07.18.2023 - wind river

i've  completed phase III of the ride now, the mountains, yellowstone and the tetons.  i exited through the final pass of the rockies and crossed rhe continental divide for the 4th and final time.  from here to the mississippi it is basically all down hill.  togwotee pass was the highest point on the journey at 9,531.  i'll cross the mississippi at devenport, iowa, 580 feet above sea level.  i'm  almost half way there already, shoshoni is at 4,843 feet.

the other thing to realize is that wyoming and nebraska are combined about 25% of the trip.  la push to pittsburgh is 3,700 +/-.  it's approx. 1,000 mi across those two states.

this morning, alan and i needed to be out of the hostel by 6:30 so that the raritan club could set up.  we went back over to the cowboy cafe and waited for it to open at 7am.  there were several groups of early risers there waiting to get their day going.  we talked with them while we waited, exchanging origins and plans. alan decided he was going to stay another day and rest up unless he stumbled on a ride out.

finally got on the bike and started riding at 8.  another day in paradise, only this time downhill with the wind at my back.

in dubois (pronounced 'dew-boys'), there is a small tourist industry that turns 2 downtown blocks into frontier facades.  on the main corner, there is an all things honey bee shop.  this is their 3rd year in business.  i've never seen a shop dedicated just to honey bees before, not to mention in a small western town of approx. 990 population.  so i asked the owner what keeps the tourist energy going.  she mention the military equipment museum 8 mi. down the road.  she did not mention the northwestern american faerie sanctuary.

10 mi or so outside dubois, as the landscape turned to redstone and sage, the wind river reservation starts and takes up a huge section all the way down to the town of shoshoni, which is not on the res.  this reservation is shared by the arapaho and the shoshoni.  halfway there is the community of crowheart.  so named because the arapaho and shoshoni defeated the crow here once upon a time.

95 miles today, wind aided, slight downhill.  i decided that rather than head to riverton with no place to stay and possibly ending up in a hotel, i'd take my chances in shoshoni.  shoshoni is an asphalt and rail crossroads at the base of the rockies, before the dessert.  in shoshoni, pop. 900+, i found a brand new gas station/travel center.  it's the latest thing, not quite finished outside.  talk of the town.  perfect for hanging out for a couple of hours, resting, eating, connected to internet while waiting for dusk.  and there's a public park that a convenience store owner had directed me to.  can i camp there?  "don't see why not, they have public bathrooms."  pay special attention to the sprinkler system!