Biking West 2015 ‐ Thunder Basin National Grassland

2015-10-16

tl;dr: I peddled through Thunder Basin National Grassland looking at antelope and oil industry stuff.

It got pretty cold last night. I had set my tent up kind of out of the wind, but then the wind changed directions. I had the rain fly hanging loose to cover the tent's air vents. I was wearing most of my layers of clothing, and I was using all four of my sleeping bags (a nylon liner, a fleece sock, an actual "40 degree" (yeah, right) bag, and my rip-stop nylon ground cloth which I sewed to double as a double-layered bag. I've camped in colder while less prepared, so all in all it wasn't too bad.

The highway I was camped next to was kind of busy, so stayed in my cold tent waiting for sunrise. So boring. When I hit the road I was wearing almost all of my layers, plus my rain jacket as a wind break and gloves and a winter hat under my helmet. This many layers will often leave me clammy from sweat, but it's very dry here. I didn't start shedding layers until almost 10 AM.

Oh look, more mule deer. Oh look, a lot more antelope.

It turns out biking across Wyoming is kind of boring, unless you enjoy counting road kill jackrabbit, hawks and deer. I kind of understand the rabbits and deer, but how do so many hawks get hit by cars? Maybe because they are eating the rabbits.

There are so many trucks servicing the oil fields! And I ended up biking through a large coal mine with many signs reading "blasting area, orange cloud possible, avoid contact". Okay!

I didn't make any wrong turns today, so that is something. I had decided against taking the oil roads on the bases that I had a long way to go, and those roads are tough. I battled a cold wind for 30 miles. Then I let the wind push me for 40 miles into Wright, Wyoming. I grabbed some food at a Subway, and then I headed back into the grasslands to find a place to camp.

Uh oh, are those headlights shining on my tent? Nope, just flames shooting into the air.