July 2, 2021
Day 51 - Jeffrey City, WY to Lander, WY
Graduation
Last night was an echo chorus of snoring, zipping tents, and flip flops, or so I am told. I slept pretty well. We slept in the tents because they were wet from yesterday's overnight rain and because David - who has stayed here last year on Transam - said there were big spiders inside. In the morning we put away the tents and made breakfast. After packing we stopped at the pottery spot. I bought a mug that I was eyeing yesterday and was glad he was open.
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We hit the road around 8 hoping that we would make it to lander in time to go to some bike shops. The ride was supposed to be mostly downhill. The wind was extremely variable during the day. At the beginning we had tailwinds, but the rest of the day was Gusty from different directions. We are approaching the wind river range, which I think is named appropriately. We went flat to uphill for the first 30 miles before going down into the valley towards lander.
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3 years ago
It was mostly downhill: the last half and more down than the first half was, if that makes sense. Even though it was a shorter day, it still felt hard.
We arrived in lander at 2, and went right to the first shop. Marykesh started making clicking noises today again. This had happened a while ago, but seemed to go away after a day or so. We had previously had the bottom bracket tightened, but it happened shortly after that too. Eventually, the mechanic here replaced the bottom bracket system, so hopefully that solves the relentless clunking sounds. The bike shop people were pretty adamant about bear spray for the next sections of the route. We decided to not buy it because several people in our group already have some, and it's $50. I don't think it's worth it, and we will be on the road most of the time. Plus we fought Kentucky dogs so how bad could it be? While waiting for Mary's bike, we found a great vegan friendly restaurant called rise. We had huge smoothies and burgers. After picking up the bike, we had to kill some time before the pool opened and we could get a shower. We went to buy food and snuck into the showers. After my shower, a worker confronted me about not paying $3 to shower. Luckily, one of the guys that showered before me gave me his ticket, so I showed the lifeguard my ticket and got out of there quick. The park where we were camping was about a mile away so we went over there. On the map it said there were bathrooms and water. The park is free to camp for small RVs and tenters and this area is huge for all outdoor sports, but mostly climbing. There are a ton of van life people with all kinds of rigs. We saw even more bicycle tourists and pitched our tents by them. Mary cooked up some ramen while I put up the tent. This park has all kinds of people and the locals all told us to stay for the 4th of July events. Too bad we are two days early. I don't think we will see any since we will be going through Yellowstone this weekend. A tourist we met here tonight is staying here for the next two weeks for the 4th and a climbing festival that is coming up. We ate up and went right to bed. I slept well and the park was alot more full in the morning.
Mileage:58
Altitude gain:1800
Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 2,699 miles (4,344 km)
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