June 10, 2018
Day 23 Devil’s Tower
Devil’s Tower, WY
After yesterday’s big push, we tore up the breakfast buffet at this place (and snagged a few pieces of fruit for later). We walked over to Wally World for provisions and didn’t get rolling til 10:00. It was to be an easy day though, so no worries right?! The wind gods decided we’d payed our dues yesterday, so we had a sweet tail wind for the first 25 miles. Man that was nice. We paralleled I-90 on a side road at an easy 17-20 mph pace. Then we turned north on a side road. When Jon planned this route out, the goal was to stay off busy roads. Unfortunately sometimes that means the road turns to gravel. Or goes through a ranchers land. Doh. This rancher pulled up along side of us on the gravel section and talked to Jon. He told him the cross road we’d planned to turn onto was actually a private road that ran through his ranch. But, since we’d made it this far, he’d let us pass through. 🙏We got the cows in the field all excited. At first they ran from us, thinking we were a horse corralling them. Then they started coming back towards us like they were curious what we were all about. Pretty funny. The rancher had seen it from afar and came back to us to say he’d never seen them do that before. (Cows were probably saying. “What the hell is that contraption and what are those fools doing?”)
We took a lunch break when we got to the real road and reapplied sunscreen for the hundredth time. 30 miles to go. It was another warm day and the hill climbs got us nice and sweaty. The ranch lands turned back to forests and cool exposed rock cliffs as we closed in on Devils Tower. We were about 5 miles out when we ran out of water. Thankfully not far. We got to the “picture turnout” to take in the first full view of the tower. Some folks asked us where we were riding to and Jon said “The next water source.” In 5 minutes we had 3 different people bringing us water bottles. One couple is from Wisconsin and loves to go to Washington Island which is where we’ll be in early July. They said the best part is staying at Gibson’s. Exactly where we’re staying. Check. We made our way down to the park entrance and up to our Warm Shower host B&B for the night (The Devils Tower Lodge). It was a little confusing where it was and people we asked weren’t quite sure. We rode the 2 mile hill all the way up to the visitors center to find out we needed to take a turn a mile back. Oh well, we got to see the tower up close anyway. Once we found the hidden treasure down a dirt road, we were welcomed in, shown where to sleep, where the bathroom and hot tub were and to report at 7:00 for dinner! Yes sir! His place used to be the home of the park superintendent from the 70’s to the 90’s. He’s been here for 19 years and runs it as a B&B with family style dinners and breakfast. He has a few people who help him out for the summer; the girl here tonight did a cross country bike ride last year and had stayed here for a couple of days. Really fun to talk to her. Tonight was lasagna, roasted potatoes, broccoli, cornbread, salad and ice cream. After dinner we soaked in the hot tub for a while, the tower behind us. Not a bad end to the day!
Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 2,500 miles (4,023 km)
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