Welcome to Wyoming! We’ve made it to the fifth state in our journey.
The morning started out a bit hectic so I thought it was going to be a terrible ride, but it turned out okay. We all got up, packed, and were ready to head to breakfast at 6am only to find out that the restaurant decided they weren’t going to open until 7am. Ugh! Okay, new plan we can either scrounge together enough to eat or wait until 7 and then ride at 8. It’s a short day so my group decided to wait until 7 to eat. Fine. I went back to my room to relax and get my kit on. When I returned shortly before 7 I discovered that most of my group decided to just eat some yogurt and a muffin. Luckily another guy from my group also didn’t get the memo so we ate breakfast and rode together. It was an easy 90 miles with a tailwind most of the day so we used as little energy as possible to get us through knowing that we have an epic day tomorrow. And I think our plan actually worked out better because the people who left early were just getting their hotel rooms when we rolled in a little after 1pm. So we didn’t have to wait around in the sun and dirty shorts.
Mind you, all of this was after our dinner location last night also couldn’t serve us dinner because they didn’t have a cook for the evening. So our options were McDonalds or Subway. I opted for Subway, which I think was actually better than what I would’ve gotten at the Bar and Grill we were supposed to go to. For those that chose McDonalds, they ended up having to give their orders to one of the guides who had to get in a van and go through the drive thru because that was all that was open. Needless to say, Columbus, MT didn’t work out so well for us. I guess it’s good we don’t stay in any one location for very long.
As for the riding, it was actually quite beautiful. The best view was just as we crested the final climb of the day. I looked over to my left and the mountains where just spectacular.
Tomorrow is going to be a hard day. Possibly the hardest of the trip. Our route to Sheridan takes us up and over Big Horn Pass, which is a 20 mile climb that is just shy of 6000 ft of elevation gain. We’ll hit the highest elevation of our trip at 9430 ft. Luckily we get to descend as much as we climb!
Day 15 stats:
distance: 89.5 miles
elevation gain: 2408 ft
nutrition:
breakfast: french toast
lunch: PB&J, potato salad, applesauce
post-ride: 1 recovery drink, Kate's chocolate cherry bar, 1 small coke
gels: 2
bloks: .5
26 oz skratch superfuel, 52 oz zym
Day 16 details - Lovell to Sheridan
planned distance: 99 miles
planned elevation gain: 7761 ft