I am so glad I stopped in Ten Sleep yesterday!! Now, in all honesty I would definitely have made it to the Leigh USFS CG about a 1000’ up off old 16. Definitely! It’s even possible I might have made it to the resources at around 8000’ but that would have been a stretch for sure. I was done in Ten Sleep and that is that.
I awoke 4:45. It cooled off at night but it wasn’t cold, and so it wasn’t hard to get out of the bag. “Dirty Sally” General Store opened at 6 and would nuke the frozen stuff for you so I loaded up on some veggie burritos for the long climb ahead. The idea to the early start of course was to get a head start on the heat, and for the most part that did work. The 8 mile alternate on Old 16 offered up a lot of shade options where new 16 did not. Old 16 was mostly chunky gravel, and had plenty of nervous cows on it, but none of them charged me, and I safely rode past them.
I saw plenty of people who camped in their smaller campers along this old route. I am guessing it’s public land and they are all free to do that. I did stop and chat with Sean (soft spoken so I thought his name was John, sorry Sean) for a while. “A while?” you say. Yes indeed . As stated, the gravel was chunky and that is hard to ride, while climbing a steady 4-5% grade and as I first rode past Sean, something in my head said “STOP!!” and take a break. Sean was soft spoken, but I did my best to listen. He had worked for Litespeed and Quintana Roo bikes, so we started our convo off on bike discussions. Sean being from Tennessee knew Lynsky well, that is my bike in case you haven’t been following that closely, and when I mentioned that I was expecting an email from Lynsky, he gave me his WiFi password, and indeed I had a note from Leslie (Lynsky rep, not my sister) about my part and right there in the middle of nowhere I transacted the shipping upgrade of my new derailleur hanger, and now hopefully that story will conclude nicely when I show up in Orange City Iowa. Thanks Sean!!
After making contact with new 16 again, I decide that all further diversions onto the old 16 would bed be ignored as the shoulder was 1) plenty wide, and 2) on old 16 I could see new 16 most of the way and could tell that all the worry about trucks was for naught as I didn’t see but a few and even the dreaded RV was limited. So, give me pavement please. New 16 was never steeper than 5.5% and many portions were 3-4%, much easier to pedal as I would be pedaling most of the day.
The first set of resources that were still 1000’ below the pass finally appeared just after regaining new 16. Like I said, it might have worked. Then it was around Meadowlark Lake where I stopped for a second breakfast at Meadowlark Lake Lodge. I probably shouldn’t have done that as I felt less than able to climb the final 800’. Those 800’ were spread over 6 miles and included some undulations in the road so, elevation lost and regained. Crikey I was getting hot and tired. I stopped at a creek and filtered some water to add to my stores, which was indeed needed later and kept seeking the top. I was drawn into that false summit once, but finally I reached the top.
Now comes the descent, and let me start off by saying that it started with a 5 mile delight, and then turned into a nightmare. Let me tell you about something called “A Brake Check Segment”. So as you might imagine descending from 9666 in a large oversized vehicle should have good brakes, and the ability to use low gears to slow your progress. All good right? Well, before the final 7% descent into Buffalo, road engineers designed and implemented a series (5, yes 5) down and ups that allow these vehicles to “Test” their ability to descend. So what the fuck does that mean??? If you have an internal combustion engine then you simply go down and up 5 times before you go down for good. If you ride a bike? Well, that means that after climbing 5K of elevation on the West approach, you get walloped 5 times with these down and ups, and let me simply say that the downs were all 8%, and as I started one of them I could see that the top of the next start was at the same elevation that I currently was so that whoever I lost in that downer, I had to make it all back up again. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
I am sitting in the Occidental Hotel Bar typing this, so clearly I made it, but I was not happy about it. Up the final upsy, a logging truck passed me, and moved over. Thank you logging truck!!
Over the top I began the multi mile descent at 7% into Buffalo and wouldn’t you know it I caught that logging truck as it was in such a low gear, it was creeping down that section of the descent and was moved over into the shoulder. I moved past the vehicles stuck behind, and when a safe opportunity presented itself, I passed on the left and sailed smoothly into Buffalo.
With no advance reservations, I tried to make sure I didn’t jump on anything too far outside of downtown but I did stop and have a Mexican Coke with real Sugar! I also stopped into a local family pharmacy to get more ibuprofen and to take Steve’s advice regarding my saddle sore.
Decided on the occidental since it seemed like an historical gem, and I was right. This place has character! Every aspect of it is old school old. Loving it.
Tomorrow I need to beat the heat and make it to Gillette. I will see what is available there, and plan accordingly. That will end the first segment of Parks Peaks and Prairies, so that means 400 miles down on my journey to Ragbrai in Iowa.
Cheers