Fall 2008
Denis Kertz, ©2008
Day 16: Tue, Sep 16, 2008 - Driggs, ID to Jenny Lake
I had an amazing view from
my bed – I could just sit up and see the Tetons. Somehow it didn't seem right that it should
be that easy but it was. I packed up in
the morning by carrying my panniers down the stairs to my bike below. Sally was out and was in a funk again where
she barked at me and would hardly come close to me. Eventually we sort of worked out our
differences.
It was obvious that it made
sense for me to take care of my own breakfast given the household uncertainty
with
In town I decided to try
the Milk Creek Grill which was one of two places Frank had suggested. It was expensive and they wanted $2 per
pancake. So I decided to go with an
omelet but it wasn't cheap either at $9.
Breakfast was $12 plus tip, the most expensive of the trip.
Leaving town there was a
bike path paralleling the road and I took it to Victor. Victor was the last town before going over
the pass to
Frank told me about another
road that paralleled the main road for a ways before starting the climb to
Finally around 1:00 I
crested the pass and was faced with an awesome view of the 
The view was
so good and the climb so hard it only made sense to linger for a while and
enjoy the hard earned view. When I
started the descent I started on the bike path that Frank told me about but it
appeared to deteriorate to gravel so I abandoned it and stayed with the
road. The road really wasn't a problem
because I could just about keep up with traffic if I really wanted to. Of course, it was somewhat of a dilemma between
wanting to go screaming down the descent versus controlling the descent and
enjoying the view. I did mostly the
latter but I did cut loose at one point and hit a peak of 44 mph and could have
gone a little faster if I really tried.
At the bottom I stopped at
a food mart in
The nearest campground was
in
At that point I was pretty
well committed so I decided I would just continue on and hope the park wouldn't
turn away a cyclist. I actually rode
past the
When I got to the
campground, several signs said full but this campground, which was limited to
tents only, had a hiker-biker site where I was able to get a site for $7
compared to the regular $19 rate. So
this turned out to be a good deal and much better than I would have done in
This campground was also in
bear country and all food and smelly articles had to be locked up. The hiker-biker site had bear proof
containers for just this purpose.
This was an interesting
day. I started it on the west side of
the Tetons and ended up on the east side, not all that much progress as the fly
crows. I ended up just doing a big U
turn for the day.
Day 17: Wed, Sep 17, 2008 - Jenny Lake , WY to Dubois ,
WY
I think I was the first one
up in the hiker-biker camp. I didn't
think I would find breakfast any time soon so I ate my cereal breakfast in bed,
after I dragged all of my food out of the bear proof locker. After I packed up I rode the short distance
down to the
After I was back on the
main road I saw another cyclist behind me.
I guessed it was Craig, the guy I met last night who was doing the Great
Divide route. However, after a while he
disappeared from view so he must have taken a turnoff. I stopped occasionally for photos of the
Tetons who dramatically just appear out of the ground and project themselves
into the sky.
After 8 miles or so I
reached the
After breakfast we parted
ways since he wasn't planning as ambitious a route to Dubois as I was. I rode past 
A short while
later there was a line of cars on both sides of the road so I stopped to check
out the interest. There was a grizzly
foraging in the bushes just off the road, maybe 100 feet away. However, you couldn't see anything except for
some occasional shaking of the bushes.
This obviously disappointed the crowd who was waiting for the grizzly to
make a photo appearance. Eventually a
ranger showed up and directed everybody back to the other side of the
road. Then the grizzly briefly stood up
to reach a tall part of a bush and I got a shoulder shot.
With that I moved on since
it was still quite a ways to Dubois with a big climb ahead over
I continued riding and the
climbing started in earnest. Before long
I was climbing at the 3-4 mph rate with quite a ways to go. Road construction warning signs started
showing up but it was a while before I reached the actual construction
area. Then a contractor for the
constructionwork who I had briefly met at the RV store stopped and offered a
ride through the construction. So even
though I did a fair amount of climbing I also managed to bypass a fair amount
of climbing as I got a ride to the top along with some interesting conversation
about the construction project and the area in general.
I got dropped off at
In camp I also met Andy, a
touring cyclist who was headed west on the TransAm route. We ended up walking into town where he had a
meal and I had a couple of beers and we talked about our various cycling
tours. Andy had already toured
It was almost 9:00 by the
time we got back to camp and I was able to write up my daily notes.
Day 18: Thu, Sep 18, 2008 - Dubois ,
WY
After debating taking a
rest day today or tomorrow I finally decided on today. Lander would most likely have been a more
interesting town than Dubois but the KOA in Dubois was a great location and
inexpensive and I doubted I could replicate that in Lander. So after eating breakfast I washed my clothes
and retreated to a coffee shop across the street for Internet access. Later I visited the
Back at camp I took care of
a few odds and ends including lubing my bike chain. Craig had walked to town so I figured I would
too and have a beer. At this time some
clouds were appearing and there was a little thunder and apparently a few
raindrops while Craig and I were in the Cowboy Cafe.
