If You’re Patient, You Just May Be Surprised

August 1, 2022

Beautiful view from Encampment, WY. A stark difference from what we saw for most of today’s ride. Sorry this one is out of order. The app keeps rejecting my efforts to move it

The coal train that had 110 cars and was probably what made it difficult to sleep last night.

The center of the town of Sinclair, WY…the refinery.

This was going to be the sign of the day as it was our exit after riding Interstate 80 for 13 miles 😳

My proof photo that there wasn’t much scenery for a really long time. Between this view and the headwinds, the middle of the ride was not a top 5.

Barn of the day picture on the outskirts of Saratoga, WY

Sign of the day from Riverside, WY. So cool painted on the back of the building.

Remember this incinerator from way back I think as we were entering Halfway, ID? Here’s one from Encampment,WY repurposed by the school.

Educational opportunity, the story of Encampment, WY. Worth reading.

The story of the Encampment Tramway and mining.

This is a replica of the 16 mile long tramway.

The sign on the local gas pump. Memories…

The sign on the other local gas pump. More memories and I don’t even like Pepsi or Mountain Dew either.

Rawlins turned out to be a huge disappointment. For dinner last night, we were close to getting a frozen pizza at the camp store, when finally we found the one open restaurant. It was a Japanese restaurant and the food was good. Then the trains and traffic ran all night (more on the trains later), not good sleeping sounds. For breakfast, there was only one non-fast food place open in the whole town. No wait, it wasn’t really open because they didn’t have a cook (WTH, it’s a diner). So we bought stuff (mostly danish and donuts) at the grocery store and ate standing on the sidewalk in front of the store. Time to get the heck out of Rawlins. We made it about 200 yards and Dan had flat number four. With that fixed, we sprinted on to Sinclair.

Sinclair is a town (that’s a stretch) that exists solely for the oil and gas company. You know the green dinosaur. Saw a coal train there too. I counted 110 coal cars. I can only assume they were the trains running literally all night (ok closed that loop).

From Sinclair…wait for it…wait for it…we rode 13 miles on Interstate 80 (can I get a WTH). Actually it wasn’t too bad but still Interstate 80? Hopefully you’ll be understanding in that I took no pictures while on the Interstate. We took exit 235 and headed south towards Saratoga, WY.

At this point in the ride, the headwinds joined us and the scenery went blah. We assumed there would be no pictures as there was nothing to get excited about. Ok I did take one picture so as to prove my point.

Here’s where patience pays off…coming into Saratoga the scenery changed. There were actually trees and a barn (yes a barn picture) and bee boxes (yay for the bees). Then Saratoga was pretty. But the best part was totally unexpected. We got to Riverside and Encampment and that’s where we were totally surprised.

Riverside owns the sign of the day and Encampment some nice scenery but the best history and educational opportunity. Encampment is another mining town that boomed and busted. But they had the coolest 16 mile (yup 16 miles) tramway to move copper ore. I’ve attached the write up for you in the pictures.

Just finished dinner across street from the campsite. Great place (the Bear Trap) especially in a town of about 60 people. Breakfast is probably at the general store as there are no breakfast restaurants (much more understandable here than in Rawlins).

Well I think that’s it for today, except for adding the pictures. I’ll try to toss in some memorabilia pictures too.

Bye for now

Ian

Today's ride: 62 miles (100 km)
Total: 2,750 miles (4,426 km)

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