I have had Day 17 circled on my calendar for well over a year now. Day 17 is billed as the toughest day in all of P2P and now I know why. It’s considered a big test – a test of your training and preparation for this adventure. There is only 1 direct way over the Big Horn Mountains from Lovell to Sheridan and it’s Hwy 14 – an almost 100 mile stretch of highway going from the high desert floor near Lovell and clearing the mountains at Big Horn Pass at an elevation of 9,430 feet. Unfortunately, this morning I was like the high school kid who showed up to the calculus test without a calculator,
The day started early with a 4:30 AM wakeup so that we could head over early to the Mustang Cafe that opened early to accommodate our schedule. After breakfast we headed back to the Horseshoe Bend Motel on our bikes for final prep for the ride. As we were rolling out, I could not get my right shoe cleat clicked in despite many efforts. So back to the motel I go only to find out that my cleats were so worn down that I couldn’t get them locked in. I felt like an idiot – it was a real rookie mistake and I should have known to check my equipment more regularly – especially for a day like today. In any case, I pulled my luggage and retrieved another set of cleats but by the time I got them on with the help of one of our guides, I was 15 minutes behind our group. So I poured on the wattage as I headed to the Big Horn Mountains and was barely able to catch them at the first SAG stop at mile 15.
Soon after that stop, we made left turn headed east and the first 5,269 foot climb started in earnest. In all of these long sustained climbs, you have to have a game plan. Mine was pretty simple, I know that I can maintain around 185 watts of power for around 2 hours. So, I just lock in on that heart rate and power setting and adjust my cadence as necessary depending on the gradient of the climb. The game plan worked pretty well until the rain kicked in and the temperature dropped inversely with the altitude. I am simply not used to operating at anywhere neat 6,000 feet of elevation, and we still had 3,400 more feet to climb. So I had to make some on the fly adjustments by stopping at a few scenic overlooks to get my heart rate down and rest my legs. Today was my longest climb and highest elevation gain ever – so I took some pride in that!
We finally neared the end of the first big climb at 10:41 AM which put us in a good position to clear the summit at mile 38.2 by noon. At Big Horn Pass, the weather can sometimes get really bad after 12 noon. But we still had to run about 5 miles along a ridge line and around 500 feet of climbing to get us there. The weather had turned even worse by then with small drops of pelting rain and our feet and upper bodies were cold from the water soaking in.
I was also beginning to get a little light-headed as well so when we hit the 9,430 foot summit, we took some quick pics and began or descent as quickly as we could. The only challenge at that point was that we descended to 8,400 feet and then had to climb back to 8,800 feet to begin the final descent. I will say that the views were incredible, but I was so ready to get off that mountainside, that I didn’t even stop for pictures.
The worst thing about the summit though, was that once you’re there, you still have 62 miles to go to get to Sheridan where we are staying tonight at the historic Sheridan Inn.
It was tough day and I aim to hopefully recover tonight after our group dinner. The next 2 days include consecutive 108 mile rides with over 4,500 feet of elevation gain each day before 1 final 76 mile ride before our next rest day in Rapid City, SD. It can’t get here soon enough!