Slept well, even with the Mexican dinner last evening. I was ready to head on out, and Peter who usually sleeps in, was awake too. Drank a quart of chocolate milk and stuffed down some donuts. Not a breakfast of champions, but we are not in the Olympics here. 😝 Peter wanted to lounge about a bit longer, while I took my loaded bike down the stairs on the motel.
It was going to be windy again today (normal in Wyoming) coming from the south west. I biked down the main road in Rawlins to catch the GDMBR route further west. Not many vehicles on the road yet, and it was nice biking through the older part of town. It had a lot more character than the commercial strip we were staying on. Seemed like more Hispanic businesses based on the signs.
I turned on the road heading south and out of Rawlins. It was uphill which always seems to be the case when leaving a town. The wind was already blowing pretty strong this early in the morning and it was a struggle making progress. I was looking forward to Colorado, but that would still be a couple days, and maybe longer if the wind didn’t cooperate a bit more. Mike and Jaime passed me as they usually do. They had planned to camp at the same primitive campground that Peter and I had planned. Later a new (to me) GDMBR SOBO rider named Rob rode up behind me. I could tell he was going fast looking in my rear mirror. We talked for a bit and I could tell he was Dutch from his accent. These Dutch riders are used to strong winds, and it didn’t seem to hinder him much at all. We switched over to speaking Dutch when I revealed my origin. Nice to do that every so often. I found that I was probably in Zone 6 with my heart rate trying to keep up with him. I wished him a safe ride, and he zoomed down the road. He said that his destination for today was Brush Mountain lodge, which we hadn’t planned until tomorrow. Pretty sure I won’t see him again on this trip.
Boring south Wyoming landscape. Can you see the wind?
The winds kept being strong, and would gust every so often to what I would guess is around 40-50 mph. That was mostly coming from the side and would grab your front wheel and steer you the other way. Luckily there was hardly any vehicle traffic, but still pretty concerning from a safety standpoint. I found that braked on most downhills to control my speed, and the chance that I would get blown off the road.
I stopped after a while and sat on the side of the road that had a bit of embankment for protection. I had only gone about 36 miles and I was ready to throw in the towel. Peter finally arrived and he was equally frustrated with the conditions. It was about another 7 miles to the planned campsite, but neither of us felt that was a wise choice right now. We rode on just a bit further and saw some larger bushes and lower ground that might have more protection from the wind and sun. We sat in the shade and immediately decided this would be our camp spot for the night. There lots of old, dried up cows “paddies”, but no signs of any cattle in the area. It turned out to be a good decision to stay here.
Our wild camp to escape the wind.
Petrified cow “paddies”. The cows hadn’t been here in a while.
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