Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR - Segment):
Great Divide Basin: Picket Lake to Crooks Gap Road;
Wyoming; June 2013
Leg 2 - Picket Lake to Crooks Gap Road
(and Continental Divide Crossing #12)
Above Left: We're looking Eastward in the direction that we are about to travel on CR #2317.
Above Right: We're off, heading east on CR#2317.
Above: View from the cockpit; we have a strong tailwind.
Above: The road ahead, all day long.
Above: Looking south over the watershed for West Alkali Creek. There actually is a lot of life around here, it is just spread out.
Above Left: Oil Well Pumps.
Above Right: Crude Oil Collection Facility (and pump maintenance). For the record, the oil field workers driving trucks around here were very respectful and if a cyclist were to get into a jam it would most like be an oil field worker that saves their keister. These trucks only drive at two speeds, 'as fast as they can' and 'slow down some for cyclists'. If we were stopped and a truck came by us, the driver would always check to see if we were OK.
Above Left: This is probably a pumping station, probably for crude and natural gas.
Above Right: This (and the following two sign images) formed a road intersection that did not match the map. In order to complicate matters there were two alternative roads that connect to Atlantic City that were shorter in distance than the #2317 that were are traversing - Perhaps the alternative roads (all dirt) were more difficult, rougher, or too remote. We stayed on the proper GDMBR course but for a short period of time we were not sure of our navigation.
Above Left: This is the road that we are on, we do not know what the Three Forks reference is because in is not on the map and we never saw a thing called Three Forks and we completely traveled Road #2317 from end to end.
Above Right: We stay on #2317 and we do travel by an old ranch that maybe was a Land Sale area in a couple of miles, again, this is not on our map.
Above Left: Spinal Snake.
Above Right: Drag Plow.
Above: S&L Land and Livestock Company (we are guessing).
Above Left: The end of a Dust Devil, we saw several.
Above Right: Looking north around mile 50 of the GDMBR, Map 3, Side A.
Above Left: Looking southeast around mile 50 of the GDMBR, Map 3, Side A.
Above Right: LOCO Weed (Vetch).
Above Left: On and On it goes.
Above Right: Cattle heading northwest in Pecking Order, they all stopped at the same time to look at us.
Above: Forward and side views on the GDMBR.
Above Left: Most of the road is like this picture, it just does not show in photographs all of the time. The road is too soft in the center, too bumpy in the washboard, OK on the side of the washboard for about a 2 inch width (5 cm), and then it is too soft again.
If a rider is going downhill too fast, they need to ride the bumps because the washboard ground is at least firm, the soft dirt could stall the front tire (bring it to a stop). Stalling can be so abrubt that it could flip a short wheelbase bike if the rider were not prepared or experienced. On a long bike like our tandem, the soft dirt would just bring the bike to a stop. Given all of the choices, we'd rather ride the bone shaker than have too push the bike.
Above Right: Cattle Roundup Pin, used about 2 times a year.
Above Left: We call this Twizzel Stick (Swizzle Stick), we've seen it in yellow, orange, red, and purple.
Above Right: Our one and only sighting of sheep for an entire week.
Above Left: We're near Mile 60 (on the Wyoming GDMBR).
Above Right: We are at or near Continental Divide Crossing #12.
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