showed a restaurant in Lamont and I was not certain if this guy understood me or if he knew what he was talking about. Once I got back to the bike, I checked the addendum sheet for the current map and found an entry that said the Lamont restaurant was closing August 2015. Yikes, it’s barely September now so I just missed it! I was counting on that restaurant being open, but after reassessing my food supplies I reasoned that I had enough to make it to Rawlins.

So how do I follow these instructions if I’m only able to travel 5 mph in this crazy wind?

If I'm Only Traveling at 5 mph, How Do I Slow Down 20 mph?

The flags here told the story of the wind. And at the moment I was traveling directly into it.

The Flags Tell The Story; The Wind Kicked My Butt

An issue for consideration that touring cyclists must constantly evaluate is energy management. I start each day with my EMP (Energy Management Plan); actually, I develop the EMP the previous night and constantly re-evaluate it as I travel. Cyclists output energy from their body to pedal the bike down the road. The energy output required depends on the load the bike is carrying, the amount and steepness of the climbing expected, the intensity and direction of the wind, and the heat load. Energy input comes from the food we eat. Rest is an important part of this non-linear equation, as rest and food allow a cyclist to “recharge” and continue on a long day.

My EMP for today included some rest and food input at the café in Lamont, but that wasn't going to happen. Not a problem; now I will just have to find a shade somewhere and take an off-the-bike break and eat some bread with peanut butter and half an apple also with peanut butter. That should do the trick, I only needed to cycle a bit less than 70 miles today.

But I hadn’t counted on the crazy wind. I hadn’t had cell phone communication or WIFI for the last 36 hours, so I hadn’t been able to check the weather. Surely this crazy wind could only be the result of a frontal system passing, right? Whatever the cause, I told myself I just needed to buckle down and deal with it. Besides, the wind usually dies down by late afternoon, right?

I was traveling south now, and the wind was from the southwest. It was a struggle to maintain 5-6 mph against it, but I was going to turn southeast 11 miles after Muddy Gap, and maybe that would be some improvement. By the time I climbed to my 6th crossing of the Continental Divide north of Lamont, I was getting pretty tired.

My 6th Crossing of the Continental Divide; Unnamed Pass North of Lamont, WY

"Tired" is too mild of a word; the lack of sleep last night combined with today's brutal wind had worked me into a state of near-exhaustion, and I had many miles to go yet today. But I couldn't dwell on that. I wondered if this sign was some sort of secret Wyoming motto;

"No Services" Is So Common, Maybe It Should Be The State Slogan

Here’s the closed restaurant at Lamont;

I Had Counted On The Annalope Café For Rest And Refueling

I doubt if my $10 of business would have been enough to keep them open. Now that I had turned the corner at Lamont, I was traveling mostly southeast and the wind was buffeting me from my right side. Dry creek beds had this red vegetation growing in them.

This Red Vegetation Grows In Dry Creek Beds

Does anyone know what this red vegetation is? The wind seemed to be picking up at the same time as I encountered a stretch of bad shoulder that lasted for about 14 miles.

The Photo Doesn't Depict How Bad The Shoulder Was; It Was Very Difficult To Ride On It

The shoulder had lots of potholes and the gusting wind made it hard to control the bike. I was getting pretty worn out and needed to take a break and eat, but there was no shade anywhere. I told myself that once I reached some shade, I would take a break. I had to stop a couple of times and straddle the bike on the shoulder with traffic whizzing by because I was really pretty exhausted. If there had been even a large culvert underneath the road, I would have stopped and crawled in it to get away from the sun - and I would have probably fallen asleep in it. In the meantime, the wind was increasing. I estimated the gusts to be 50 – 60 mph now. It was really quite brutal, and my left arm got sore from having to push against the handlebars to fight the right-side gusts. A couple of times when I stopped, I tried to get inside my handlebar bag to get a bite of cracker or powerbar or other “energy snack” things I carry, but any time I opened the handlebar bag things got blown out and I had to chase them down on the other side of the road. So, there would be no food until I could reach a sheltered position.

