WLM
| adventure
I chuckled as we looked at the first
day’s checkpoints and Shad and Karla
spoke familiarly about the trails. The
giggles subsided as they spoke of Indian Trail between South Pass and Sinks
Canyon using the technical terminology “hike-a-bike.”
This was the first time Marina had
heard such nomenclature. This would
also be the first time she saw a majority
of the ground we would cover. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she made
Lander her home less than a year ago. I
knew she had the athletic prowess of a
Greek goddess, but she had never met
Shad or Karla before race week.
Thursday morning, the
four of us—the Wind
River Country Team—
joined 39 other teams
on buses departing
Casper. When we crested South Pass south of
Lander, our team was
relaxed, watching our
home turf slip by. But
the other teams perked
up; they looked like
ducks with their white
baseball caps bobbing
to their futile attempts
to see over hills to hidden valleys and around
blind corners.
The starting line was
historic South Pass City. At the gun,
cheers erupted from family, friends,
and sponsors like NOLS and our namesake, the Wind River Visitors Council.
Karla volunteered to be our team’s
navigator, a hefty responsibility. We
supported her with active followership. We set out on foot, following
the clues in her hand, to retrieve core
samples and “gold nuggets” in the
form of spray-painted rocks, which
we exchanged for “provisions” like
saltwater taffy and shots of Wyoming
Whiskey. It was only right that the
Wind River Country Team won the
unofficial competition that was born in
30
Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Fall 2014
the saloon that morning: we each took
three (small) shots before hopping on
our bikes.
Following this prologue came the longest day for our team. We pedaled
through Atlantic City and to Limestone Mountain Road, the gravel road
that takes climbers to the famous Wild
Iris climbing area. We cruised down to
Pass Creek and then up, and up, and up
Indian Trail to the top of Sinks Canyon.
This was the hike-a-bike. We slogged
up each massive hill, eventually pushing our bikes as they seemed to cry out
at the injustice. The skies became bluer
and clearer, the sun beat down on us,
and racers clumped together to rest in
the shade of the occasional single tree
alongside the two-track.
But when we remembered to look up,
we were re-centered by the beautiful,
cliff-rimmed hillside. And when we
reached each “top,” we hopped back
on the saddle and cruised down with
delight (and heavy handed braking on
my part).
At about 5 p.m., the next climb became
the final climb. We arrived at the top
of Sinks Canyon southwest of Lander to the cheers of friends and family
and reason to step off the bikes one
last time. We continued on foot to Frye
Lake and Worthen Meadow Reservoir,
where we relished cool water, shade,
and the excuse to wade through a few
streams.
We picked up the optional checkpoints
in this familiar territory then started down the Sheep Bridge Trail. The
longest part of the day were the miles
down the paved Sinks Canyon Road
to the mouth of the canyon: our feet
ached, but we kept pounding them on
the asphalt down, down, down. We’d
traveled about 18 miles since we’d last
seen our bikes.
We arrived at the end-of-day checkpoint at 1:30 a.m. We would be allowed
to leave at 6, required
to leave by 7. I’ve never
slept so hard, and I’ve
never been so grateful
for sleep like that—we
still had three days
ahead of us.
The second morning
also starte