July 5 2018 Worland to Buffalo – Powder River Pass

Today is typically the hardest day on the tour. The ride was scheduled for 92.8 miles and 8900 feet of climb.  The ride takes us over the highest pass on the tour at 9666 feet.  However as I am on the comfort tour I took the van to picnic at 48.0 miles.  I was accompanied by Ken T who is nursing his ankle tendonitis, Ron the other Canadian who is concerned that one knee may be bothering him and Auzzie Bob who four years ago wrote in his riding journal that this was the worst day of his riding career and never ever again will he do this ride.  My excuse is I am just too lazy to do it having ridden it twice.  The four of us lay about at breakfast drinking coffee and nibbling the remains of the breakfast buffet until Greg was ready to go. 

On the road we had a firsthand view of how the ride is managed with the vans coordinating where the riders are and how everyone on the ride is accounted for.   It is an excellent system and really comforting to know that Greg is totally on top of where everyone is. 

I was in the passenger seat up front so I got a great view of the first part of the ride and how there is 36 miles of increasingly deep hills and valleys before you enter the canyon which takes you up to the Powder River Pass.   I was more and more glad that I had sagged as I saw how deep the valleys were and how steep the road up the canyon was. 

At picnic bikes were unloaded and we set off.  It would have been nice to have feasted on the delicacies laid out but the mosquitos were so ferocious we had to get out of there fast.  Picnic was about half way up the major climb of the day so we still had some serious climbing to do. Luckily it was only about 10:00 am so it was still cool.  This was a bit of a trade off as the mosquitos were out in force and they could fly faster than I could ride.  I was being eaten.   At one point I wiped my hand across the back of one leg to brush off the mosquitos and came away with 6 of them and everyone was bloody.  I think I must have had 20-30 bites across my shoulders.  It was just tingling. 

Bob, Ron and I got to the summit, and grabbed a couple of pictures and hurried on.  After the summit there were a series of 7 climbs and 7 descents before the big decent into Buffalo.  The climbs were all in the 1-2 mile range with the descents in the 7-9% range.   Ron was right behind me and a deer ran out and crossed the road right behind me but I never saw it.   The final decent into Buffalo is about 12 miles long and very very scary. It is 7-12%, very winding, narrow and the shoulder which is nice enough was covered in sand.  A cattle van had passed just in front of us and sprayed the road with manure which added to the “is it slippery?” and the scary quotient.  At one point I had three trucks with trailers behind me before I could find a place to get off the road.  Glad it was over would not cover it.

Ron, Bob and I got into Buffalo about 1:30 pm and rolled into a local cantina to have some beer and nachos.  After which we headed up to the school, only to find that the hot water was not turned on.  Greg quickly organized a van shuttle to the local YMCA where I had a very nice shower with lots of hot water. In the meantime the school maintenance man showed up and got the hot water on.   Great work on the showers! 

Unfortunately I forgot to pack my camera to day and although I took some picture with my phone I have no idea on how to transfer them to my lap top.  If I figure it out I will post them later.  __ Sorry

Terry