This was a bad situation. Really bad. I was exhausted, suffering from sun exposure, and there was no place to stop. I mean, no place at all. I was in a long valley that just seemed to go on forever (see the photo above and the one below);

It Took Me Hours To Cross This Seemingly Endless Valley In The Brutal Wind

My path led towards the mountains ahead. I told myself that once I got there, surely the mountains would provide a bit of shelter from the wind. And so I ground on. I was moving only 5-6 mph, and each time the wind gusted it was like someone applied the brakes; the wind from my right side was so upsetting that it killed my forward speed. And it was a dangerous situation; the wind was trying to blow me onto the roadway into the path of traffic approaching from the rear. I was keenly aware of this danger and was constantly watching my Monkey Mirror and monitoring the approaching traffic. When traffic got close I made sure I was as far to the right on the shoulder as I could be. Some of the wind gusts nearly blew me over. Once I was in loose gravel and I stood up off the seat for a moment to stretch while riding, and the wind actually caused the rear wheel to skate through the loose gravel. My panniers were acting like sails, giving the wind plenty of surface area to wreak havoc with me. As I said, this was a really bad situation.

The only way out was to grind it out and make it to some place where I could stop and eat and recover enough strength to finish. It seemed to take forever, but I finally made it to the mountains up ahead. They didn’t offer much wind relief, but finally there was a side road I could use to get away from the traffic. I pulled onto it and in about 100 feet there was a cattle guard that marked the start of private property. And that’s where I ate some lunch. No shade, no reprieve from the sun, I simply sat down in the road and devoured a bit of bread with peanut butter and a few slices of apple with peanut butter, washed down with hot water.

I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep last night and the unexpected effort of today’s ride that I could have fallen asleep right there in the road. I found myself starting to nod off, and it took some serious mental effort to convince myself to stand up and get rolling again. But of course I did, and eventually the energy from my crude lunch kicked in and I climbed to my 2nd crossing of the Continental Divide today (7th overall crossing) at an unnamed pass 16 miles north of Rawlins.

My 7th Crossing Of The Continental Divide; Unnamed Pass Northwest Of Rawlins, WY

The wind had died down a bit, and was now gusting maybe only 30-40 mph. It was still a fight. I was extremely happy to be closing in on Rawlins. Rawlins is hidden in a valley and you can’t see it until you are nearly upon it.

Rawlins Is Hidden In The Valley Below Until You Are Almost There

I really wasn’t sure I was going to make it today. It was brutal, and if I didn’t already have respect for the Wild Wyoming Winds (I did, believe me) I had it now. And let me be quite clear about this; I didn’t “beat” the Wyoming wind, or “conquer” it or anything like that. Quite the opposite is true; the Wyoming wind kicked my butt big time today. I’m lucky to have gotten through it, period. My EMP for today was a disaster. I don’t know how I could have changed it, other than to have gotten more sleep last night, but that’s another story (and I already told you that one). You can’t “wait out” the wind in Wyoming, because it’s always there and always unpredictable, especially so in the wide-open valleys. Folks here say that the “wind-free season” was the last week of June and I missed it.

My face got sun-burned, but not too badly, and I felt like I had been dragged through a sand-blaster. My lips were going to pay a price for today as they were sunburned as well; I have lip balm that has UV protection and I usually put it on in sunny conditions, but today for several hours I couldn’t even do that due to the wind trying to blow me and the bicycle over when I stopped. Today was probably as physically hard as the 123 mile mostly uphill day I put in to escape the Idaho forest fires. It was definitely mentally harder, because it was unexpected and my EMP (even my “revised EMP”) was thwarted by the crazy wind.

All right then, Wyoming, you kicked my butt really good. You win. I say “Uncle” already. There’s no need to do it again tomorrow, you have proven your point, whatever it was. I’m feeling a little beat tonight, good night everyone…

Today's ride: 68 miles (109 km)
Total: 3,942 miles (6,344 km)

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