Day 17

September 4, 2024

Distance: 104km

Climbing: 655m

The first day of our detour had been an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. This one promised a little less enjoyment, but would get us back to the route. It was another cool morning on the highway with two attempted stops for coffee but the places were closed. Third time lucky and we sat in the first of the warm sun with a coffee and got yesterday’s journal entries done while enjoying our coffee.

The road got pretty wearing, mentally, but after 50km we were able to turn off to some quieter roads to take the back way into Pinedale.

While at the grocery store there the sky opened up and it poured hail and rain in torrential amounts. We were fortunate to be under the store awning. We moved into some seating in the store and moved our bikes to somewhere we could see them, and hung out for an hour.

While the weather forecast hadn’t even mentioned rain before the deluge it switched to saying the rain would last for hours but at a lighter level so we decided to push on to our target, an RV Park in Boulder WY. Riding in the rain wasn’t too bad but the spray from trucks was nasty. Fortunately there was a bike path beside the highway for half of the distance.

I hadn’t expected Wyoming to have bike paths between communities!

Wyoming has the best long-distance bike paths I’ve seen. They don’t form a continuous route, but if you’re going to ride the route anyway at least having half of it with some separation from traffic is great. Nevertheless, it will have to be more connected to bring a higher proportion of people out on bikes as the disconnected sections are a no-go zone for many. Regardless, I’ve never seen this much town-to-town connectivity in North America.

This RV park, unlike many, has areas for tent camping, and even a cabin and “wall tent” available. The wall tent is a canvas tent over a wooden structure and seemed ideal for us, especially as the rate was only a bit above their tent camping rate. There are showers and laundry facilities too, although we just did laundry two nights ago.

When we arrived it was still stormy so we cooked in the tent.

By sunset the storm had passed, but the forecast low is 3 degrees.

Once again, everyone we met was super nice and generous. This way of traveling has its challenges but so many advantages too.

Today's ride: 104 km (65 miles)
Total: 1,954 km (1,213 miles)

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