GDMBR Day 38

• Start: Atlantic City, Wyoming

• Finish: Informal campsite

• Miles: 41.8 miles

• Odometer: 1,530.1 miles

• Ascent: 3,200 feet

• Descent: 2,900 feet

• Location: https://share.garmin.com/Judice

Highlights:

Last night I stayed at Wild Bill’s Bed and Breakfast (and gun shop). The proprietors, Wild Bill and Carmela, built three cabins that they devote to hikers and bikers. Bill is a gunsmith and runs a gun shop as well. He and I sat down and visited over an amazing breakfast prepared by Wild Bill himself. 

Today was an awesome day of riding with snowcapped Wind River Range mountain views and practically no wind. I listened to the audiobook “Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett and just pedaled my legs while gawking at the mountains and breathing in the cool crisp day.

Lowlights:

I found a grassy area off the route that had beautiful views of the mountains. So I set up my tent. The first tick I noticed was crawling on my helmet. Thereafter, I began looking for them and found ticks everywhere. I hate ticks worse than I hate New Mexico peanut butter mud. At least peanut butter mode won’t kill you. After checking myself for ticks, I dove into my tent, zipped it up, and spent 12 hours peeking out the mesh door at the mountains while listening to my audiobook (and steering clear of all the ticks). In my opinion, Lyme disease is much more prevalent than reported and causes many non-specific medical conditions. I would later feel a bump (like an insect bite) on the back of my scalp and took prophylactic doxycycline as a precaution. I brought some doxycycline on the trip in case I ran into ticks. I may be overly cautious but I’m OK with that.