Day 30 – 13 Miles

(This is posted a day late due to lack of internet and cell phone service)

Today we biked 72.6 miles from Rawlins, WY to east of Riverside, WY.  It was another good day for a ride, but the rest of this post is about thirteen very specific miles along today’s route.

A few days ago we were looking ahead on our maps.  A practice we often do.  And then we saw it.  “What?  That can’t be right!”  According to our map we were to bike thirteen miles on a freeway.  Interstate 80 to be specific.  How can that be?  Isn’t it against the law to ride a bike on an interstate?  Isn’t it unsafe to ride a bike on an interstate?  But a closer look indicated that thirteen miles on I-80 from Sinclair, WY to Walcott, WY was indeed part of our “bike” route.

As the day to ride the interstate grew closer we discussed it on occasion.  This morning I woke up and realized the dreaded day had arrived.  I began the morning by googling, “is it legal to ride on an interstate in Wyoming?”  Apparently it is.  Sometimes.  In general it is legal to ride a bike on an interstate in western states if there is not a reasonable alternative route.  There are exceptions like it is not allowed close to big cities, which pretty much means we can ride anywhere in Wyoming.  So that got the legal concern out of the way.

But then my fears really started growing.  Google brought me to several forums written by people who have biked The Trans America Bike Route (the route we are following).  Here are excerpts from those forums:  “That section is less aesthetically pleasing than any other stretch of road on the entire route.”  Or, “There is a good bit of debris on that section of I-80 (glass and the wires from exploded truck tires), so if you ride it be prepared to fix the occasional flat tire.”  Fix a flat tire on the interstate, I thought; that would be awful.  Then there was this one, “feasible but miserable.  Riding on I-80 feels like Hell.”  The comments went on and on, but you get the picture.  Just thinking about riding the freeway was stressing me out.

We started the morning by riding eight miles before getting to the spot where we enter the freeway.  All morning and through the entire eight miles all I could think of was how horrible this was going to be.  As Brian and I approached the freeway entrance we took a deep breath and headed down the entrance ramp.  Vehicles went speeding by (speed limit on I-80 in Wyoming is 80 mph) as we meekly worked our way onto the shoulder.  We put our heads down and pedaled fast, determined to get off this 13-mile stretch of freeway as quickly as possible.

It took a while to realize my fears were worse than my reality.  This freeway had eight-foot wide shoulders and a huge rumble strip separated us from the vehicles speeding by.  Reality is, we have biked much more stressful conditions than this on our journey.

All was relatively uneventful until we came upon a highway patrol car that had stopped a big RV.  They were both pulled over on our shoulder.  So we rode up to the back of the patrol car, dismounted from our bikes, and walked the bikes down into the ditch to get around them.  Then we got back on our bikes and continued on our way.  All was going well.  We were getting through this pretty quickly.  But with only two miles left to go on our 13-mile interstate venture the inevitable happened.  Road Construction!

Brian in front of the "Road Closed" signs.
Now what!

Now what do we do?  Our road was closed.  All eastbound traffic was being routed to one of the lanes on the westbound side.  It was ugly.  A single lane of freeway traffic.  No shoulder.  No way we were going to ride that section.  Wasn’t even possible.  So… we ignored the road construction signs.  Went right past them and hoped for the best.  Maybe the road construction wouldn’t actually start until sometime after our exit two miles down the road.  Or maybe we could somehow bike through it.

After we passed through the “Road Closed” signs everything got quiet.  All of a sudden we had two lanes of freeway and an eight-foot shoulder completely to ourselves.  We never did see any construction.  What was supposed to be the most stressful section of the trip turned into the least stressful two miles so far. 

Me riding down the middle of Interstate 80.
Care free and stress free!

So what did I learn from today’s 13-mile venture? 

• It is indeed legal to ride a bike on some freeways.
• It is not fun, but based on our trip so far we have experienced a lot worse.
• Lastly, but most important: do not Google your insecurities.  Right or wrong, the Internet will only make them worse!

Typical scenery from today