Last Post

I acknowledge the following for making this trip possible:

1) my colleagues at New England Wood Pellet: my boss Mark Wilson who consented to a one month absence and covered for me while gone; my sales and procurement staff who held down the fort with only intermittent interference from me; and everybody else who supported me in this venture;

2) my fellow riders Bob Sourek, Charlie Levesque, Brad Wyman and Phil Bryce: excellent bike travel companions who made the trip all the more enjoyable;

3) everybody who helped me along the way, especially Drew Dierker who picked me up in Jeffrey City WY and got me to Rawlins;

4) my family, especially Mabel, for support and encouragement from the day - over two years ago - I decided to do this.

Thanks.

Days 25-28, Colorado

Glad to leave Wyoming after four days of incessant, relentless headwinds. Sorry I could not appreciate the high desert for its true beauty, pre-occupied as I was by slow progress and monotonous vistas where you can see where you are going 10 miles before you get there.

Almost on cue, the wind changed when I crossed the Colorado state line. In Walden, I met Ian Klepetalar (sp?), founder of Bicycle Benefits (www.bicyclebenefits.org), an organization that gets businesses and communities to give bicyclists special discounts and other benefits as an incentive to encourage bike riding. He was drinking two quarts of Corona on a bench on Main St. before attempting to cross Cameron Pass on his way to a sustainability conference in Fort Collins.

Next day rode to Kremmling to meet Mark Mathis, owner and founder of Confluence Energy, a pellet manufacturing plant built to utilize the massive amounts of dead and dying lodgepole pine resulting from the western pine bark beetle infestation. Mark and Karen were kind enough to put me up at their home near Silverthorne, and get me to the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park the next morning, making it possible for me to get to Boulder in one long epic ride. Mark fights the battle every day to bring common sense to public land management and open the national forests to a reasonable salvage of hundreds of thousands of acres of dead timber otherwise tied up by the feds' bureaucratic intransigence. A comfy bed, a great meal - thanks Mark and Karen for your hospitality.

Mark put me in Grand Lake just east of Granby the next day for the start of the climb up and into Rocky Mountain National Park. Nearly 4,000' feet of vertical climb to the Rocky Cut pass at 12,178', the highpoint (literally and figuratively) of the trip. I could really feel the thinness of the air starting around 10,000'. Unfortunately my camera could not capture the scale of this high mountain western landscape. I did not linger long as it was spitting sleet from a few passing clouds, and 30 degress colder at the top. The climb was made much easier by the companionship of two brothers on a five day swing through the mountains - Doug and Dan Breyfogle. Both were accomplished bike tourists who made for great company and dialogue as we slogged our way up the switchbacks.

I left Rocky Cut Pass at 4 PM with over 50 miles to get to Boulder before dark. The drop off the Front Range into the high plain and Boulder was over 7,000', including some long steep grade canyon stretches where I hit 40 mph and was slowed by car traffic. I got to Jonathan Falk's outside Boulder after dark after 85 miles and an epic climb, running the last 35 or so from Estes Park on adrenaline and endorphins.

Rocky Mountain National Park, 12,178' Pass - High Point of Trip

A Commentary on Wyoming

Note: This is not a commentary on the WARM, FRIENDLY PEOPLE or the MAJESTIC, AUSTERE HIGH DESERT LANDSCAPE of Wyoming. This is a commentary on the WIND.

Parting Shots of Wyoming, Colorado

Wyoming: Togwatee Pass and Sagebrush Country

Days 22-24, Headwinds and High Lonesome Wyoming

Now into the depths of Wyoming, away from the parks, and away from the tourists. My ride day 22 consisted of a long climb to the top of Togwatee Pass (another continental divide crossing) in the Shoshone National Forest, with really outstanding geologic formations at and around the summit. I didn’t really get much of a chance to enjoy them because I was met with stiff headwinds approaching the pass that persisted for the following three days.

What was supposed to be a blissful 25 mile downhill from the pass through the headwater valley of the Wind River was instead a mind-numbing slog of hard head- and side-winds. Arrived Dubois WY absolutely exhausted.

