Wanderlust

Out here in rebel country

June 22, 2007 at 6:06 pm gvblog 2 comments

It’s been days since I’ve posted because, quite frankly, I’ve had nowhere to post from. I’ve gone more than halfway through Wyoming, and it has been a time, is all I can say. I understand people from this part of the world much better having spent days riding through their ecosystems, the cruel beauty of the high plains. The mountains are lush and fragrant with lupines, spiderwort, small mountain flowers clinging valiantly to the rocks above the treeline.  But the plains – the plains are harsh and barren, baked red earth punctuated by streams lined with miserly threads of green.  It’s almost enough to make me believe in a harsh God, one who demands harsh tithes and smites those that oppose him.  It’s almost enough to make me understand Dick Cheney.

Not quite, though.

I climbed almost to 10,000 feet up the Bighorns, stopping in the middle to camp at a campsite nestled in the glen on the edge of the middle fork of the Powder River, which I’d passed in its more lowly incarnation earlier that day.

I am well and truly alone out here, which is both exhilirating and exhausting, especially when the only people to remark on how crazy I am are ensconced in RV’s where I can’t hear them. I say this sequence of phrases at least twice a day:

• Across the country.
• New Jersey
• Seattle, then down to San Francisco
• Nope, by myself
• Not really, do you think I should be scared?
• So far people have been really nice.
• Thanks, have a good day!

Repeat, ad infinitum. I should make a tape recording or something.

From here I’m headed West through Yellowstone, which I’m both looking forward to and dreading. According to various sources, biking through Yellowstone can be relatively horrendous, because of the traffic. But from there I really want to hop on one of the adventure cycling routes up to Missoula, and literally the only way to do it is by going through Yellowstone. Believe me, I’ve tried to come up with other ways. From there I’m heading up to Glacier and then…I’m taking a train. Yes indeedy, it turns out that I don’t have anywhere close to enough time to ride from here to Seattle and be there by July 6th, so instead I’m going to take some time to actually hang out in these amazing national parks and then take a train across the Cascades. This decision makes me inordinately happy – I was starting to feel like biking wasn’t fun anymore yesterday, climbing out of the Ten Sleep Valley up a 8% grade in the 95 degree heat after having ridden 20 miles up to the Bighorn summit.  It’s still in the 90′s outside, but at least I don’t feel pressured to ride a million miles when I don’t feel like it.

It’s strange, though, how much my body has acclimated to being on the road.  Even today, after two 80 mile days and 6,000 feet of vertical elevation (at least), I don’t feel particularly fatigued. Hot, yes. Fatigued, no. I always expect to be exhausted, so it’s a little surprising when I’m not.

I also discovered the fun thing about camping in RV parks, which is: outlets next to the campsites! So now I have a fully charged ipod, which is lovely. The problem with my bicycle powered ipod charger, which is still fabulous nonetheless, is that it’s powered by, well, my bicycle, so when it’s on it’s rubbing on my back wheel, creating friction and making riding harder. And unless I’m going downhill, I’m not really looking for ways to make the riding harder. I did have it on yesterday when I was descending from the Bighorns, but then I got worried that something was going to catch on fire, so I turned it off.  I was up to 40 mph on some of the straightaways.  If you’ve never gone 40 mph on your own steam, I highly recommend it.

I’m in Basin, Wyoming, for those that are interested, and as I was riding into town, there was a sign, that looked a lot like an official town sign, that said "Now entering Rebel Country".

Wish me luck!

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