So last night I checked the wind forecast using the app windy. It said as long as we are off the road by 2pm we wouldn't have any wind issues today. It was spot on. We only had two options, 45 miles into Rawlins or 120 miles into Jeffery city. After the last two days battling the winds we chose to stop early. It was a great decision imo.
The first 20 miles was on a nice quiet road with a slight downhill. This is what I envisioned yesterday to be like. We made great time even with stopping for the scenery.
The next 10 miles was along interstate 80. It wasn't as bad as I had imagined cause there was a huge shoulder that kept us away from the traffic. However, there was a 1 mile section with road construction that had a much smaller shoulder. Keith said he had a truck come dangerously close to him in that section. The other issue with the interstate was all the road debris on the shoulder. I spent the entire 10 mile section staring at the ground dodging tire scraps and glass. I had to move 3 entire exploded tires from the shoulder so I could get by.
The final section had us ride the frontage road past the town of Sinclair. The only significance of the town is that it's the home of Sinclair gas. We road right past the big stinky refinery.
Rawlins was exactly how I recalled it from the CDT. I even ran into another hiker heading into the basin.
Now that I've done the mountain bike route and road bike from Saratoga to Rawlins I much prefer the mountain bike route. Especially the part where I ended up riding jeep track roads thanks to Google. It was annoying cause I wasn't prepared but riding the mountain bike along the jeep track ridge was one of the main reasons I'm doing this trip. The other part was when i was riding across the basin with the wild mustangs pacing me. I'm extremely excited about tomorrow's ride across the basin.
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