Adventures

Day 14: Destination Pinedale

Union Pass

Lava Mountain Lodge, WY (27 June 2019)Rain fell late yesterday afternoon and the morning sky foretold of more to come. I was feeling pretty happy about our decision to stop at the Lodge instead of camping at elevation in the rain and possibly snow. The happy feeling faded quickly, however, as we pedaled away from the lodge through a cold foggy mist. I felt cold but relaxed as the bike glided gently downhill on the paved highway.

The gravel road to the pass started with a switchback. The rain stopped and the effort of the climb generated warmth. I smiled as the anticipated climb was now fully engaged. Over twelve miles of mostly climbing would take us from 7,700 feet to 9,700 feet of elevation. The climb comes in two parts, separated by a downhill of 2.5 miles. Both parts are roughly five miles long, with the first being the most consistent and the second being the most interesting.

The first part of the climb was steady and steep. Still the pedals were turned smoothly even though the road surface was rough and rocky. Discomfort on the saddle distracted me from the surroundings, as the road steadily climbed through forest and meadow. Above, the clouds were moving off and blue sky started to appear. Further ahead, tree tops were illuminated by sunlight, as my toiling continued in shadows below.

After a quick downhill, the road climbed to a switchback where there was also a campground. The route diverted from the gravel road onto a jeep road just above the campground. There were several cyclists packing gear and getting ready to head out, after a cold night spent high on the road to Union Pass. My toes were froze, despite being otherwise very warm from the effort of the climbing thus far.

The jeep road degraded and became less well defined. The grade was much less as the road became a double track of muddy paths. With less pressure on my feet, my toes were allowed to thaw and warm. The double track started to rise again with increasing steepness, through a thick pine forest. Motivated by the desire to keep my feet dry, the bike was balanced and the pedals were pushed with intense concentration. Snow appeared and water flowed on the muddy, rocky track. The forest was thick but the path was my sole focus, any bears in the area would only have my loud breathing to alert them I was coming. It occurred to me that it was probably a little scary for those that traversed this track in the rain and fading daylight of last evening.

In better weather, Union Pass would be a great place for an overnight

The mud track continued to steepen and more snow appeared on the path ahead. Finally it became too steep to ride and completely snow covered but within sight was an opening and perhaps a leveling of the ground. The bike was rocked onto my back and walked up the snow-covered pitch where the forest gave way to a vast mountain grassland. I stood there panting from the effort and feeling satisfied that the top of Union Pass was near.

After eating a Milky-way, the slog to the top of pass was resumed. The vista from the long rolling top of Union Pass was amazing and I was incredibly grateful to be there to take in the wilderness. The high peaks of the Wind River Range stood guard on the horizon. For a moment, and to the northwest, the Grand Tetons could be seen. Closer to the trail, lakes and ponds dotted the top of the pass. It was not hard to imagine that I was being watched by bears, moose and deer.

Anxious for the long rolling top to end, the pedals were pushed resolutely toward the anticipated downhill. My thoughts turned to Pinedale where a package awaited my arrival. The Tour Divide does not allow prearranged services or support of any kind except mail drops. A mail drop is any package you send to yourself before the race begins. Racers send the packages general delivery to a post office along the route. Having reached the downhill was an important milestone for the day because the Pinedale the post office closed at 4:30 P.M.

The wide open area of grass and shrub sloped away in all directions yet the road leading downhill seemed to be going in the wrong direction. I recalled from my reading, there are a couple places where the Tour Divide route cut across sections of open land and there was no a discernible path to follow. The eTrax navigation device requires both GPS and movement to derive cardinal direction. Moving at a crawl, on the edge of balance, while looking at the navigation device was tricky but revealed that the route departed from the road only to rejoin further on. Since the road dropped down and climbed slightly before rejoining the route, it was decided to freelance a route across the brushy meadow. Several bike tire tracks were seen in the dry stony dirt, just prior to where the route rejoins the gravel road. Good to know I wasn't alone in making this choice. Not long after making it through a gate, the downhill began.

The bike before Pinedale

The bike after Pinedale, several pounds lighter

The downhill was scary. Loose gravel, ruts caused by washout and large rocks made the first part of trip off the top of Union Pass tense. My energy levels were low but there was no stopping now. Suddenly the road leveled off and another gate appeared. Finally, a great place to sit and eat. Roughly four hours elapsed since leaving the Lava Mountain Lodge with only a candy bar consumed. Normally, after breakfast I stopped for a second breakfast roughly two hours into the ride. Waiting too long before finally getting some serious calories consumed was probably why the top of the pass felt so arduous.

While eating lunch, a cyclist came past and we barely exchanged a word. That might have been Francis who was probably among the those seen camping earlier in the day. A good deal more downhill remained so the food was packed up and the downward progress continued.

The road improved but was still rough and loose. There were several short climbs and drops before the road dropped quickly for several miles. The gravel flowed rapidly under wheel and the downhill, while not smooth, was not nearly as scary as earlier. The bags on the front of the bike needed to be adjusted a couple of times before the foot of the mountain was reached.

