Dances with Wolves – Day 22

Date: Saturday 28th August  

Route: Rawlins, Wyoming – Near Cowdrey, Colorado 

Distance:  99 miles 

Total climb: 4305ft

Net climb: 1193ft

We left sprawling Rawlins in our wake and headed off through the industrial outskirts of the town.  Some excellent navigational work from Greta the Garmin took us through the small town of Sinclair and onto the I-80.  I had been hesitant about the 15 miles on the interstate (the US equivalent of a motorway), however it proved to be a surprisingly pleasant section of the ride with wide, smooth hard shoulders and not too much traffic.

We turned off the interstate at Walcott and headed to the gas station to top up on drinks and snacks where we were greeted by an initially grumpy but ultimately gruffly charming attendant.  He allowed us to eat our snacks at the small table in the back of the station and offered us his thoughts on wide range of subjects from the timorous French armed forces to the rudeness of the Quebecois.  We left, amused and pleased to have avoided the rainstorm that had been gathering around us when we stopped. 

The remainder of the morning’s ride was through the high grassland plains of Eastern Wyoming and into the charming town of Saratoga (delayed by a puncture in my back tire), where we met the RV and Team Heagney, who had managed to acquire a new camera for us.  We decided that we needed a hot lunch, so rather than a sandwich in the RV we headed into the diner on Main Street.  Our burgers were excellent, however we failed to notice the sign saying “If you’re in a hurry you are in the wrong town” and also failed to take account of the fact that a High School girls volleyball tournament meant that there were about 25 food orders ahead of ours.  Our lunch took an hour and fourty-five minutes.  Still, it was a good break and meant that we were well set for the next 18 miles, into the wind, which took us to the town of Riverside and another convenience store stop.

After Riverside we had a 28 mile uphill stretch to the Colorado border, into another gathering storm.  Across the plains we could see huge forks of lightning, which appeared to be striking exactly at the border – where we had planned to meet the RV.  We rode into the darkness and, through a fairly large helping of luck, managed to avoid the storm completely.  We arrived at the border at around 7:30 and, in homage to the storm that had passed us by, engaged in spot of celebratory electric boogaloo for the cameras….

After a quick sandwich in the RV we headed back out on the road.  At that stage we had not secured a campsite and so the plan was for Team Heagney to find a spot and then drive back to let us know where we would be staying.  We continued in the gathering dark and as we began to climb what would be the final hill of the day we heard a pack of animals howling.  Fred concluded that wolves stood between us and the way ahead, a conclusion which received some support from the roadkill that we encountered a few hundred metres later which had had its heart eaten out – apparently a telltale sign of wolves.  I retained a degree of scepticism but at Parkes’ instigation we began to pick up the pace, only to be met by the RV and Team Heagney who told us that the campsite was a couple of miles up the road.  Although we informed Team Heagney that we may have heard some wolves in the surrounding forest the RV drove off to get the campsite set up.  

We sprinted the remaining couple of miles to the campsite, of which we were the only residents for the evening.  Fortunately, the Team Heagney banter compensated for the fact that the campsite had the feel of a budget Hollywood horror movie.  We drifted off to sleep with no more than the occasional joke wolf-howl from John and Amanda.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

–           98.6 miles today – slightly disappointing (for a stat man like me) to fall short of a century day by so little;

–           The rather strange sight of thousands of acres of land containing only three cows;

–           Our efforts at punning when passing through Carbon County; speculating on whether the area was “neutral” during the civil war and on the “dating” rituals of the locals

JBS