Day 19: Fri, Sep 19, 2008 - Dubois ,
WY
It was chilly in the
morning, just at the edge where I almost needed to put on some more
clothes. After I packed I rode back to
town and the Cowboy Cafe and Craig joined me for breakfast. This place offered several varieties of
pancakes so I had a honey wheat pancake and a pecan pancake. They were a little expensive at $3 per
pancake so I limited myself to two. Both
were great and the wheat pancake came with real honey.
After breakfast Craig
headed back to camp to pack up for his trip over 
There were
some mountains on the north side of the road that were horizontally striped
with reddish brown and limestone white from layers of rock. Later there was some redrock and then there
were what looked like badlands.
It was mostly downhill to
Crowheart, the first place to stop so I stopped there after an easy 30 miles
and had my second breakfast. Then I did
an incredibly dumb thing, the no-no of cycling.
I took off without thinking. It
wasn't until 10 miles later when I saw a sign that said 20 miles to Dubois that
it finally struck me that something was wrong.
I checked my handlebar compass which said I was going west. I couldn't understand how that could be and
looked at my Wyoming map to see if I could have somehow taken a wrong turn that
looped me back but that wasn't possible.
Then I realized what happened.
When I rode into the Crowheart food mart I turned my bike around and
leaned it against a bench. That made it
easy to get my money pouch out of my front left pannier. Then I forgot all about that when I left and
just rode off in the direction my bike was pointed.
What a major goof. Now I had to turn around and ride 10 more
miles just to get back to Crowheart, costing me 20 miles and about 2
hours. Then to add insult to injury I
started getting some headwind, nothing really hard but enough to cause me to
have to pedal on the modest downhills. I
figured that was the cycling gods punishing me for being stupid, as if 20 miles
and 2 hours wasn't enough. All the way
back to Crowheart I kept trying to
figure out how I could go 10 miles without realizing anything was wrong. Often riding a route in reverse looks
completely different but there was the Crowheart Butte that I was riding
towards and after leaving Crowheart I thought it was strange that it appeared
well behind me in my rear view mirror even though I didn't ever remember
passing it. Had I looked more closely I
would have noticed it appeared over my right shoulder rather than over my left,
where it would have been if I had been headed in the right direction.
20 miles after leaving
Crowheart I came back to Crowheart. It
would have been a reasonable time to stop for a cold drink but I didn't want to
have to explain my gaffe so I continued on.
Fortunately, about 13 miles later there was a rest stop and I was able
to get some cold water to drink.
A little further on the
road split and I took the right side, US287 south, to Lander. At this point I entered desert landscape that
was often very picturesque as I rode through rolling brown hills in wide open
spaces. Fortunately, the headwind
shifted to mostly a cross wind and I started making good time. Although the road lost altitude between
Crowheart and Lander there were still some undulations and some fair climbs.
15 miles from Lander I
stopped in
I rode all the way through
town and found the Sleeping Bear RV Park and Campground. It turned out to be a pretty decent place at
$16. The camp site wasn't much, just a
small piece of ground next to an RV, but it was grass and the park had nice
facilities, including WIFI that I was able to use from the laundry room where I
could plug in my PC.
So it was a day that should
have been fairly easy since it was mostly downhill but I managed to turn it
into almost a century ride. I'm sure
this gaffe will remind me in the future to check my directions, or the cycling
gods will have more fun in store for me.
Day 20: Sat, Sep 20, 2008 - Lander, WY to Jeffrey City
I packed up and rode back
into town looking for a breakfast place.
I saw a grocery store so I did a little shopping. Then I found a breakfast place but it was a
disappointment. It was kind of an
upscale place that I should have just skipped.
I didn't like the looks of the pancake offering so I had a basic
breakfast which was OK but expensive.
When I left town I found the breakfast place I was looking for when I
rode into town but it was too late.
There was a fair amount of
traffic as I left town. However I had to
turn left to get on to US287 going south – I double and triple checked that it
was the right left turn – and then the traffic became very light. The road was up and down but mostly climbing
but nothing difficult. It was more
scenic desert – sagebrush and yellow grassy fields with hills/mountains. It was a cloudy day, even a little
threatening when I left, but it got better late in the morning. When I reached the top of the morning's top
climb I could look back and see the peaks of the
After some descending I
began the climb of the day. It was about
a 6 mile climb where I spent at least half of it climbing at 4 mph. During this climb I met Aaron who was riding
in the opposite direction. We traded
info on our routes. Aaron was doing
mostly the TransAm but was also improvising at times. He was somewhat concerned about the weather
since he was about 3 weeks behind after having got hit 3 days after starting
his trip and spending some time recovering.
