August 21, 2011
Tonight we sit on our Best Western (Rawlings Wyoming) room porch with our bikes backed up to the door. The sun is just setting, the beer is great, and our dinner should be here any minute. We just showered and cleaned up and had a “bruise count” (Michele = 8, Mike = 8 – ya we’re tied for quantity but Mike takes the win tonight with surface area!).
Highlights of today? Lots. Wyoming is one of the most impressive places we’ve seen yet as we are getting a first hand perspective of the vastness of the desert plains. We basically road a full day today, hours and hours, without seeing pavement. We road gravel roads and 2 track trails that are primarily used by the ranchers to herd up their cows. The oil-gas industry uses some of these roads as well for access to areas like the “Buffalo Basin” oil wells – an impressive site with no humans anywhere near the working well heads.
Imagine driving or riding down a gravel road through grass scrublands for…. Oh say for 2 hours. Then imagine running into some ranchers just sitting by their truck having a sandwich. You stop, just because you do, people are rare in these here parts. They yell out “looks like the long way down”. Now you know they’re bikers since they just referred to a bike flick. They invite you over for a water and whatever else you need. A couple minutes later a real live cowboy shows up on a CRF 450 motocross bike. You chat up a storm about anything and everything sitting in the middle of a road in the middle of a desert in the middle of Wyoming in the middle of North America. After 20 minutes they broach the reality topic of just how far you have to go… you’re still 70 miles from pavement. The cowboy offers to show you a short cut and you’re off, riding through uncharted territory to you but this is his backyard.
Well what a ride we had today, and a very special thanks to our ex US Navy dentist and rancher extraordinaire Wesley David who like any gentlemen rancher gave Michele his CRF 450 to ride through the knarly and rugged off road stuff as he toured us through some of the most amazing country we’ve ever experienced. Remember, this is not a view from a car window from a paved road, this is living and breathing the true remoteness of ranching in Wyoming.
With 7” of precipitation per year this is true desert, and with the pressures of government agencies forcing the ranchers to move their cattle if the grass is less than 7” tall it must be a challenge to round up a thousand cattle and truck them to another area. Kinda fun sound’n though eh!
Another adventure, another day, and a bunch more pictures and stories.
Over and out for tonight.
Michele and Mike
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