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 |
Excellent posting Mark, you told that story accurately. That will be the last time I ever ride interstate I hope. And to think we ended up riding two miles in the middle of the interstate all to ourselves.
ReplyDeleteGood thing the "Road Closed" wasn't a bridge out over a wide river!! Have a good ride today.
ReplyDelete