PowerCycle

05/27 Camped out here in Dayton. Tomorrow I tackle the Big Horn Mountains. Picked up some Counter Assault pepper spray for my little brown buddies. Still a bit tired from the monster ride yesterday so I’m glad today was only 30 miles. Getting here provided an opportunity to ride on an interstate for the first time. I was hoping to avoid riding on I-90 but the road I thought would get me around it (Hwy 338) was closed. So I had to backtrack a bit (and climb up the same hill twice, doh). Then it was time to jump on the interstate. It was only for a mile and half though. The shoulder was plenty wide enough and I could see cars in my mirror moving over a lane just to give me some more room. The entire time I was expecting the police to pull me over even though I’m pretty sure you can ride a bike on the interstates up here.

Yesterday was a blast and I was really happy to have ridden a century ride (over 100 miles in a day for those non-bikers out there). It was funny because I knew right after I woke up that I’d be doing it. Time was on my side thanks to the genius that thought 5am was a good time to fire up the industrial-strength pressure washer and clean the parking lot next door. That got me on the road by 7:30am. Of the 107.85 miles I really didn’t start feeling it until the last .85 miles. If they give ass transplants I could have used one.

Spotted Horse was a cool place. The owner of the bar and his wife make up the population of 2. He also told me about a guy who was riding from Denver to Minnesota that had stopped there a few days ago. He let him stay in an empty trailer out back which was cool. Every foot of the 107 miles from Gillette to Sheridan is fenced so there were no opportunities for camping.

As for tonight I’m staying at the Foothills Motel & Campground ($18). Tongue River runs right next to my tent and is that thing ever moving. Found out from the owner that it eventually feeds into the Mississippi. Nothing beats the sound of water running by when you are camped out so it’ll be a nice relaxing night. Or maybe not. I spotted the Crazy Woman Saloon in town…

Only one picture made it. Not sure what happened but when I pulled the SD card out and loaded it on my laptop nothing came up. Popped the card back in the camera and the 4 pics I took were gone. Maybe I’d stuck the card in wrong and the pictures were in memory? Not sure because the card only goes in one way. Just hope it doesn’t happen again.

GPX Track