Tour Divide Update: Great Basin, WY

Lael pedaling the forests of northern Montana.  Check out the complete mid-race report at Mountain Flyer Magazine.  Photo by Eddie Clark.

Lael passed Atlantic City in the night, likely stopping in at the Miner’s Grubstake bar to fill up on water.  Perched at 7694ft, the town is named after a mineral vein found on the east side of the Continental Divide, in the massive North American drainage to the Atlantic Ocean.  She continued until exactly midnight and camped six miles past town at the edge of the windswept Great Basin.  The Basin is a curious feature along the Continental Divide where water drains to neither ocean, but is captured within a broad area across central Wyoming.  Most notably for Divide riders, the area infrequently receives any precipitation.  Passing west and south of the massive Wind River Range, Lael is now pushing across wide open space.  The next forests she will encounter are near Colorado.

I texted Lael yesterday saying “Go to the outdoor shop in pinedale. ask for josh. updated gps track. you are cruising!”  I expected a call verifying the upload, but instead I watched her roll out of Pinedale.  For me, this was all between tuning two Bike Friday tandems, selling a Rockhopper, and checking in crusty bikes for repair.  You wouldn’t believe some of the bikes that come through our back door. For her, this was the middle of another 183 mile day, her third day riding this exact distance.  The day before was her longest day at over 190 miles.  She spent two and a half hours in Pinedale.  She didn’t even turn on her phone until after she came out of the grocery store.  I feared she might blow through town.