So because of yesterday's closed campsites throwing a monkey wrench into things, our next planned campsite was to be only 20 miles down the road (actually, of course, up the road). That's just too short. Yesterday's 56 miles went well enough, why not do 60 today? And just for the hell of it, throw in another one of those divide crossings.
First things first, I gave away the half-gallon or so of white gas I'd been carrying for the last couple hundred miles. Hard to part with, now that I know the proper way to start fires with it, but four pounds is four pounds and my knees didn't really like the extra weight. Left it for a nice guy, Cowboy Jim, that Alaine and I got to talking to at Lava Mountain Lodge. I'm sure he'll put to good use and won't singe any of his hair off. He'd offered some horse wrap for Alaine's ribs, and a snowmobile map that could offer is a shorter Union Pass crossing, but when we stopped by his shop, he was nowhere to be found. Bummer-- cool guy. Interesting life. Never got a photo of him.
Weight dumped, we rolled down a few easy miles where we had our first bike vs bike mishap. It involved a couple ranging horses at a creek crossing. The horses drew the eyes and the creek drew the ears, so I didn't really hear Alaine say that she was stopping (let alone see that she had stopped). Torqued my front pannier rack but all in all it was a pretty "soft touch." One of the horses even came over to make sure everyone was all right.
Climbing up from the creek was a four-mile grind but I did happily notice that it was easier than yesterday's climb - the knees were definetly relieved to not carry the extra fuel. Here is a shot looking back down to the Warm River Valley and where we stayed last night.
Over on the other side of this 1,500 foot hill lay the Warm Spring Creek Valley. The road had a LOT of loose gravel, which made for slow and cautious riding both on the uphill and down. Not as much fun as other days where we've felt good contact with the surface.
Below is the base of the second big climb of the day. Union Pass is at 9,210 feet (although to get there the route goes up to 9,655 feet - go figure). We didn't take any photos of that climb because it was so flippin' hard (again, mostly due to road surface).
Because Union Pass is another unsigned divide crossing, and because we were tired, and because we were a little O2 deprived, we also didn't snap an official photo of CD crossing # 8, t but I did manage a short video from the high point. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeulpGOfXU
The "top" was a very broad plain - miles broad, actually. We would spend the next 25 miles traversing it above 9,000 feet. But because it was broad, surface water was abundant, thankfully, and there were many alpine streams.
We met Nothbounders from Texas. Dwayne, his wife (sorry, forgot her name), Len and Teresa. They've been doing sections of the GDMBR for years--maybe since the 80s? They supplied us with a couple clementine oranges from their sag wagon. They tasted so good.
One thing you might note about Len is he is totally garbed up. Apparently he is a mosquito magnet and warned us that the mosquitos ahead were pretty fierce. I thought he might be taking things to the extreme but, sure enough, a couple miles down the road we came to a short mile climb and were descended upon by a swarm of the bloodsuckers. It was bad enough for me to throw my bike down and immediately start walking/running back toward Alaine who was carrying the DEET (my abrupt actions kinda gave Alaine a fright!). I've never been so thankful for that awful stuff.
One of the highlights of the trip that I had been looking forward to was seeing the source of the Green River in the Wind River Mountains. While the route doesn't take you there, it gets you close. That's the Wind River Range in the background.
Long day of riding. We made it to Whiskey Grove USFS Campground on the Green River just as the sun was setting. We even managed to cook and eat dinner outside thanks to Repel 100/deet! The mosquitoes are certainly a factor in this section of the trip.
Day 22, Friday, July 18
61.3 miles, 6.5mph avg., 9:15 ride time! (12 hours between camps), CD #8 near Union Pass
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