Yesterday after church, I drove home to Greeley from Newcastle in Joanne's new C-RV. It was a pretty drive and it was good to be able to talk to Joanne in person after my first week in Newcastle.
Today I turned around and rode my NT back to Newcastle. It was a gorgeous day -- albeit a tad windy in places. From Fort Collins till I got off I-25 7 miles north of Cheyenne, it was more than a tad windy -- I'd guess it was a pretty steady 30-35mph with occasional higher gusts. But when I turned off onto US-85 toward Torrington, I put it behind me. It decreased to 15-20 and was a quartering wind from the left.
The scenery on 85 would be bleak and empty to many people. There are no services between Cheyenne and Torrington except for three little stores and a couple of restaurants in Hawk Springs. No gas. But it was only 148 miles from my house to the Western gas station in Torrington (same place Clay -- RedNigel on the Forum -- and I bought gas before we went to Ft. Laramie on our way to Spearfish in '12), so even if the winds had kept their headwind component, I'd have been OK.
Across that stretch there are rolling prairies and the buttes carved by Horse Creek and wind over the eons. North of Lingle, the town where US-85 and US-26 split, with 26 following the track of the Oregon Trail, 85 follows the Rawhide Creek drainage on the east side of a low range of mountains/hills. Again, there are no services Lusk, which is a bit over 50 miles from Lingle. There is one little town called Jay Em. It was a town built by a guy named Lake Harris and was named after Jim Moore who owned -- get ready for this -- the JM Ranch, once the 2nd largest ranch in Wyoming Territory. There was a bank, a general store, a gas station, a garage, a lumber yard, and a gravestone cutting operation there. The only things left are a few houses and a post office.
Lusk is the next metropolis along 85. It's got a population of about 1500 and is the location of the Wyoming Prison System's Women's Correctional Unit. My daughter-in-law was the librarian in Lusk at their Carnegie Library from '92-'94. When Tania was hired, the library board assured her that Chris would have no trouble finding a job (which was pretty important because the Library wasn't paying Tania enough for two people to live on!). Well, they lied. It took him a couple of months before he was hired as the night guy at the gas station at the intersection of 85 and US-20. After about a year he got hired as a correctional officer at the prison and found his lifetime calling. Lusk looks more prosperous than it did when the kids lived there 20 years ago.
North of Lusk 85 keeps rolling north dropping off a ridge line that runs for over 100 miles east-west across western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. It's impressive terrain and there are hoodoos and goblins eroded from soft sandstone all along it. North of that the waters, such as they are drain into the mighty Cheyenne River (which must have been all of 10-15 feet wide when I crossed it today.
US-16 heads east of Mule Creek Junction towards Hot Springs, SD, but I stayed on 85. Mule Creek Junction used to have a bar that was an essential stopping point for Rally riders heading to Sturgis. Now there's a rest area and you can get water. At least I assume you can. The rest area between Cheyenne and Torrington has water to flush its toilets and wash your hands, but no water to drink. So far, I haven't needed to stop at Mule Creek Junction.
When I got to Newcastle, I kept on going north into the SW edge of the Black Hills, past the Wyoming Honor Farm/Prison for juvenile offenders, the old Cambria mining district, and north along Salt Creek till I had ridden far enough to guarantee that I'd be over 97,000 miles by the time I got back to Fountain Inn, my abode for at least part of this week.
I'm currently planning on riding back to Greeley on Easter afternoon and spending most of the week there before coming back to Newcastle on Saturday. Then I'll be here till mid-May (although I might run home once for a couple of days) until I leave for a week to ride to Alamo, Nevada, for the Team Lyle Strange Rachel Insanity Days Rally (and, no, I don't have any idea whatsoever what that name means). That Rally is basically a Bun Burner Gold, involving riding from Alamo to Tonopah, to Battle Mountain, to West Wendover, back to Tonopah, up to Fallon, over to Baker, and back to Alamo. 1524 miles in under 24 hours. It's 789 miles to Alamo, so double that, add the Rally, and I'll rack up another 3,000+ miles. I'm guessing I'll roll over 100K before I get to Alamo on that trip, since I'll have at least a couple of more round trips from here to home in Greeley and each of them rack up 560 miles more or less. Plus, Jim Moore will probably ride in this direction one Friday or Saturday and we'll meet somewhere for lunch and a bit of riding in the Black Hills.
