Reasons to bike through Wyoming
1.) Your ride leader hands you a cue sheet with directions through Wyoming.
2.) The scenery is beautiful and unlike anything on the east coast. The entire part we biked through seemed almost completely undeveloped and wild. There are some amazing rock formations set out on the plains and tons of wildflowers. In addition, there were hardly any cars which is very nice for biking.
3.) You actually get to see “the deer and the antelope play”
4.) The roads are paved red in a lot of the state-a pretty exciting change when you spend 5-8 hours on them every day
5.) The people are really nice. Unlike Montana, drivers in Wyoming hardly honk at bicyclists. It was a welcome change. I was also treated to free coffee and cake on separate days while I was there and had some good conversations with locals. One lady told me that the antelope that I was so excited to see were actually considered varmints in the area and she had petitioned the warden to let her shoot them “like I shoot them coyotes”.
Reasons not to bike in Wyoming
1.) Road kill: apparently picking up road kill is not a priority and there are not enough crows or vultures to take care of the carcasses. I’ve never seen so much road kill in all my life. I even rolled over something. I was busy trying not to vomit so I didn’t look back to see what it was.
2.) “Paved” is a generous word to use when describing the conditions of the roads. There are cracks about every 9-12 feet in many of the counties. Most likely you can’t notice them in a car, but on a bike its equivalent to running over a squirrel in a car (every three seconds).
3.) The hills grow. Most of the hills are actually at least 1/2 a mile longer than they appear when you first start to climb them and then halfway up, it looks like you’ve made no progress because the second half of the hill wasn’t visible at the beginning.
Wyoming actually treated me pretty well despite the above mentioned factors. Our group has come together nicely and even if its a tough riding day, the afternoons and nights make up for it. This really is an amazing adventure. I’ll write more tomorrow with some extra details.
Billings, MT to Hardin, MT- 52 miles
Hardin to Sheridan, WY: 84 miles
Sheridan to Gillete: 112 miles
Gillete to Newcastle: 75 miles
Newcastle to Rapid City, SD: 80 miles
Total miles in between rest days: 403
Keep up the hard work, Letty! You’re doing great! You have lot of guts to ride all that way through the most deserted parts of the country. Great work!
My prayers are with you, Aunt Therese