Day 16: IRENA’S BIRTHDAY aka Puttering in Pinedale
Sunday, July 4
Pinedale, WY to Boulder, WY
13.0 miles, 39 ft climbed, 1006.5 cumulative miles
After a big day of riding yesterday, we arrived into Pinedale late enough to miss out on any available options for camping in town due to the holiday weekend so we decided to splurge on a room at the Quality Inn since it was Irena’s birthday eve and all. After spending several hours over dinner and beers at Wind River Brewing assessing our options for routes, resupply, and water sources for the upcoming several days in the dry and shade-free Great Divide Basin, we decided to make today a pseudo rest day. We would ride only from Pinedale to Boulder and then have a longer day tomorrow to get from Boulder to Atlantic City. We felt this made the most sense to ensure we were heading into the basin with a solid plan and being well-rested, well-fed, and hydrated.
So having decided that, we asked for late checkout at the hotel (which they granted) and we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Wrangler Cafe and then spent the next few hours just laying around relaxing and continuing to formulate our plan of attack for the basin. It was a super treat to just relax like lazy sacks on actual beds with a toilet and running water nearby for a couple of hours! A well-deserved birthday morning for Irena. If you want to really appreciate first-world luxuries, go on a bikepacking trip!
When we checked out of the hotel at 1pm (and not a second sooner), Sarah wanted to swing by the local bike shop, Geared Up, to deposit on their doorstep (in hopes they could repurpose it somehow) the saddle she’d purchased in Helena. We knew the shop was closed on Sundays and were disappointed in our poor timing because Sarah’s bike had been having shifting issues for a few days which we really wanted to get resolved prior to the big climbs coming up in Colorado. To our surprise, the door was open and the owner was there and graciously looked over both of our bikes even though the shop was technically closed. The Great Divide route devours bike chains at a rate much faster than normal wear. We were both in need of new chains already. Andrew replaced them for us and Sarah’s shifting issues are resolved. Thank you Andrew!
We puttered around in Pinedale for a few more hours eating and grocery shopping and eating some more and then had an easy spin 13 miles up the highway to our campsite in Boulder, WY. Tomorrow we ride to Atlantic City. Great Divide Basin here we come!
Published July 4, 2021