"Rollin', rollin', keep those dogies rollin'...rawhide!"
Today I turned around and rode my NT back to Newcastle. It was a gorgeous day -- albeit a tad windy in places. From Fort Collins till I got off I-25 7 miles north of Cheyenne, it was more than a tad windy -- I'd guess it was a pretty steady 30-35mph with occasional higher gusts. But when I turned off onto US-85 toward Torrington, I put it behind me. It decreased to 15-20 and was a quartering wind from the left.
The scenery on 85 would be bleak and empty to many people. There are no services between Cheyenne and Torrington except for three little stores and a couple of restaurants in Hawk Springs. No gas. But it was only 148 miles from my house to the Western gas station in Torrington (same place Clay -- RedNigel on the Forum -- and I bought gas before we went to Ft. Laramie on our way to Spearfish in '12), so even if the winds had kept their headwind component, I'd have been OK.
Across that stretch there are rolling prairies and the buttes carved by Horse Creek and wind over the eons. North of Lingle, the town where US-85 and US-26 split, with 26 following the track of the Oregon Trail, 85 follows the Rawhide Creek drainage on the east side of a low range of mountains/hills. Again, there are no services Lusk, which is a bit over 50 miles from Lingle. There is one little town called Jay Em. It was a town built by a guy named Lake Harris and was named after Jim Moore who owned -- get ready for this -- the JM Ranch, once the 2nd largest ranch in Wyoming Territory. There was a bank, a general store, a gas station, a garage, a lumber yard, and a gravestone cutting operation there. The only things left are a few houses and a post office.
Lusk is the next metropolis along 85. It's got a population of about 1500 and is the location of the Wyoming Prison System's Women's Correctional Unit. My daughter-in-law was the librarian in Lusk at their Carnegie Library from '92-'94. When Tania was hired, the library board assured her that Chris would have no trouble finding a job (which was pretty important because the Library wasn't paying Tania enough for two people to live on!). Well, they lied. It took him a couple of months before he was hired as the night guy at the gas station at the intersection of 85 and US-20. After about a year he got hired as a correctional officer at the prison and found his lifetime calling. Lusk looks more prosperous than it did when the kids lived there 20 years ago.
North of Lusk 85 keeps rolling north dropping off a ridge line that runs for over 100 miles east-west across western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. It's impressive terrain and there are hoodoos and goblins eroded from soft sandstone all along it. North of that the waters, such as they are drain into the mighty Cheyenne River (which must have been all of 10-15 feet wide when I crossed it today.
US-16 heads east of Mule Creek Junction towards Hot Springs, SD, but I stayed on 85. Mule Creek Junction used to have a bar that was an essential stopping point for Rally riders heading to Sturgis. Now there's a rest area and you can get water. At least I assume you can. The rest area between Cheyenne and Torrington has water to flush its toilets and wash your hands, but no water to drink. So far, I haven't needed to stop at Mule Creek Junction.
When I got to Newcastle, I kept on going north into the SW edge of the Black Hills, past the Wyoming Honor Farm/Prison for juvenile offenders, the old Cambria mining district, and north along Salt Creek till I had ridden far enough to guarantee that I'd be over 97,000 miles by the time I got back to Fountain Inn, my abode for at least part of this week.
I'm currently planning on riding back to Greeley on Easter afternoon and spending most of the week there before coming back to Newcastle on Saturday. Then I'll be here till mid-May (although I might run home once for a couple of days) until I leave for a week to ride to Alamo, Nevada, for the Team Lyle Strange Rachel Insanity Days Rally (and, no, I don't have any idea whatsoever what that name means). That Rally is basically a Bun Burner Gold, involving riding from Alamo to Tonopah, to Battle Mountain, to West Wendover, back to Tonopah, up to Fallon, over to Baker, and back to Alamo. 1524 miles in under 24 hours. It's 789 miles to Alamo, so double that, add the Rally, and I'll rack up another 3,000+ miles. I'm guessing I'll roll over 100K before I get to Alamo on that trip, since I'll have at least a couple of more round trips from here to home in Greeley and each of them rack up 560 miles more or less. Plus, Jim Moore will probably ride in this direction one Friday or Saturday and we'll meet somewhere for lunch and a bit of riding in the Black Hills.
"Rollin', rollin', keep those dogies rollin'...rawhide!"
