June 7, Day 32, Encampment Wyoming-60 miles

Wyoming is rich with panoramic vistas and stunning mountain ranges in the west. It's beauty to the east lies in it's bare naked roughness and incredible geographic rock formations. Rawlins, Wyoming however, has nothing in any direction. I'm sorry to say that Rawlins is a dusty, dirty, windblown, barren pitiful looking town. I can't say it any other way. Rawlins lies right along Interstate 80 and heavily used train tracks. An oil refinery sits to the east and that's it. Fast food restaurants are the only evening fare options here. I ate at McDonalds.  To make matters worse, harsh winds blow continuously day and night. It dirt and shrubs. Its Rawlins.

I woke this morning to dark thunder clouds and high winds. I figured payback was coming after two relatively easy days on the bike. A cold system was coming down from Canada to lower the temps and the winds were supposed to be blowing from the NE. I suited up in my cool weather garb and got rollin by 7 AM. I figured the winds would slow me way down so I wanted to get out there and start sucking up some miles.

More wide open spaces

Today I  traveled for about 14 miles on Interstate 80 . This is a rarity for the TransAm route but there were simply no other roads going that direction until the southbound exit on SR 130. Truck traffic was heavy but the shoulders were wide and more or less clear of debris. The route today consisted of a long gradual climb to the town of Saratoga and more gradual climbing into my destination for the day, Encampment. For the next four or five days my routes will be uphill as I gain elevation heading toward the highest point in the TransAm route, Hoosier Pass in Colorado at over 11,500 feet in elevation.

It turned out  to be a rather uneventful ride for the most part. I saw no other riders today. The wind that looked to make me miserable early on let up significantly after only about an hour and was a non factor from then on. The clouds dropped a little rain then broke up and the sun took over.  I escaped again!

I made good time for most of the morning so I stopped in Saratoga for a late breakfast. The continental crap at the hotel just didn't get the job done. I ate at a neat little restaurant that had a patio area right on the North Platte River, which was only about two feet from flooding that very patio. Sandbags were lined up all around and nobody seemed overly concerned about get swept away in a torrent of water. The North Platte is about the width of the Sacramento River but carries much more water at a much faster pace.

I rode easy into the town of Encampment, which I quickly discovered was another ghost town. It did have the only hotel in the area and the sign said it was open but nobody was inside. There was a cell phone number to call but no cell service at all. The one couple staying at the hotel saw me and agreed to call the owners down the road in the small town of Riverside where cell phones work. twenty minutes later I was getting my room key and coughing up $40.00. That's the going rate for ghosts towns hotels. If I want to eat I have to ride a mile to Riverside, which has two bars that also serve food.

Trees!

The terrain slowly changed its look as I made my way further south today. The terrain got decidedly greener and trees returned. I think I will be transitioning into yet another climate zone when I enter Colorado tomorrow.