Today was...rough. I had intended to ride my first full century to get to Lander; that is where my new credit cards were being shipped. I wanted to get there today, the cards would arrive tomorrow, and I would have the perfect excuse for a rest day. Even just a little less and I would have to ride tomorrow, and I much prefer to not ride my bike at all on my rest days. I figured that with most of the terrain being downhill to some extent, it would be trivial...*sigh*...wrong. Everything went wrong. And a lot of it was my fault.
I didn't wake up late today, but I did hit the road very late on account of the wonderful facilities at the resort. First, there was a buffet style breakfast. Sausage, bacon, blueberry french toast! I simply had to have some. So that put me back about an hour. Furthermore you could also use their showers for a song, so I had to use that too! That put me back about 45 minutes. So I left much closer to noon than I had intended.
Minor aside... I was chatting up the employees about my tour and somehow ended up talking to an older gent about WarmShowers. He seemed rather interested in it so I talked it up; we can always use more hosts! (Little hint to my readership, there!) When I got up to leave, he offered me a bit of money to help me out on my tour. Since I was almost out of cash again I really could use the money, so I thanked him for his generosity. Then he gave me a brochure titled, "Have you found Jesus?" I didn't say anything about it, because he had been extremely kind, but I never understood that kind of thing. If I have come this far in life and, for whatever reason, don't believe in Jesus, what makes someone think a brochure will do the trick?
Anyway, the road up to Togwotee Pass was actually less constantly steep than yesterday, but the wind was doing its damnedest to make sure I worked for every mile. I think one time I actually made a 180 degree turn around a sharp bend in the road, and the wind followed me the whole way; no tailwind for me today. Eventually I did reach the pass, which apparently is also a part of the Continental Divide.
The ride down was GREAT...at first. Unfortunately it didn't take long for the road to level out, and that is what it was for most of the ride, level. So it wasn't as trivially easy to cover a century as I thought it would be, especially with the wind in my face most of the way. Scenery was decent though.
Many, many, many miles later I crossed into an Indian reservation, right as I was running out of water. I checked my map, and saw that Ft. Washakie wasn't too far out, and opted to push on until I got there. I even refused water from another cyclist coming down from there, I thought it would be fine....
Rolling hills. Miles of rolling hills rolling uphill. I arrived at Ft. Washakie when the sun had just set, and the only gas station in town was closed. Shit. I knew there wasn't camping on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and I didn't think I'd be able to make the last 16 miles to Lander without any water. So...I flagged down a car, and asked the lady if she knew where I could find some water in town. She was extremely nice, and offered to fill up my camelback and let me have the water in her bottle in the meanwhile. Her son even gave me an orange! Great people.
So I rode through the night to Lander. Not much to see in the dark, but I did pass an Indian casino!
And I finally made it to Lander...and collapsed in the public park. Woo.
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