'Still you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant so far away from home.'

wind river
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This has been my longest day so far- 84 miles. I started pretty early from Riverton, but all day the going was quite slow. I’ve left the vaguely uphill plains and entered the distinctly uphill mountain country. And of course I was following Wind River which is- you guessed it- windy. Strong, steady and in my face all day. One up side was that it was cloudy, but not very rainy for most of the day. The terrain is exquisite though. Every time I saw a new stretch of mountains in the distance I had to get a picture. I met a man with his SUV stopped on the shoulder- he'd run out of gas within sight of the gas station. He gave me a 20 and asked if I could bring him back a gallon. I went to the station but the man there offered to drive him the gas so I didn’t have to bike it. He told me while re-fueling that his great-grandfather was the warrior chief who’d won the big battle at Crowheart. The sun eventually came out. I guess it caught me off guard because I got a sunburn before I realized that it was staying. But the clouds rolled in again and I was poured on in my last 10 miles. After such a day and with soggy socks and shoes, I checked into a motel- 12 full hours after leaving my campground. I ate a bag of popcorn for dinner. Comfort food after a trying day. Above 6000 feet too and ready to take on the big mountains tomorrow.