Powder River Pass, the most challenging day so far. The distance was going to be long and the most feet climbed in a single day, over 8000 feet.
We started off a bit earlier than usual. It was chilly, but not as cool as in the past couple of days. Within a 10 miles or so, we had to stop to take off the outer layers. At 25 miles we rolled into a great stop called 10 sleep. The small village had a couple of coffee shops, we pulled into the first one, 2nd street Cafe and Bakery. We sipped our coffee and pastries for a bit over 30 minutes before hitting the climb that would take us over the pass.
I hope that the photos capture a fraction of the beauty of the landscape. Like yesterday, the canyons that we ascended were carved by glaciers long time ago allowing us to view the layers of sediment that had been laid down millions and even billions of years ago!!
After several water stops and I finally reached the launch stop at about 1PM. Then I departed lunch with Lauri and Jim for the final assault of the pass, two long hours later we reached the top of the pass. Jim's bike had been giving him problems all day and couldn't make the final drop into Buffalo.
Well we thought it was a drop into Buffalo with a single 1.7 mile climb, as per the route directions. It turned out to be 7 significant climbs remaining, even as we were dropping in attitude toward Buffalo.
We finally dragged ourselves into Buffalo at almost 6PM. We quickly put up the tents, showered and took the shuttle into town for a pasta, pizza and calzone dinner. We then headed off the to the Occidental Hotel for a bluegrass jam. The place was packed!!
Pretty soon it was time to head back to the high school to call it a day.
Brian
Friday, July 9, 2010
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I'm sure I remember the setting of every one of your photos! Probably senility is setting in.
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