What a day! I’ll get this out of the way first, I did a personal longest ride today of 126 miles, from Atlantic City, WY to Rawlins, WY, by way of the Great Basin of Wyoming. It wasn’t supposed to be that long. We planned on doing 77 miles to the A&M reservoir in the basin, a small reservoir put in place to support local wildlife, but due to a variety of reasons, we decided to push on. At first we were supposed to push on to a site less than 10 miles away, be before you know it, we decided to go all the way to Rawlins. It was a long day, but in we got to take the next day off, so I think we’re doing pretty good.

As far as the Great Basin is concerned, there are a differing opinions about this place, but I quite enjoyed biking here. It was peaceful and quiet most of the time, save for the wind, and the expanse of the sky and the land were breathtaking. I got a chance to ride along the tops of some hills that highlighted the openness and gentle beauty of the surroundings in a way that those walking or driving would be hard pressed to experience.

And there were some total surprises today, big and small.

First, small. At this one moment in time, Bud Light was the best beer in the world. Trust me, my beer loving friends, if you were there at this place and this time, you would agree.

Then, big. The maps were wrong. Though I say in the video, “the maps my brother made, ” it is totally not his fault. He got them in good faith off a reliable source on the internet, but it just so happens that they wanted to go a different direction than the ACA maps for this one section. I had been using them for weeks and there was no problem, they just went off script here for some unknown reason. This took us on a journey of discovery through the Great Basin. When all is said and done, it turned out to be an enjoyable diversion. Sometimes it works out like that, unplanned trips can be very cool.

And weird. Freaky weird. Like, Blair Witch weird.

But this is what most of the day was like. Flawless sky and biking on a fun mix of hills, flats, and, yes, even tail winds.