Day 31: A beautiful ride into the middle of nowhere

We had a great breakfast then hit the post office to pick up our food shipment. Alas, it was not there- we are now batting .500 on food shipments… Fortunately there was an outdoor store in town and we got our freeze dried dinners and desserts there. Then off to the grocery store for lunch supplies and snacks and we were finally on the road a bit after 10:00.

We started off on a paved road and made very good time- in fact we pedaled 30 miles by lunch time. A few miles later we crossed a stream and topped off all our water bottles and each filled a water bladder with another 3+ liters of water. We are in increasingly arid areas and need to manage our water supply very carefully.

After crossing the river the road turned to dirt and we started climbing. Actually, the dirt road was the nicest non-paved road either of us had ever seen- it was hard and smooth, not washboarded or rutted and no dust at all. Just beautiful! After a bit, a truck approached us head on and the driver stopped. When we rode up the man said “how do you like my roads?” The driver was named Butch and he was responsible for road building and road maintenance in Sublette County, WY. We complimented him effusively!

We had a nice tailwind all afternoon which really helped with the hills. In fact, when we got to our planned stop after 44 miles, it was early enough and we felt good enough to push on for another 10 hilly miles on an 8,000′ elevation plateau.

The scenery and vistas were so beautiful and varied all day long. We ended up wild camping in quite a remote area and really enjoyed the location. As it turned out, the couple from Holland camped at the same location.

Daily totals: 54 miles and 2,700′ climbing. Trip total: 1,011 miles.

Starting out down the road:

Some common WY wildlife- horses and prairie chickens:

Some beautiful long roads:

And Butch, the man responsible for maintaining the roads:

A portion of the old Oregon Trail:

Some pretty scenery:

Our campsite: