Day 30

Mileage: 110
Total mileage: 2628

Carl: 0
Wyoming: 1

Last night I was woken up when two mid 20s cyclists from the Netherlands came into the park. They were in obvious distress from the mosquitos, so I let them use my bug spray. The most hilarious conversation ensued.

Guy 1: Do you know if pot is legal in Wyoming? 

Me: I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure it's not.

Guy 1 to guy 2: Crap. We have to smoke all of it tonight, don't we? 

(Both start to run off, then pause)

Guy 2:  Wait, we have to set up the tents first. Remember last time? 

Guy 1: Oh yeah, let's not do that again. 

(They double back and run off in other direction)

I woke up this morning and immediately noticed a profound change. It was sunny! My clothes were dry, if a bit cold, but the air was something resembling warm so I set off in good spirits.

I've come down off the north park and am now just making my way through rolling hills. 22 miles into today's ride, I completed my journey through Colorado and set off into the wide world of Wyoming. For days I've been hearing terrible things about the winds of this state and unfortunately there were no exaggerations, which is odd among cyclists. All day long the wind blew fairly constantly out of the northwest, except for some exceptions this afternoon that deserve their own mention.

The best adjective I can use to describe this place is 'big.' Huge peaks on the horizon, enormous ridges ringing valleys dozens of miles wide. It has all the beauty of Kansas, with far off mountain ranges to put distance into perspective. I've also seen plenty of deer and even an elk. Unfortunately they were all dead on the side of the road. No moose, and therefore no opportunity to put to use the advice I got from my research mentor, Dr. Ghosh, last night: 'Beware of moose, they only pretend to be vegetarian.' I'm on my lookout though, don't worry!

I got a brief respite from the wind as I came into Riverside, thanks to all the cottonwood, but it picked up on my way through to Saratoga. On my way into town, I saw some big storms crossing the hills in the distance. I slowed down and took my time to let them pass in front of me and managed to avoid the worst of them. Saratoga on the other hand got nailed. As I rolled into town, the roofs were still dripping from the recent rain and hail was piled against the side of every building. There was a preliminary 4th if July festival going on down main street and people were gingerly emerging to return to the festivities after the rain. I stopped for a little while and got to meet Miss Wyoming and her fiance before I carried on.

So far, you may be thinking that I've done a pretty good job handling Wyoming. It was after I left Saratoga that Wyoming took the lead. I was chatting on the phone with my friends Megan and Taylor from Arizona, drifting leisurely through the hills. I stopped to take a panorama to send to them (last picture). You may notice the storms on either side of me. I noticed them too, but wasn't concerned. I ride by these things all day everyday, and as long as you pay attention to the wind, you're golden. So I thought.

(Mom, skip this paragraph)

I was riding between the two big storms, bucking a slight headwind, which is great because even though it slows me down, it doesn't drive either storm at me. Slowly, the wind started to shift out of the west and then picked up speed. Pretty soon I was having difficulty staying on the road. Gusts were blowing me 3 to 4 feet toward the shoulder and I realized I was going to get rained on. A few raindrops came down horizontally and then suddenly I saw a marble sized drop bounce on the pavement instead of splattering. Huge hail. My mind froze for about 2 seconds and then I quickly pulled the bike to a stop, leaned it against a mile marker post and dove into my bag for raincoat, pants and gloves. I got them out just in time to throw my bag back on and get down on the ground before the storm got into full swing. I ended up laying on my side in the mud with my back to the wind and the road, legs pulled up for protection in a fetal position. I had a hood up, but it wasn't enough. I also had to use my gloved hands to protect my ears and neck where my helmet didn't reach. My backpack and legs took the worst of it and I've got some gnarly bruises from some of the bigger chunks of hail. The rain was coming down so hard that the drops hitting the pavement turned into an aerosol and filled the whole area with a thick mist. Through the mist, I saw lightning strike right next to the highway, about a mile down the road and became suddenly conscious that I was lying next to a mile marker sign. This sounds melodramatic, but I ended up army crawling about 50 feet away to get some separation. Oh how badly I wanted to get a video of this, but my phone was wet and my hands were so numb from the cold that I couldn't unlock it. If a car had come past, I would have tried to hitchhike back to Saratoga, but nobody was driving through the storm. I don't think I could have faced the road anyways without getting a face full of hail anyways.

After 22 minutes, the hail stopped and it was just rain. I got back on the bike as quickly as possible and pumped hard for probably 10 miles before I was really warm again. In the wake of the storm it was markedly cooler and the wind was gone, so I was able to put some good miles on before it came back.

I was seriously shaken by my run in with the storm, but decided to finish my ride into Rawlins. The last 20 miles was along highway 80, but the shoulder was wide and smooth so I wasn't anywhere near the semi traffic that was barelling past. I pulled into Rawlins around 8, as the sun was getting ready to set and have been at a McDonald's, eating and mooching Wi-Fi for an hour and a half. There is technically no camping in the city park here and I'm not willing to break my streak and pay for lodging, so I still don't know where I'm sleeping yet. I'll go look around soon. Tomorrow I'm going to cross the 120 mile wilderness into Lander, so I'd better go find somewhere quickly. Looks like rain again tonight. G'night!