I gave him some thoughts on riding through
Then I completed the climb
and had a great view looking towards the 
After cresting
Beaver Rim I rode on to Sweetwater Junction where there was a rest stop. Unfortunately, it didn't have any water but I
ate my second breakfast. I stopped at a
Mormon historical ranch across the street and filled my water bottle.
At this point I only had 20
miles to
It was an old mining town
that had seen better days. It had a
bar/cafe and a small motel. I thought
surely its motel couldn't be expensive, especially after I saw the motel, and I
had read another cyclist’s trip report in 2002 who said it was
inexpensive. I rode back to the bar/cafe
to inquire and was shocked to hear a room cost $65. That made no sense since there was a place
across the street where I could stay for free.
Then I inquired about food and discovered they had a buffet for $7 with
ham, green beans, baked potato, and desert.
This was a great and unexpected deal and I jumped at it, stuffing
myself.
Afterwards I rode across
the road to a building that was open on 2 sides and had picnic tables under the
roof with a concrete floor. Aaron had
told me about this place and said he slept on a picnic table. I set up to do the same thing. Then I cleaned up and walked back to the bar
for a beer and discovered it had WIFI.
So I sat down at a table and drank my beer while I wrote my notes and
browsed the Internet.
Day 21: Sun, Sep 21, 2008 - Jeffrey
City , WY to Casper , WY
I was really tired last
night so I went to bed at 8:00, on top of a picnic table. I woke up around 9:30 and noticed the
cafe/bar light was off so they must have closed around 9:00. There was a fair amount of lightning during
the night but most of it appeared at least a mile away. However, it did rain so it was great to be
under the pavilion and protected.
When I woke up I headed to
the cafe/bar after packing up. The cook
didn't appear all that enthused about my being there but I ordered a full stack
of pancakes, despite the menu saying the pancakes were huge. They were reasonably large but not huge and
they were fine. It was good I showed up
when I did because a group showed up about 15 minutes after I did. Had I been a little later it would have taken
forever to get my breakfast.
I left around 8:30, having
decided
I stopped at the Split Rock
Recreation Site and hiked the short distance to the top of the nearby granite
mound which afforded a great view of the surrounding area. When I left I started a long but moderate
climb that was made harder by the side wind.
The wind was already picking up and it was projected to be a windy day. For the time being it was a side wind and
hurting but that would only last until I reached Muddy Gap Junction when the
side wind would become a tail wind. Even
descending to the Muddy Gap Junction was slow due to the side wind.
When I reached the Muddy
Gap Junction there was a food mart so I stopped for my second breakfast around
11:00. Then I started a long ride
through mostly flat yellow grassland with sagebrush with mountains in the
distance. Sagebrush is a staple of the
Pronghorn Antelope and I saw 3 herds of Pronghorns, two herds had about 20 each
and the other had 15. As usual they cast
a wary eye on me but I managed photos of them before they wandered off.
With the former side wind
now a tailwind I was really cooking and cycling was easy. I saw another famous landmark – Devil's Gate
– which was a gap in the mountains where the 
This granite
rock was a hunk of granite that rose 120 feet above the surrounding area. It was a benchmark for the
After the rock I pumped out
the miles through the desert with the aid of the wind. Even a fairly long moderate climb didn't slow
me down much. It was really awesome
riding through this area where you could see for miles and just see the
pioneers walking along side their wagons as they pressed on to Oregon and
California.
Then I started a long
descent to Alcova that marked a change in the landscape to a more ragged
land. I had thoughts of camping at the
The ride to
So I pushed on hoping to
find something better in town. I found
another motel for $54 that wasn’t particularly well located so I passed, a
decision I would regret. Riding on
through
After that I settled in my
room which was really nice but at least 3 times larger than I needed with a
microwave and a refrigerator that I also didn't need.
Day 22: Mon, Sep 22, 2008 - Casper , WY to Douglas ,
WY
I planned to make this a
relatively easy day so I took my time getting out of town. The Super 8 had a good breakfast deal. I had 2 waffles and 2 small bowls of cereal
so it was a pretty good breakfast for me.
I finally left around 9:15.
The plan was to make it to
It was an easy 20 mile ride
to Glenrock but not particularly scenic.
The sky was mostly overcast and the prediction was for rain in the
afternoon with some thunderstorms. As I approached
Glenrock I felt a few drops and I wondered if I might need to stop there but
the sky cleared up a bit as I rode through town.
From Glenrock to
The gravel road was mostly
pretty good but it had some washboard sections that were difficult for a
bicycle so I weaved around the road to find the smoothest parts which wasn't a
problem because of the low traffic. When
the road veered left and crossed the 
I also saw a
train strung out in its entirety along the track before it moved on. Then the road crossed under the railroad
track and headed north again – not a good sign.
