The Big Horns
Holy cow – today was the best day ever. We woke up at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains and started off the day with a great breakfast provided by our hosts in Buffalo. We got our first glimpse of the snow capped mountains about 20 miles in to yesterday’s ride, and they stood off in the distance for the remainder of the ride. Unfortunately the 10,000 foot peaks didn’t vanish over night as we had hoped, so a 35 mile climb was our first order of business this morning.
About 3 miles up the mountain, we began to hear and smell what sounded like 1,000 whining 2 year olds with soggy diapers, but soon saw up in the distance a huge herd of cattle slowly making their way upwards. The cows were not to happy to see us, but despite Tony’s taunting them because we were so much faster, they did little more than ‘moo’ and leave cow pies all over the road. The cows were accompanied by about 15 cowboys and girls who thought that we were just about as crazy as we found this situation to be. Despite many offers, none of them wanted to swap their horses for our shiny, poop covered bikes, so we kept pushing on.
About 30 miles later (averaging 10 mph, that’s only 3.5 hours of climbing!), we reached the top of the Big Horns – our first official mountain chain!!! We summited at 9,666 feet on the Powder River Pass and all of our riders finished the climb. After a few of us scrambled up to the top of the rock face above (topping out somewhere around 10,000 feet) we decided to make our way down the mountain before any type of altitude sickness could set in.
After climbing 5,000 feet in the morning, we descended the same amount after lunch in about an hour’s time. We found a new favorite road sign – Trucks Use Low Gear Next 18 Miles. Wow. Not only were we able to coast for the last 30 miles, but the pine trees and gray granite rocks that we had watched during the climb, opened up into a stunning red sandstone canyon. One of our most beautiful rides by far. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
-Emily Garlough
About 3 miles up the mountain, we began to hear and smell what sounded like 1,000 whining 2 year olds with soggy diapers, but soon saw up in the distance a huge herd of cattle slowly making their way upwards. The cows were not to happy to see us, but despite Tony’s taunting them because we were so much faster, they did little more than ‘moo’ and leave cow pies all over the road. The cows were accompanied by about 15 cowboys and girls who thought that we were just about as crazy as we found this situation to be. Despite many offers, none of them wanted to swap their horses for our shiny, poop covered bikes, so we kept pushing on.
About 30 miles later (averaging 10 mph, that’s only 3.5 hours of climbing!), we reached the top of the Big Horns – our first official mountain chain!!! We summited at 9,666 feet on the Powder River Pass and all of our riders finished the climb. After a few of us scrambled up to the top of the rock face above (topping out somewhere around 10,000 feet) we decided to make our way down the mountain before any type of altitude sickness could set in.
After climbing 5,000 feet in the morning, we descended the same amount after lunch in about an hour’s time. We found a new favorite road sign – Trucks Use Low Gear Next 18 Miles. Wow. Not only were we able to coast for the last 30 miles, but the pine trees and gray granite rocks that we had watched during the climb, opened up into a stunning red sandstone canyon. One of our most beautiful rides by far. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
-Emily Garlough
posted by Jonathan @ 5:04 AM
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