The next day had some nice red rock canyon scenery and them mostly sagebrush desert that Wyoming is famous for and the reason no one of any sanity lives in most of the state. The winds kicked in around 10 AM and persisted all the way to Lander. The Wind River Range flanks the valley to the west, and looks like an incredible wild place that I would like to explore some time. Famous for healthy Bighorn Sheep populations…..

Lander is a really nice town. Very bike friendly – they let bikers camp in the city park on lush green grass under enormous venerable old cottonwoods. They let bikers shower at the Junior High and even indulge in a Jacuzzi if so inclined. That night gale force winds blew through a town, sounding like a freight train through the cottonwoods with each gust. Other campers with “house tents” battled the winds all night. I was well staked down and didn’t have a problem – thanks for the one man Phil.

Lander to Rawlins WY is a 124 miles of a whole lotta nuthin’. The only people on the road are oil and gas trucks out working Wyoming fossil energy riches – about the only thing supporting people in the backcountry, and just barely. Most of Wyoming has little redeeming value, and I was passing through the heart of it. I had a foreboding feeling that this would not be a good day, and sure enough, around 10 AM brutal headwinds kicked in and played havoc on my mental state – exacerbated by long straight stretches of nothing but sagebrush where you become fixated on how little progress you are making. I reached “Jeffrey City” in hopes I could get water and food, and found everything boarded up and closed. Another 60 plus miles of wind and nothing to Rawlins – I decided to cheat. I hung out a piece of cardboard with Rawlins scratched on it, and got a ride in 15 minutes by a good Samaritan from Lander, Drew Dierker – Drew if you’re reading this thanks again buddy, you saved me – anytime you need a place to stay in NH you know who to call. I got to Rawlins and felt a great weight off my shoulders – and glad I had taken the ride because the alleged stores and water at both Muddy Gap and Lamont were both closed as well. This stretch is also notorious for no shoulders and oil/gas workers on the roads who have a reputation for taking a run at bikers, or so I am told. I was glad to get through it.

Cheating gave me a leg up on the trip and will allow me to enjoy the last four days without feeling like I’m constantly pressing to get the miles in. On to Colorado…….

Days 19-21, Yellowstone and Grant Teton National Parks

Awoke in deep in Bear Country in the Gallatin National Forest. A leisurely ride along Hebgen Lake brought me into West Yellowstone. Entered the park along the headwater valley of the Madison River, through a vast area of regenerating Lodgepole Pine from the 1988 fires that burned 1.5 million acres in Yellowstone. Had an encounter with a bison on the road that reminded me of a near death experience in Custer State Park, South Dakota on another bike trip. Needless to say I passed the beast carefully.

I made it a short day and stayed in the Park campground, surrounded by RV land yachts. I met a nice Swiss couple on a 13-month western hemisphere bike trek that included Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and a plane jump to Vancouver BC, then east through the Canadian Rockies and down through MT, WY, CO and then west to CA. I greatly admire folks like Maude and Baptiste who drop everything and go on these epic bike trips. Someday perhaps…..

Next day up early to beat the hordes of tourists but it turns out they schedule their waking hour around the scheduled performance of Old Faithful, and I found myself battling traffic as I headed toward and through Yellowstone’s famed hydrothermal phenomena. I missed Old Faithful while on the phone with work, and could not stick around another 90 minutes for the next performance. I don’t feel like I missed much. It is amazing how developed the park has become around that one feature; for many people who come to the park I’m sure it is the only thing they do.

A hefty climb to Craig’s Pass and another crossing of the continental divide, then out of the park via the south entrance. The road parallels the Lewis River and an incredible canyon, again through vast burned over areas that are regenerating with profusion. Locals say Yellowstone needed a big fire after 100 years of human fire suppression, and it sure got it in 1988.

A long bike down to camp at Colter Bay on Jackson Lake with a full frontal view of the Tetons across the lake. I met another long bike trekker, this one a woman from France on her way from Anchorage AK to Mexico City over seven months. She was quite anti-social and clearly wanted to be left alone so I obliged.

Next morning started biking east away from the parks, sorry not to be able to see more of the Grand Tetons other than the obligatory roadside views from across the lake. The park include a vast beautiful wetland and riparian complex following the Snake River as it drains from Jackson lake, full of waterfowl of various species, and nesting ospreys and I believe at least one bald eagle seen from a distance.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks