BETH writes - Today started out as a very exciting day. I had the pleasure of riding 16 miles with my parents. It was great fun to have them join me and see and experience what I had been doing the last 4 weeks. We had picked the best day - sunny, cool and mostly flat. We had lunch on the side of the road and I was off to Little Sandy Creek, while Mom, Dad, Ann, and Don were off to South Pass City, which I would see tomorrow. The rest of the day was not as easy. The road turned to gravel and wash board with sand. I began to climb out of the flat lands and back to the high prairie. It was wild because there is just nothing out here. I would pass the occasional rock out croppings , ranches, and fencing. You could see for hundreds of miles in all directions. This helps when nature calls and there are no trees to be seen! About two miles before the camp site at the end of my 50 mile day, my worst fear came true. You see, the game in the rolling high prairie is to go fast down hill carry your speed up the next. Well I bombed down the hill only to hit 6 inches of sand and into an uncontrolable fishtail. I Supermaned right and the bike and trailer flipped 3 to 4 times left. DUMB!! Is the only word besides ouch and other choice four letter words that came out of my mouth. Two bloody knees, a bloody arm, finger, hip, twisted ankle and a black eye - but nothing broken thank goodness!! I reached the camping spot, cleaned up in the stream, bandaged as much as I could and went to bed with little hope of sleep.
JAN writes - Rich and I rode part of Beth's route with her today, while Ann and Don had the Jeep. The weather was perfect, and the territory we rode through reminded us of the landscape from an old movie named Tremors. You could see forever and not a tree in sight! We saw antelope and Sandhill Cranes and lots and lots of sagebrush! After Rich and I quit riding, Beth continued another 20 or so miles to a desolate campsite and we drove to Lander, Wyoming after visiting a restored mining town called South Pass City, driving past Red Rock Canyon, an area owed by the Nature Conservancy, and stopping at an Oregon Trail wagon crossing site and burial ground. Picture is of Red Rock Canyon.
BETH writes - Oh, sore and tired I awoke early and continued to ride in the obis of rolling prairie. Now when I meaning rolling these are not little rolls these are huge. My elevation map says that I do not gain or lose elevation today, but I probably climbed and descended over 4,000ft. I crossed the divide 3 times today and the views were cool. The topography out here is so dramatic and definitely shaped by the wind. Just after lunch I reached South Pass City. South Pass City is a ghost town that served many purposes in history, but was a major stop for settlers moving west. South Pass which I crested today was traversed by thousands of people during westward expansion. This ghost town was neat, but most of the buildings were restored. The most impressive part was the Stamping Mill, which is actually a gold mine, but the would melt the gold and stamp it under pressure into coins for trading and buying supplies with. In South Pass City, I also met Jim. Jim is a section rider who comes out every summer for a week to ride a section of the divide. He is a 58 year old Texan who turned out to be wonderful company for the last 15 miles of todays 47 mile ride. Jim was traveling much more loaded than I was including 50 pounds of water - I can not even imagine. My load was about 70-80 pounds with food and water. We left South Pass and climbed several big hills only to run into my parents and Ann, and Don. They were worried because it was hot today - about 98 degrees. It was good to see them, but it made them very worried because of the condition I was in. We decided to meet them two miles down the road in the very small town of Atlantic City for dinner. After dinner Jim and I rode the remaining 10 miles straight up hill to the Sweetwater River where we were greeted with beautiful camping spots and cold beers from fly fisherman who were camping near by - YUM!!
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