Laramie Lap 1st attempt

[Number Two]

With apologies to those not familiar with this area, I want to do a rr on my most recent excursions.  If you've never been down here before, maybe this will get some of you interested. 

Ever since I got a bike out here in Laramie, I've been wondering about trying to stitch together some fun dual sport routes.  I finally have the first route set after some quality time with google earth.  The route will start in Laramie, ride a circle south out of town, then to the east, and finally back into the north side of town.  The proposed route is 80% dirt (county and forest roads), and 20% secondary highway.  I wanted to get as much dirt is possible, avoid as much traffic as possible, and tour the major sites of SE Wyoming in the process.

I'm a little nervous about my bike, a 1984 Yamaha TT600.  It's old, it doesn't have a working odometer or speedometer, and I don't know what the range is yet.  Part of the process of eventually completing this route will have to involve sorting the bike out. 

Here's the Google Earth path: 111 miles...

[Number Two]

OK, so before I got this far, I have to rewind...

I actually found one of the roads by accident.  I was out for a ride on the weekend, trying to get out of town without using the interstate.  There is lots of private land down here, and lots of those plots are very large, so that roads with easement across are less common.  I headed south out of Laramie, by the Mountain Cement Plant, as a guess, and found a county road called Sand Creek Road.  Great!  Anyway, this wide dirt superhighway is maintained by the cement plant for the first seven miles to get out to one of their quarries.  After that is looks like your standard 1.5 lane dirt road.  A ways out I come upon a sign indicating Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge.  Now we're getting somewhere.  This place is a couple thousand acres, and is laced with little two-track trails that connect a series of lakes and little streams.  Presumeably someone uses the tracks to service the lakes and... count the ducks or something.  Anyway the trails are rough, in a fun way, and I have a blast exploring for the next hour or so before I head home.  And the best part, I found this place completely by accident.  Once I got home, I said to my wife, "Honey, did you know we had a wildlife refuge 20 miles from our house?  Come check it out."  Anyway, she's up for it, and we go check it out.  These pics are from that second trip on december 31 - the last ride of 2008.

Sand Creek Road


more


In the refuge


Getting dark, time to head back to the house and warm up  brrrr!

[Number Two]

I had a break today, and the temps were above freezing, so I thought I'd go a little bit further and see how far I could get. 

I headed back out exactly the same way I started in December.  I covered about 1/4 of the route.  Shown as yellow with red dots on the google earh screen-shot up top.

Looking back north toward the cement plant


The mighty beast... with 2 extra gallons just in case.  I had stopped to make sure it was tied down securely, and it wasn't.  I took the oportunity to make the old man proud and do it right. 


Not quite sure who the guy holding my camer is - sure is an ugly dude, but check out that road behind him!

[Number Two]

some boring shots of the road headed south

[Number Two]

Finally made it to the first T.  Sportsman lake road.  Cabellas is proud.



more road ... I like roads I guess



What's up guys?



Gravel twisties. 



The further I went, the more obstacles I found.  I didn't get the real nasty ones, but I about lost my front tire in a few of the mud patches. 



Rocks



About now, I'm wondering if my rear tire is going flat or something.  It's kinda dancing all over the place, so I stop to check it out.  Tire's fine, but there's a few inches of gravel on the road.  No prob, just drop down a gear and go a little slower.  All you guys get is another road.  go figure.

[Number Two]

Made it to the first highway intersection, US 287.  This pic pretty much says it all....



A quick glance to the north shows that my time has run out, and the cold front which will bring us 2-4 inches of snow has arrived ahead of schedule.  Oh well, I'll just backtrack home.  I don't like backtracking - feels like using the same toilet paper twice or something.  Oh well, my mom would be proud.



As I get headed back, I see this.  Must explain all the mud holes and ruts.



Passing the refuge from post 2



Where I'm headed



Where I've been

[Number Two]

I'm fighting the 40 mph cross wind as I make my way back to town, and I'm starting to get pretty cold.  My spirits are pretty low as I park the bike.  I had hoped to go a little further out on the route, if not complete it.  sigh... Until I remember I have a cookie in my pocket!  Thanks Honey!  Is a ride report really complete without food? 



The bike needs a scrub... just like me. 



Anyway, that was my first attempt at the famous 'Laramie Lap,' and my first ever DDSR ride report.  Hope you didn't waste too much time at work reading it.

-Aaron

[LittleJacket]

cool report!  That bike has me curious-does it really have a reverse?  Maybe i'm a little slow, but I've never seen that before.  Nice ride report!

[Crazy Uncle Larry]

LittleJacket, Nice catch on the TT600's odometer!!! This is Crazy Uncle Larry again. This is the bike my #2 Son/Aaron rides. Someone had put an ATV odometer on it just to have something for a readout. We are looking at getting a Trailtech Vapor computer to put in its place.
Catch you later...

[fringefan]

Always heard the Laramie area is pretty nice. Been wanting to get down there to hang out for a few days.

[Number Two]

Bring your mountain bike while you're at it.  We have excellent singletrack, and some epic rides up in the snowy range.  Trails don't really melt out until July though.  This past season was really bad.  We were still hopping drifts up high in August.

[Hank]

Nice report!  Looks like some decent riding out there.

[hayduke.klr07]

oh man.  looking at your post made me misty eyed.  i went to school at UW.  have a ton of good memories.  after school went back down and worked at mountain woods furniture west of town towards woods landing.   this was when there was only three of us.   i also loved to go down to the "hoo doos" south of town.  it is a really cool place to visit after some snow and a bunch of wind.  the drifts are pretty cool.

liked the photos.  i wonder what the riding would be like north through...what is the small limestone canyon.  used to toprope there every moment i could.  sometimes veedauwoo was just tooooo windy.

[Number Two]

Hayduke,  glad to hear from another UW grad.  The canyon you're talking about I know as Roger's Canyon.  Once the loop is finished, it'll come back through there from the Cheyenne side.  Roger's canyon road goes all the way over to horse creek, northwest of cheyenne.  It'll be one of the best parts of the ride.  I've done it from Laramie out to horse creek and back.  Great scenery and a fun road.  There are a few squares of state trust land out there that also need to be explored.  Farther to the north, is Laramie Peak.  Once I get some confidence in the bike, and myself, I'm going to try to put together a 2-day ride up to the top of the peak and back, maybe hit natural bridge on the way. 

I've done most of my climbing here out at vedauwoo, and it can get very very windy.  I still love the climbing in the hills best, though.  The granite is perfect, and you can usually climb all year long. 

[Entrepre-neer]

Sweet!!  Nothing like cookies and 'ade to boost the spirits.

How come the camera man didn't get any wheelie pics....?