July 11, 2025
Day 32: Shoshoni to Casper
What a day! Well, let’s actually start with last night. The campground didn’t have any water, but we had enough for dinner and boiled lake water to clean up dishes. We knew it was forecast to be windy overnight, so we made sure everything was secured. Just after 1 am I was awoken by 45 mph winds almost collapsing my tent. I also noticed everything inside the tent was covered by a fine layer of sand. After about an hour of trying to support the tent with my knee for fear of breaking a pole, I gave up. I broke the tent down and retreated to the women’s bathroom. Scott M was awake too as his tent strained under the rushing wind. We were the only ones in the entire campground, so I wasn’t worried about someone needing the bathroom. Working on 5 hours of restless sleep, we broke camp while eating a quick breakfast and we headed out for a 100 mile day. Our only planned century ride!! We stopped by a gas station on the way into town and grabbed coffee and water. The scenery was wide open spaces of sage grassland with few buildings or people. our hosts joked about 40 proposed in this 100 mile wilderness… seemed about right. Unfortunately, we had a headwind almost all day but the temp was pleasant and the skies were mostly cloudy. Progress was slow in the east headwind (~9 mph) and we had doubts about making it to Casper. We had lunch at a rest stop half way and met some folks we had spoken to at the brewery in Thermopolis. They offered us some extra sandwich wraps and we gladly accepted the welcomed change from our regular tuna packets. Fortunately, the wind turned north and buffeted us from the side, but we could move more quickly. Animals for the day: antelope, about 8 turkey and a coyote. We finally arrived exhausted at our Warmshowers host just before 8pm after 10 plus hours in the saddle.
Today's ride: 103 miles (166 km)
Total: 1,544 miles (2,485 km)
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