June 19, 2012
Saratoga to Rawlins, WY: Into the Wind
The BTC folks were up and about early. Some were out of camp by 5:00 a.m.! I wasn't especially in a hurry, but I got up, too. The camp was fairly quiet last night, at least with my earplugs in, but there were lights on the football field where we slept. I think I found another use for a buff. Use it to cover your eyes for darkness, and it will also help hold your earplugs in!
The ride to Rawlings includes a stretch on I-80. It isn't too bad, with a very wide shoulder and rumble strips between the driving lanes and the shoulder. It's also fairly clean. The little bit of debris is mostly tire shards and a few bungee cords. Too bad I didn't need any bungies, I could have strapped up my whole bike. At least that was the case until I approached Sinclair. There is a huge oil facility there, which seems to go on for ever. Somewhere passing by the refinery, there was a wallet on the shoulder, wide open with lots of cards showing.
I stopped and picked up the wallet. Then at the Sinclair exit I left the highway to try to find the police to turn it in. I stopped at the first place I came to, which was a bar, and asked where to find the police. The woman there asked why, and I explained, and she offered to call the police for me. So I got the wallet off my bike and showed it to her, and she said "I know her! She used to date my son." So while I was standing there, she called the owner of the wallet! I think it's pretty remarkable that it belonged to someone local, since I-80 gets a lot of long distance traffic. It isn't remarkable that the bar owner knew the woman, since Sinclair only has a population of 400 people.
The rest of the ride to Rawlins was on a narrow two lane road, a little bit more rolling than the interstate. I was pretty beat by the time I reached Rawlins, and stopped in the McDonald's for a quick recovery and to find out where the campground was. Then I made my way to Western Hills Campground. Based on the name, I should have immediately realized it was west of town (into the wind) and uphill!
It's basically an RV campground with a small patch of grass for tents. When I arrived, the sprinklers were turned on the tent site! I had to ask for them to be shut off. The grassy area does have a few fence sections for windbreaks, which are really needed! I showered, and then hung out in the office to escape the wind. I ended up ordering pizza along the person from the front desk, and got her front desk discount! I ate half the pizza and saved the rest for breakfast.
The woman at the front desk says this wind is normal for Wyoming, at least for this part of Wyoming. Apparently the wind coming through the Snowies was not normal, but this is what I need to expect for a while. Now I understand why people ride the TransAm west-to-east.
Sort of a side note: I was excited to have the handlebar bag and mapcase, but during the ride yesterday, the mapcase kept blowing off. The snaps are not strong enough to hold it in the wind. After a couple of near losses, I moved it into my bags. Today I put it back on the bar bag it blew off twice, both with gusts from large vehicles. I think because the wind was mostly a headwind, it wasn't grabbing the mapcase from the side and pulling it off. I need to find some velcro pieces with adhesive to add to the snaps.
Stats:
dist 48.86
odo 5984.1
Max Speed 21.8
Av Speed 7.7
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Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 119 miles (192 km)
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