Day 11 - Powell, WY to Sheridan, WY

Today was Big Horn Day... 122 miles and 7,300 feet of climbing fun. We rose a little earlier than usual this morning, because 1) it was a long ride; and 2) because the climbing would drive mph averages down. In the end, Dave and I both had good, but different days.

The ride started with a 32 mile flat run-up to the Big Horn Mountains. At mile 32, the road pitched up slightly to become a gradual climb for about eight miles. At mile 40, the road pitched up again to about an 8% grade for four miles, becoming 10% for a mile, then 14% for about a half mile, before returning to a 10% grade until mile 50. This amounts to around 4,000 feet of climbing, much of it on very steep grades, over 18 miles. After mile 50, we alternated between climbs and moderate descents over the mountain pass. We eventually enjoyed a 16 mile, 4,100 foot descent down twisting roads on the east side of the Big Horn Mountains.

Transitioning from 8% to 10% Dave decided he had run out of gears and leg power, so he opted to walk the last five miles to the stop at mile 50. As he said upon his successful arrival in Sheridan later in the day "These shoes weren't made for walking, but that's just what they did..." Dave actually beat a couple of people who stayed on their bikes to the mile fifty stop and successfully completed the ride to Sheridan. Sometimes it's better to do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do... which is get to the East Coast!



To make today's suffering more interesting, the group had a pool. Anyone who wanted to enter could pay five dollars and guess their own time from mile 32 to mile 50. While some people had made the climb before, most hadn't so it was a bit of a mystery. We did have some historical records - best male rider covered this portion of the climb in 1 hr and 17 min. on the 2004 Northern Transcontinental. Apparently this guy was a freak (in a good way) so this time was not something most people could work from to estimate their own times. The woman's record was set in the 2007 tour at 1 hr and 45 min. Dave didn't join the pool, but I did and after a bit of indecision (hard to believe, isn't it...) I picked 2 hr and 30 min. After nine miles it looked like I would blow this time away and then the road pitched up violently again and again, switchback after switchback. Out of gears, I plodded at 6 mph for most of the steep portion of the climb alternating spinning and getting out of the saddle. I was passed by only three people, including the winning male, having to remind myself not to try to grab their wheels, but ride my own pace. I passed a number of strong riders. In the end, I finished at 1 hr and 54 min. The winning male time was 1 hr 35 min and the winning female time, which is a new record was 1 hr 44 min. Both were by a couple from Switzerland who have 3% body fat between them. They are very nice people and incredibly strong riders.

The scenery was incredible, especially from the heights of the Big Horn Mountains after the climb and on the way down the descent. We topped out at just over 9,000 feet of elevation. Here's just a small sampling of the scenery from today. The first picture looks back on the Big Horn Basin, which is west of the mountains and where we started our ride in the morning. The second picture shows the meadows along the top of the pass. The difference between the desert like terrain of the western side and the meadows of the mountain passes and the forests on the eastern side of the mountains was striking. The last two pictures are from the descent on the east side of the mountains. Sheridan is down in the valley.



But we also had some construction and this time it occurred on the initial descent, which made things tricky as we bounded over the rough terrain so as not to irritate the traffic around us or the folks waiting patiently at the other end for their turn to go through.









This was the hardest day of the tour to date, but fun, despite the suffering, and very rewarding for everyone after riding over 1,000 miles in the first 10 days. So, we'll end with a photo of me engaged in my post-ride ritual of elevating my legs and icing my knees while enjoying a cup of coffee and a bottle of recovery drink, checking e-mails on the Blackberry, and downloading the day's photos from the camera to the laptop.