Day Nineteen: Basin, Wyoming to Buffalo, Wyoming

June 28, 2019

I was out much earlier today. After buying some snacks at the gas station, I took a few pictures of downtown Basin. Basin was a tidy little town.

I got off the busy highway and onto a paved country road for six or seven miles. It was cooler this morning, and very nice riding.

I saw a lot of little structures, which I assume are beehives, maybe? I didn't see any bees flying around, though. They all appeared to be abandoned.

I continued onto very lightly traveled roads. The scenery was mostly dry ranch land.

I stopped and studied my route, and decided to alter it by shaving several miles off, skipping a scenic canyon. Instead I thought I'd take a more direct route to the village of "Ten Sleep." I didn't have a cell signal, so I couldn't check Google Maps, but a (rare) road sign indicated that I could reach Ten Sleep on a county road, although of course I couldn't know if it would eventually turn to rough gravel.

I took the chance and followed the county road, which did remain paved, and was very flat.

I arrived in Ten Sleep, population 260, around 11:00. It was a charming little place at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains.

I had lunch at a bar/cafe and for the first time had a salad with my grilled cheese and french fries. I texted a picture of said salad to my wife, and she responded with disbelief that I was actually eating it. But I did.

I'd only ridden 40 easy miles to get to Ten Sleep, climbing just a little to get to 4,426 feet. To get past the last real mountain on this tour, I had to ride over Powder River Pass, which is at 9,666 feet. So, over 5,000 feet of climbing just to get over the pass. And then, according the elevation profile on my route, there was a descent and them more climbing after that before I reached the town of Buffalo. I really wanted to get to Buffalo today, but was it feasible at all? It was almost noon, and if I was lucky I'd arrive in there just before dark.

I biked up the road to the visitor center and talked to the friendly, knowledgeable older lady working there for a while, then decided to do it.

The climb started off gently enough as I rode past ranches.

In a few miles the ascent started.

Soon I left the highway and turned onto "Old 16" which quickly turned to dirt. This was supposed to be a no-traffic and more scenic alternate to the main road. It was nice at first, with some shade from trees.

As promised, there was very, very little traffic. Most of the vehicles I saw were parked on turn-offs and had small tents next to them. I assumed outdoorsy types were using the old road as base for some sort of activities - hiking? rock climbing? I never saw anyone to ask.

It was hot now, and most of the shade had disappeared. When would this eight miles of dirt end?! I was drinking the water in my bottles much more quickly than usual. Finally, as I slowly ascended, I passed a little spring gushing out of the hillside, stopped, and got out my Sawyer Mini water filter.

I filtered several bags of the cool water and drank directly from the filter, then filtered enough to fill all my bottles.

After what seemed like forever (certainly more than eight miles), "Old 16" ended and I merged onto the paved US-16. It had a wide, smooth shoulder, and traffic was light. But it seemed straight up.

I finally reached the Meadowlark store, where I purchased a $3 soda and talked to the women working there. They told me I was now at 8,400 feet. There was no official camping there, but the owner told me I could pitch my tent behind the store if I wanted to stop for the day.

I sat outside drinking my expensive Diet Pepsi, thinking things over. A motorcyclist walked up, asked "how's the biking?" and told me that it would soon "flatten out a little" as I neared the pass. I decided to continue.

In a few miles it felt noticeably cooler, and I started seeing snow on the ground.

I reached the pass, took the obligatory photo - this would be the highest elevation I'd reach on this tour - and started coasting down.

Unfortunately, as my map's elevation profile indicated, I had to do *another* steep climb after that. This was annoying, because I was more than ready to be done for the day. Finally I got it done.

I knew there would be a long, steep, thrilling descent down to Buffalo at some point, and I was anticipating seeing a sign warning truck drivers about it. Sure enough, there was one - a series of several signs, actually.

This is the first one I saw:

I groaned when I saw this, since it showed that before I could get to the final downhill to Buffalo, I'd have five more little climbs (helpfully numbered for me on the sign) to do. They weren't long, but I'd been riding all day, and had done thousands of feet of climbing already.

It was getting late now, so I continued.

The Wyoming department of transportation REALLY wants truck drivers to check their brakes before rolling down into Buffalo. There were multiple warning signs, some flashing as I got closer. The warnings were especially dire when I finally reached the Mandatory Brake Check Turnout. There were multiple signs for the runaway truck tramp, which apparently is THE MOST USED RUNAWAY TRUCK RAMP IN THE WORLD.

The descent to Buffalo was one of the craziest in memory. At least 2,500 of elevation loss in maybe eight miles.

I got a nice cabin when I coasted into Buffalo, at a price 1/5 of the going rate in the Yellowstone area. Almost everything within walking distance was closed by now, except for the worst-named convenience store chain in America, Kum & Go. I walked a half mile there, purchased snacks, walked back, ate them, and went to bed.

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Today's ride: 110 miles (177 km)
Total: 1,516 miles (2,440 km)

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