The pace of bike touring is surprisingly fast. When I dreamed about this trip, I envisioned lots of time available to explore, chat, and read. I thought there would be ample opportunities for sunsets, campfires, and personal reflection. The reality of the trip though is that our days are so grueling that they leave little time for anything but sleeping, eating, and biking. Our days start with an alarm at 6:30am and don’t really let up until 10pm, at which point I’m too exhausted to do anything but go to bed and start the cycle all over again. I’d like to be dedicating more time, for example, to planning and learning about the days and cities along our route, but I’m lucky if I find the time to figure out where I’m going to spend the next night 24-hours in advance. And sometimes, we pay a price for this figure-it-out-when-we-get-there approach. Today was one of those days.
We packed up our bags and rolled into breakfast on our usual (slightly late) schedule at 9am. During breakfast, we pulled out our maps to review the day’s ride. The front of our maps display icons for the services available in each town along the route: tents for campsites, a fork and a knife for restaurants, a basket for grocers. The back of the maps list details about said services: addresses, phone numbers, descriptions. A third piece of paper lists addendums: changes that have taken place since the maps were printed.
We’d planned to bike from Lander to Jeffrey City for the next leg primarily for lack of other options, and the map conveniently had a campsite and restaurant logo in the 42-person town – the front of the map seemed so straightforward when we’d looked at it last night. But today, when we read the back of the map, the plan began to unravel. Camping: available in Byron’s bus (call ahead) and the Baptist Church (call ahead). Then we pulled out the addendum. Restaurant: closed indefinitely; a new restaurant was scheduled to open (call to confirm). Well…not exactly the news you want to hear at 10am when it’s too late to adjust.
We started calling the numbers listed for the Jeffrey City businesses and left a few messages. I called the Jeffrey City sheriff for more information and the dispatcher said he’d call me later. We knew that it would be long, hot, no-cell-reception stretch between Lander and Jeffrey City, Wyoming, so without confirmation of food, water, and a campsite on the other end, we resolved to stay put until we figured it all out.
By mid-afternoon, I’d spoken to the sheriff: “There are just 2 things you can count on in Jeffrey City – wind and mosquitoes.” I spoke with someone at the new restaurant and confirmed that it would indeed be open for dinner “until 5 or so, maybe later if people are here.” I never did hear back from the church, but 2 out of 3 was enough for us to venture back out into the desert with a reasonable amount of confidence that we’d make it out alive. We used the remainder of our unplanned day off to get new chains for our bikes and check out the town (Lander is a hipster home of NOLS, among other things). And the next morning, it was Jeffrey City: Take 2!
Shifting Gears 