106 desolate miles from Casper to Lusk. With a fairly strong headwind to boot. Today’s ride provided ample evidence for why Wyoming is the least populous state. And Lusk (population 1,543) happens to reside in the least populous county in Wyoming (Niobrara County).

A highlight of the day was passing through the town of Lost Springs, population 4. I counted two trucks parked at the town Bar – so it seems likely that at least half the town was in the bar when I rode through.

Oh, another highlight was the 3-Sisters truck stop. ‘If he’s lopen we’re open’ reads the sign – and the horse was indeed lopen, so I stopped in for a slice of rhubarb pie. Delicious! It provided a nice energy boost for the final 10 miles into Lusk.

And wouldn’t you know it, yet another highlight was awaiting in Lusk – the annual Rawhide Days Parade. Most of the town was in the parade, so our bicycling crew made up a vast majority of the parade viewers. If the rest of the folks from Lost Springs would have attended (those not at the bar), parade viewership would have noticeably increased. Cowboys, Indians, Fire Trucks, Tow Trucks, Flat Bed Trucks, and the town sheriff – your typical Wyoming summer parade. And for what it’s worth, the parade Indians seemed to be having way more fun than the parade Cowboys. I’m not sure what to make of that.

So, plenty of great highlights despite the desolation. Sometimes, the journey is what you make of it!

~Dan

A day off in Casper today. A welcome rest for the legs and butt.

It seems most of the action in Casper is right here at our hotel. The Wyoming state softball tournament is in progress, so hoards of uniform-clad teenage girls are sprawled about. And then there is another hoard of much older ladies with bright orange T-shirts proclaiming each of them proud members of a traveling motorcycle clan called ‘Women on Wheels’. I’m not sure which group is louder. Our bicycling armada usually takes over a hotel, but here at the Casper Ramkota, we are totally outnumbered.

My wanderings around Casper brought back an old memory. As I did a double-take at the two-story brick office building next door to the hotel, I positively recognized it as the former Casper division office site for Conoco. I worked as a software developer for Conoco back in the early 90s, and visited the Casper office a few times. The building looks pretty much the same – with just a few newer buildings up the hill side. Crazy to think I’ve arrived back here by bike, nearly 30 years later.

I also ran into Mike Lansing field, home of the Casper Ghosts minor league baseball team. A Wyoming native, Lansing was a popular major league baseball player for the Montreal Expos and Colorado Rockies. The cozy ballpark is nestled along the North Platte river.

A visit to a downtown book store, art museum, and western-wear shop rounded out my Casper experience. A full day here is plenty. Back to the busy hotel to rest up for another 100+ mile day.

~Dan

At 120 miles, today’s ride is the longest of the tour. So an early start of 6:30 makes good sense. Riding into a bright sunrise, I made an early scenic stop at Boysen State Park, casting a long morning shadow in the picture below:

SAG (Support And Gear) stops are set up every 30 miles or so for filling up water bottles and grabbing some food. On a long ride, it’s essential to stay hydrated and well nourished. A cyclist can burn over 8,000 calories on a ride like this. SAG stops are also great for mid-ride chats and check-ins with fellow riders.

Pace-line groups also tend to form on long rides – groups of similar-speed cyclists that draft off one-another to help preserve energy. I fell in with a steady group of 3 other cyclists today, forming a team-traverse across the wide open Wyoming landscape. Winds were light and the pace was high – until a dreaded flat tire brought us to a halt. No worries, a collaborative group fix and we were back at it… until about 2 miles later when a second flat struck the same rider’s other tire. Double rotten luck!

Eventually we made it to an interesting geological feature in the middle of endless sagebrush prairie, named Hell’s Half Acre. It’s a buffalo-jump site, where native Americans would stampede unsuspecting bison over cliffs and into a ‘pit of misery’.

And speaking of misery, our cursed rider would be rewarded with yet another flat about 13 miles from Casper. Triple rotten luck! But it didn’t dampen our spirits much, as a nice tail wind developed during the second half of our ride and more than made up for the time we lost fixing tires.

After a 120 mile day, we are rewarded with a day off tomorrow. I’m looking forward to sleeping in and giving my legs a well-deserved break.

~Dan