Wyoming has a few claims to fame. It was the first state to allow women to vote; it is the least populated state; it is the home of the first designated National Park in the USA (Yellowstone); it has no pro sports teams; and it has the largest collection of American firearms in the country (museum in Cody). Quite a mixed bag. Yellowstone was on our radar; the gun museum was not. There’s a couple more things to add to the cyclists “highlights” list: it’s the home of the most persistent mosquitos yet, and it’s bloody windy.
It took us six days to ride to Grand Tetons National Park on the very Western edge of the state, and the landscape changed little across this time. It is rocky. It goes up and down a bit. There’s not much in the way of towns, people, even animals. Just rocks. It’s hot and there is no shade. But it is pretty cool. More vast, open spaces. The small towns look as you expect Western towns too – lots of wood buildings and hunting supplies.
Our first stop was Saratoga where there are some hot springs right next to a cold river, so it’s fun to go from the very hot to the very cold, although us British wimps couldn’t take either for very long. Day two was a short hop to Rawlins, the last town with shops for over 100 miles, where we hid from a huge storm in the city museum, camped in our first RV park and watched the EU referendum votes come in and the pound tumble in front of our eyes. Not a great evening.
From Rawlins it is 130 miles to Lander with only Jeffrey City (population 58) in between. As we were now on the Trans America bike route, the most popular way to cross the USA by bike, a lot of cyclists need to stop in Jeffrey City. The church has opened its doors to passing cyclists and the only bar in town fuels them up. For us riding West, the wind picked up 20 miles from ‘town’ and did its best to stop us getting there. It was so strong at times that it stopped us dead, and we were pedalling as hard as possible for 5mph. The last 10 miles took two hours and we collapsed into the bar in front of two pitchers of iced water and ordered an all day breakfast. All of the other cyclists in ‘town’ had been riding in the opposite direction so had arrived ages earlier, were showered and refreshed and regaling stories of being blown by the wind and not having to pedal for the last 20 miles. It was a bizarre scene in the bar: a row of men in cowboy hats who could probably be found there at the same time every day, and cyclists. It’s probably the only place in the West where cowboy hats sit so harmoniously alongside lycra.
We also realised in Jeffrey City why we were so tired. We had been getting up at 5-something and leaving before 7am for a while, and experiences with the afternoon wind picking up made us want to get going even earlier. There were 7 other cyclists staying at the church that night. The first went to bed at 6.30pm and by 7.45pm we were the only ones still up. The next morning we were the first people to leave. Anyone who knows either of us is aware that early starts are not our thing, but the weather is pushing us earlier and earlier. It hadn’t crossed our minds to go to bed early to compensate. Well it had, but early to me is 10pm. We left Jeffrey City to a headwind at 6am and vowed to get more sleep.
Small towns came and went, the wind kept blowing in our faces, and gradually we edged further towards Grand Tetons. The wind affected everything those last couple of days. It hits your mood, enjoyment, how far you get, whether you can enjoy the scenery or not, the skin on your lips… And the noise drives you crazy. Imagine standing right next to someone blow drying their hair. FOR THE WHOLE DAY. When it drops, it feels like you get your hearing back. In the morning, when the wind is not so bad, the mosquitos chase you down and find the small millimetre of skin that has been missed with bug spray. Favourite places: eyebrows, edge of t-shirt line, ankles, ears, temples. They even went through lycra. You end up being stuck with the choice of a headwind or mosquitos – it’s like choosing between drowning or being burned alive. Ok, not really, but it’s a tough choice. Our last big day to Dubois was the toughest yet, the wind blew for the whole uphill ride and we just had to put our heads down and work against it as hard as possible. The scenery was great but it was hard to enjoy it. Worn down and worn out we took a day off to rest in Dubois – it’s the most isolated town in the lower USA (80 miles in any direction to the next town) so it was the perfect day to do nothing except watch England get knocked out of the Euros.
From Dubois we would be in grizzly bear country, and the warnings increased as we got closer to the Tetons. It’s a bit unnerving to be on a bike and hear that a grizzly likes hanging out at the top of the pass that you will be pedalling over very slowly. But we didn’t see him. Or any of his friends. Which was nice. The Teton range welcomed us for the ride down to the park and we found a great campsite by Jackson Lake to stay for a few days, which turned into a week. We are lucky to be on the kind of trip where if we find somewhere nice, and wake up wanting to stay an extra day, we can do that. Six times in a row if we like. This was the nicest place we had been so far and we spent the week sleeping, swimming in the lake, sleeping, eating down our food supplies, sleeping, and sitting. A great way to recover from the six days fighting the wind.
We were also lucky that some friends we had met back in Colorado were also in the Tetons, and offered to drive us around for a couple of days to see some different sights. Grand Tetons and Yellowstone are very much set up for the car driver – there’s no public transport or shuttle buses so if you don’t have a car you have no way of getting around. Justin and Shauna and the Tacoma drove us to a hike to a glacial lake with a 3000ft elevation gain, and the following day we got to explore Yellowstone by car, visiting places we wouldn’t have been able to see by bike. Yellowstone National Park is famous for geothermal activity and geysers but there is also an impressive canyon and huge waterfalls, and loads of bison that just hang out by the road.
July 4th was spent doing very little – no fireworks in the national park but we did join our American neighbours for s’mores by the fire. Finally we left the Tetons and rode through Yellowstone, fighting narrow roads and holidaymakers with their large vehicles. Americans love to tow. The most impressive (or frightening) we saw was a truck towing a trailer (caravan to the Brits) towing a boat. Maybe they left their motorbike at home. The Montana state line is just inside the park so for once we had a subdued welcome to a new state. Goodbye Wyoming, it’s been (mostly) a pleasure!
Thanks to Karim and Darcy; Lindsey; John & Julie; the church folk of Jeffrey City and Dubois; Justin, Shauna and the Tacoma (again); and all our campsite buddies in the Tetons.
Brakes and Cakes 