G.A.S.P.

(Great Adventures to Scenic Places)

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July 17, 1999

I didn’t see any weirdo cows last night, so maybe I wasn’t in the "Far Side" after all. I awoke to clear skies and no wind – a bicyclist’s delight. It was a fine day for biking with the exception of an early afternoon storm and another in the early evening. I saw the afternoon storm coming and reached the safety of a restaurant/convenience store (with a covered gas pump area) in Boulder in plenty of time. There I encountered two other traveling bicyclists, part of a larger group, who were riding the Continental Divide trail – mostly back country, unpaved roads. The woman, Melissa, is a teacher at Big Bend National Park in Texas. Her school has teleconference equipment, and we talked of the possibility of my visiting her school when I’m at Big Bend in January. The rain delay gave me the opportunity to sample the specialty of the restaurant – a double dip (Maple Nut and Chocolate Almond) waffle ice cream cone. It’s those magic moments that make all that peddling worthwhile.

Click on thumbnails to see full photographs.

The ride was excellent. I went 59 miles in just under four hours. There was just a light breeze and the road was mostly flat. The terrain right around me was mostly sagebrush, but just 15 to 20 miles to my east, from Farson to beyond Pinedale was the Wind River Range of the Rockies. This is a dazzling range of mountains chock full of snow capped peaks including Gannett Peak, at 13,804 feet, the highest in the state. At the south end of this range is South Pass (elevation 7660), an extremely important point on the Oregon Trail as it is the easiest point in the Northern United States to cross the Continental Divide.

Along the way today, I learned where "the antelope play." It’s Wyoming! I saw close to 30 today, including one large herd that was big enough to play a game of flag football. Mostly, however, they weren’t playing. Instead they were either eating or watching me.

I also saw other wildlife, including an Osprey family perched in a nest on top of a utility pole. According to the nearby sign, the local utility company added another section of pole to an existing electrical pole and topped it off with a platform. The Osprey have been nesting there now for years.