The transition to ranch land was quick. Black dots of cattle were part of every view. It was a fenced, treeless, sunny, and dry land of grass and shrub. Except for the green grass, there was no evidence of recent rain in the valley. Around noon and after rounding a bend on the gravel road, an excellent place to eat was observed. I like to stop to eat and it helped to eat real food rather than candy, sports bars and drinks as many racers did. Consuming only sports drinks and bars worked for a day but I suffered from doing it day after day. A deep fatigue would set in. Sandwiches, fruit, vegetables and even low quality food like potato chips seemed to keep me feeling solid. Today, however, I stored some sports drink to help ensure a prompt arrival in Pinedale and reduce the time spent stopped. In the interest of making Pinedale before the post office closed, very effort was made to limit myself to two food stops on this day.

Thanks to Strava I can say, those two stops took less than 15 minutes each. Hardly quick but not among the more luxurious picnic stops. After the noon-time lunch, I stopped again to filter water. During lunch, several cyclists passed by. Rob Peters stopped briefly and introduced himself. Bill stopped for only a moment just to check on me. Others came by that I did not recognize. As lunch was packed up for the remaining 40 miles to Pinedale, I felt concerned that Mark had not come by. With so many riders in the vicinity it was strange that no conversations where shared since hitting the gravel near Lava Mountain Lodge.

About 30 miles on pavement to Pinedale remained when the wind kicked up. Until then I felt assured of making it the post office before closing time. The miles became more difficult by the minute, as the clock ticked away and the odometer barely registered. It always happened, the most difficult miles occurred whenever the focus was to get somewhere. Miles breezed by sometimes under the worst of circumstances when the focus was on the moment. Whenever I felt I just needed to get it over with, was when everything became arduous. It was an arduous ride on the relatively quiet paved highway which took us mostly downhill to Pinedale. Just another Tour Divide reminder that the seemingly easier sections can be made very difficult with the wrong attitude.

The Gatorade bottle was drained and I was determined to keep rolling. I looked longingly at two bikes with bikepacking gear leaning against the wall of the a lonely pub near the top of a short rise. I pedaled on. The water I could reach was near exhaustion. I felt exhausted too, as I leaned down low over the bike in a futile effort to slice through the stiff warm wind. The sun was high and shade was no where to be found. Finally, I stopped at a bend in the road, ate a candy bar and transferred water into a bottle I could reach while riding. The bend in the road provided some relief. The wind was cutting across the bike and pushed on the bag that filled the large triangle of the bike frame, moving rider and bike toward the center of the road. Soon, however, the road curved again and the headwind resumed.

It was with great relief that Pinedale was reached well before 4 PM. It was early enough that instead of biking straight to the post office, a room for the night was secured and the bike was taken to the room. It was a pleasant mile walk to the post office. My package was there and a flat rate box was obtained to return items. Assuming the box could be posted from the hotel, I felt the mission was accomplished. Unfortunately, this feeling was destroyed when the postal worker kindly told me that it had to posted in person at the post office before closing which was, well, soon!

With package under arm, I ran back to the hotel. Not long after entering the room the place looked like a bomb had gone off. The newly acquired box was dumped out on one bed. On the other was the contents of my bags. Items were stuffed into the flat rate box quickly without nearly the consideration they deserved. With little time to spare, I jogged down to the post office, arriving seconds after closing but the kind woman at the counter was expecting me and patiently waited for me to catch my breath. Now it seemed, the mission was finally accomplished.

Returning to the room, still littered with gear everywhere, was a let down. I soon realized there are still items I don't want. It would have also been good to ditch at least one of the bags attached to the bike. All of this stuff and the empty box from the shipment just received was examined and a plan was hatched. With the relaxed eye only time could provide, everything was evaluated. The first aid kit was reduced. Tools were evaluated. Two bags were eliminated, including the front bag that always demanded attention whenever the road got rough. With the front bag gone, food was stuffed into the frame bag. I was worried this choice would reduce the size of my picnics but very happy to be rid of a bag that has caused so much trouble.

Bags sent home from Pinedale

The person behind the desk said they don't ship packages for guests. "Well, except when we do," a coworker said to her as he poked his head out of the office doorway behind the counter. Apparently, when a guest leaves stuff behind, the items are shipped to them by UPS. "Oh okay, would you fill out the form," she asked of him. In that way we pretended my box of various and smelly items were left behind and the box was accepted at the desk. It was a happy ending and I was looking forward to riding tomorrow on a bike that was pounds lighter.

Bill arrived in Pinedale before me, in plenty of time to pick up his mail drop. He was standing in front of a bike shop when I was leisurely walking to the post office for the first time. He too limited his stops and perhaps braved the headwind better than I. His bike was fine, he was just getting it checked over. More importantly, Pinedale has an outfitters where Bill found the perfect bag and gear to replace what was lost on the road yesterday. He seemed very happy about that. Mark was not spotted in town but the website TrackLeaders had him there which was a relief. I expected that the three of us would see each other on the road tomorrow.

Pinedale makes for a good place for a mail drop on the Tour Divide route. It's where the route moves into warmer environments. The post office in smaller towns like Pinedale are easy to find. Finally it's a place where nearly everyone stops anyway. There are no services for 80 miles between the Lava Mountain Lodge and Pinedale, save a lonely tavern. The hours of operation of post offices in small towns can be more limited, however. Be sure to look up the days and hours of operation before making your own plans. The hours of the Pinedale post office meant that Bill and I were focused on our arrival time. For me, that made today mentally harder than it would have been otherwise. It was here I resolved to not do that again by staying focused on the journey and forgetting about the destination.

Elevation Profile for Day 14

On to Day 15