Fortunately, there was a fork where I chose to head east rather than
continue north and I saw I was on
My concern, of course, was
that I was pulling another Dubois and would have to backtrack all the way back
to Glenrock. Fortunately, another
vehicle came along and I flagged the driver down. He reassured me I could get to
After the approximate 5
miles I turned right on to the paved 93 to take me to
After stopping for a drink
in town, I rode through town where I found the Plains Motel that I suspected
would be the best bet. There was
actually a better choice right across the street but when I inquired I found
they had no vacancy due to hunters. So I
checked into the Plains Motel for $47, still a bit expensive but at least under
$50. It was a basic motel which was my
preference. After settling in I walked
across the street to a place that was open 24 hours and had a beef and bean
burrito that was quite good and filling.
Later in the evening I
spent a good part of the evening on the phone with my ISP. One of my email accounts got filled up with
over 9,000 emails, mostly of the “message delivery failure” type, so I think it
was some kind of spam. This all
apparently happened over the last 2 days.
I had to call my ISP because there was no way I could delete that volume
of emails with my web access and I had to rely on my ISP and it took them 30-40
minutes. I called them twice. The first time they tried to say they
couldn't delete the emails but with persistence they finally said they deleted
them. But I checked later and they were
still there so I called again. The
second time I got someone who knew how to delete them but could only delete
1,000 at a time and he eventually got them deleted. During this time my motels WIFI also had some
problems where I couldn't access the Internet.
So I had to use the WIFI from the motel across the street. A fun evening.
One of my goals for the day
was to minimize riding the Interstate and I unexpectedly achieve zero
Interstate riding. Afterwards I used
Google Maps to check my route and saw where I think I should have gone
straight, rather than following the road when it veered left, to stay on
Day 23: Tue, Sep 23, 2008 - Douglas , WY to Lusk ,
WY
I only had to walk across
the street to the restaurant I ate at last night for breakfast. Their pancakes were so cheap I figured they couldn't be enough so I had 2
pancakes with eggs and bacon and it was just adequate. Before I left I checked my email and found
some more spam email but few enough that I could handle them myself.
On my way out of town I did
a little grocery shopping and then I took the frontage road just past the truck
stop at the edge of town. It was nice
again to be able to avoid the Interstate although the frontage road was so
close that the Interstate could still be heard.
There were some reasonable views looking south towards the
After a little over 10
miles the frontage road ended at the Orin exit and I picked up US20 heading
east. There was a train sitting on the
tracks as I road over it on the overpass with all its cars loaded with coal. The next 10 miles or so were scenic with wide
expanses of yellow grassland and sagebrush and some rolling hills in the
distance.
This was also
prime Pronghorn habitat. I saw bunches
of Pronghorns along the way in groups of up to 10. They all eyed me warily as I rode past.
I was really moving along
because I had a good tail wind. It was
40 miles from the Orin exit to Lusk, the planned destination and the next real
town along the way. There were several
small towns listed on the map but none except the last had any kind of services. Just before
Just when I tried to get
back on the main road a coal train came through. I guessed this was the train I saw sitting at
the Orin exit and it had to wait for the track maintenance to clear before it
could roll on. After it passed I rode on
to catch it. I had that chance because
there was a modest uphill. I gained on
the train as it chugged up the modest upgrade and got within maybe the first
third of the train. Then the grade
leveled off and the train picked up speed and left me behind. I tried counting the cars and got something
around 140.
Just after this train
passed by another came from the other direction, another coal train with empty
cars, no doubt looking to load up. I
counted 130 cars. Then another train
followed shortly but I lost focus on the count and gave up on counting.
The scenery wasn't all that
interesting the rest of the way but I still had a good tail wind and made good
time. I rode into Lusk just after 1:00
or so. I would have been happy to ride
on but the next town was 30 miles away and it only had a population of 300 so I
wasn't sure what services it would have.
So I made it a short day and stayed in Lusk. I found an RV park in the southeast part of
town that didn't have tent sites but they were well short of capacity so the
proprietress offered me an RV site away from the RVs. When I asked the rate she said “what are you
willing to pay.” I said $10 because the
going rate seemed to be about $16 and that seemed like a reasonable deal.
After setting up I walked
downtown and ate at a Subway. Then I
cleaned my bicycle chain which was pretty dirty. I tried to get Internet access at the RV park
which the proprietress believed I could even though it wasn't their WIFI. Unfortunately, what I could receive was
password protected. So I walked downtown
to a bar and tried there. I could access
two different WIFIs but couldn't get connected for some reason. Then I walked to another bar and got
connected. Well, sort of. I kept losing access and kept reconnecting to
a WIFI and managed to complete what I wanted but it was a bit of a hassle.
Copyright
Denis Kertz, 2008. All rights reserved.