Made it to Rawlins today. Lots of wind! The entire ride we battled a 30 - 40 mph cross-wind coupled with a narrow road (essentially no shoulder)and what seemed like non-stop 65 mph truck traffic from both directions. Yesterday (Tuesday, May 29) we rode from Lander to Lamont, with an extra 6 miles thrown in at the end for good measure from Lander to Bairoil to set up a tent to sleep. Thanks to a 20 mph tail-wind a good part of the way from Lander to Jeffery City, despite lots of climbing (2400 ft),we decided to push on at Jeffery City (a bar/cafe was the only thing there). Of course the wind changed to a head wind and cross wind with more climbing to come at Muddy Gap (gas station only). We crossed the Continental Divide the 3rd time since day one and luckily found a cafe open(Anna Lope' Cafe) just as it was starting to get dark. A patron of the cafe(Dee)offered a place on her property to put up our tent for the night in the town of Baroil 6 miles away on a side road. In total we rode 104.3 miles. That is a new long distance ride for us on the tandem with the trailer-we were definitely feeling the weight of the trailer those last few miles.

Dubois to Lander (WH)

Got our first flat today right off the bat only 2.5 miles out of Dubois. We followed the Wind River (through the Wind River Indian Reservation) for about 40 miles as we climbed 1659 feet away from it. Thankfully the wind was at our backs for a good part of the ride and the temperature got up in the low 60's by early afternoon. We started out at 9:00 this morning in several layers (top to toes) and arrived in Lander around 4:00 in just shorts and our lightweight jackets over short-sleeved jerseys. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 70's. Sure beats yesterday's snow, rain and wind. Tonight we're at a Holiday Inn. Although not as cute as last nights hotel, the accomodations certainly are more "comfortable." This is a new building and it's really, really nice ;-D. It also has on-sight guest laundry so we got a load of laundry washed. A washer and dryer sure beat the bathtub for doing laundry. (Thanks to Elisa for the travel size laundry detergent packs. Love the lavender-everything smells really good!)

Lava Mountain Lodge

Togwotee Lodge to Dubois, WY

Woke up to snow mixed with rain this morning and some pretty gusty wind (Like the weather for the Sawtooth Challenge in Sun Valley a few years ago.) The temperature never rose above 38 degrees all day. With the wind chill it felt more like 20-it was cold! BUT WE HAD AN AWESOME DAY!!!!! Such a great start to this trip. We left from the Togwotee Lodge, which is about 10 miles and about 1500 feet from the summit of Togwotee Pass. As it turns out our plan to climb the whole pass, from Moran Jct., could not have happened anyway. There's about 5 miles of road construction leading up to the lodge that isn't passable by bike. There is a construction shuttle for cyclists, but it wasn't running today (Sunday). Lung (Cheri and Ashlyn)drove us to the lodge and we were off. We had come to the point where we decided we just needed to go. If we ran into weather trouble up ahead we knew they were just a phone call away. We did some pretty good climbing for about 10 miles to get over the pass. Although the wind was mostly at our backs(yeah)it was raining and snowing off and on and we were both ready for a break. We needed to eat something too. It had been about 6 hours since we'd eaten anything-kind'a starting to bonk. Just when I was about ready to take a bite out of my Burt's Bees Honey lip balm Bob spotted a sign for the Lava Mountain Lodge; The best Bloddy Mary ever! Awesome hand formed burger! A roaring fire in the restaurant/bar fireplace! Friendly and fun locals!!! We spent an hour there. Our hotel, Trail's End, in Dubois was still 20 miles away. BUT it was pretty much down hill with a some rollers and the pavement was basically dry-nice! We hosed off the bike at a car wash when we got to Dubois. John, one of the locals we met at the Lava Mtn. Lodge and a cyclist, suggested we do that. Great idea! I don't know how we could have possibly gotten all of the dirt, grime and mud off otherwise. Bob then wiped it all down and oiled the chain once we were in our room. She's all shiny and ready to go again. The Trail's End is a super cute, rustic, very 50's vintage looking, hotel right on the river. I'm pretty sure Ricky and Lucy stayed here with Fred and Ethel. (Hmph? Why won't this blog let me paragraph?)

Jackson and snow

Today we drove 7 hours to Jackson, Wyoming. It rained for 5 hours of the 7 hour drive.  We (Cheri, Lung, Ashlyn, Betsy, and I)  invaded Pamela and Richards new home in Wyoming for a delicious meal of salad, bread, cheese, and beverages.
The lunch was perfect and the company even better.
Betsy and I are anxious to get started on our bike, the weather however is still not cooperating. The snow level appears to have moved down to about 7000 feet and we have to climb through 9000 feet enroute to Dubois.  I for one do not relish riding a bicycle pulling a trailer on snow pack, but time is starting to weigh on us to get this thing going. Lung has offered to drive us over the pass if it is open to cars, (it was closed today), if we would like. I would rather ride over the pass but I am tempted and may be forced to accept his generous offer. We will wait until later in the morning on Sunday to make our decision and may even preview the pass via Lung to determine if it can be done with some semblance of safety and sensibility. Forecast for Sunday is 70% snow showers with 2 to 8 inches possible in the pass. Hopefully the forecast is wrong. Happy Birthday Stacey, we love you and will see you in Atlanta.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Our best laid plans have changed before we have even started. The risk we took leaving this time of year through the Rockies is exactly what has happened.  Mother Nature decided to send a late season storm with heavy wet snow forecast for the very pass (Togwotee) that we will be riding over on day one. Betsy and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and have pushed out our departure from Moran Junction, Wyoming by one day.  We will now leave on Sunday, May 27 and try to sneak over the Continental Divide on the tail of this storm. 

Due to time constraints, we're leaving from Moran Junction, WY rather than Ontario, OR.  Our final destination is Richmond Hill, GA at Jason and Meg's house (our son, daughter-in-law).  Unless we wanted to end in Arkansas instead of Georgia we needed to get Idaho behind us first. We are driving to Jackson Hole early in the morning with Lung, Cheri and Ashlyn (our "adopted" kids).  Sunday morning the 27th of May, rain, snow, or sunshine we depart on our excellent adventure.

Bob and Betsy