Craig, CO to Laramie, WY

Originally Posted August 28, 2004 by Chad

Right after we left the Craig Library, we got some Chinese carry-out (bad idea) and rode off through Craig looking for a park to eat it in. We saw a young couple with two kids picking crabapples so we pulled up to ask them for directions to the park (good idea).

I could tell immediately that Jim was a likable guy. He told us about two different parks and even suggested that we could camp in one of them. Then his wife, Melany, asked us where we were from and where we were going. Then she said that they had ridden a tandem bike from her parents’ home in Colorado to his parents’ home in Wisconsin. They are the first people besides ourselves we’ve met that have toured on a tandem.

They invited us to their home and let us spend the night in their basement. Jim’s mother, who was visiting from Wisconsin, had made some trifle and made sure that we both had enough. In the morning they made us breakfast of ham and eggs and toast with crabapple jelly. Everything was delicious. Experiences like that are the reason we wanted to come on this trip.




North of Craig, in Baggs, Wyoming we got caught in a thunderstorm. We hid out in the dug-out of the local little league softball field until it passed. Then we started climbing over the continental divide for the last time. Unfortunately for our legs, that wasn’t the last mountain pass we would have to climb. Up next was Snowy Mountain pass between Encampment and Laramie, WY. At 10,847 ft, it was the highest point we’d ridden so far. It rained and hailed on us a few times on the way up, so we were good and wet for the frigid ride down the other side. At the top the temperature felt somewhere in the mid 30’s, and we could see that the rainstorms we had ridden through had been snowstorms at this altitude. The highway passed through terrain that looks like the Wind River Range to the North, where I’ve backpacked many times. The highway looked out of place in such a beautiful location. The place was paradise.


The ride down was misery. Mags had to put her hands inside my jacket to keep them warm. All I could do was grin and bear it as my knuckles went from a pale white to nearly blue. After descending 10 miles and 3000 ft, we found a campground. It wasn’t much, but it was warmer than up on top. We both slept well.

This morning was an easy, if not a bit chilly, 30 mile ride into Laramie, but the valley we had to cross to get there seemed to get wider and wider as we rode along. We could see the city for almost an hour before we finally got there. I guess that is just a taste of what it will be like when we get to South Dakota and Iowa.

We got some free showers at the University of Wyoming and met some other tandem bicyclists out for a group ride. One couple is going to let us spend a night at their home--the streak of kindness continues. We’re going to take a rest day here in Laramie tomorrow. Well, it’s not really a rest, I’ve got to do some upkeep on the bike—most notably I’ll be replacing the back tire. We’ve come over 2,300 miles and it’s as smooth as a baby’s bottom. On Monday we turn north to the Black Hills of South Dakota.