Jackson, WY to Steamboat Springs, CO

After spending a couple days in the fun town of Jackson (lots of great restaurants – oh, so little time!  I really want to come back to Jackson and spend a winter skiing here.  After the bike ride?!?) and bidding farewell to our friend Mark who spent the last 600 miles with us, we headed south.  We camped the first night in beautiful Hoback Canyon just south of Hoback Junction, then on to Pinedale following the Hoback River thru the canyon, then out onto the more open ranchland!  What spectacular scenery!  The Gross Ventre and eventually the Wind River ranges were on our distant left with a fresh dusting of snow on the higher peaks (hurry, pedal faster, snow is coming!)  The temperature really started to drop by the time we reached Pinedale, so we got a motel room and went out for a great dinner at the Stockman Restaurant (it seems half the towns in the west have a Stockman’s restaurant!)

The next morning we woke up to snow and rain.  Pat decided it would be a great time to take a break and see our girls in Colorado, so she bummed a ride from a friendly couple also staying at the motel who were heading thru Colorado.  Since there were no motel rooms left for the next night in Pinedale and the weather cleared, I set off in the direction of Rock Springs.  I biked thru pleasant cool weather, then drizzle, then a snowstorm so bad I could barely see the road, then calm, then drizzle, then another snowstorm before reaching Farson, 60 miles south of Pinedale.  Luckily one of the 4 buildings in town was a motel!  I got a room and CARANKED the heater up to 90 degrees.  The good thing about the day was that I didn’t have to ride against a head wind thru the flattest, most boring part of Wyoming – oh, and I didn’t have to look at it either because of the blinding snowstorms! (I’d take a headwind any day!)

The next day was cool, but clear and calm, and I rode to Rock Springs, got groceries and water, then headed into what I call the badlands of Southern Wyoming.  Beautiful Utah-like country, just no water – no water for 120 miles – unless you want to call the coffee mocha-colored stuff in the creeks water!  I had an incredibly beautiful campsite the first night among huge sandstone boulders beneath a sandstone cliff, with the full moon illuminating the night!  The second night was equally illuminated, but in a sagebrush flat.  This section of the trip was very beautiful and almost totally uninhabited. 

The following day I headed south into Colorado, climbing out of the sage covered rolling hills into the aspen, then spruce-covered mountains north of Steamboat to Hahns Peak Lake Campground, where I stayed for 2 nights and waited for Pat to come and meet up with me again!  She came with the car she stole back from Crystal (our daughter at college) and was my shuttle into Steamboat on Saturday.  I got to ride one day without packs or much weight!!!  Yeah!!!

The weather is getting lots cooler and days are getting lots shorter, so hopefully we’ll make it thru colorado.  Plan B is to bail into Utah if the weather gets bad — we’ll see!

Gotta get Bikin’ On, Ralph