The day started early, probably about 5am. But that was ok, since I hadn’t slept well for a few nights anyway. Both the bikes were already in the back of the truck, so Ashleigh drove Ardan & I down to Killian’s for the race. After a super tasty burrito we got in line for the start 6:05 am.

Luckily I packed well enough that I at least had lights.

We started rolling out of town with the pack, and Ardan promptly lost a water bottle within the first half mile. It turns out I mounted the bottle cages backwards so they had a tendency to pop out. Whoops. Oh well, we are in a race! Can’t stop for that! At least, I couldn’t. Ardan turned around and went back to get the bottle. Which is a good thing. We will probably need it! (Don’t worry, it finally found it’s freedom on day 3)

Initially we headed up Higgins Gulch. It’s a nice ride. Although it’s surprisingly long to get up to stadium ridge, especially with a fully loaded bike. The stoke was high. Of course I pushed it up the stadium ridge climb, but then kept rolling all the way through single track attack. Some of the rocks on sheep steeps knocked out that water bottle again, so I gave in and flipped the cages around. It’s only fair I suppose. I mounted them wrong and yet Ardan was the one paying the price. It took a while though. Multitools do not fit well on some of the cage bolts.

We got down to sheep flats and didn’t see anyone, so kept rolling along taco alley to Iron Creek Lake where we found Tom & Tim admiring the beauty.

From there the route took us up a cow path that snaked its way … for a long time … up to Tinton road. From there we took the Old Baldy Trail around to burrito boulevard and back down to… sheep flats. A giant loop. Oh well, I didn’t mind too much since the stoke was still high.

Then we rolled on into Wyoming, and down to Dugout Gulch which is one of my favorite trails. The bomb on down to the trail head is a fantastic flight. Even if the bike is pulling me back to the ground at 55 lbs. Heading down Sand Creek through Ranch A is beautiful. That took us out of the hills & over I90 to the State Line Station. Never before have gas station burritos tasted so good - “Hunger is the best spice” indeed.

We hung out there for an hour or so, eating & resting. Finally we headed on up Rifle Pit Road. This is where things started to go south, both literally and figuratively. I got hot on that climb, and that’s my kryptonite. A few times hiding in the shade made it a bit better, but baking heat combined with my saddle rail bolts almost falling out 3 times really put me in a dark place. I also noticed a broken spoke on the rear wheel.

However progress must be made!

We kept going all the way to… 😱 Government Valley Road 😱, which I will never look at the same. I bonked hard here, barely creeping along. Tom & Ardan zoomed ahead but kept waiting for me to catch up.

It got dark.

I bonked more.

It got cold.

I bonked harder.

At one point I seriously contemplated discretely kicking my rear wheel and breaking even more spokes so I could call Ashleigh and tell her the bike just broke down oh shucks and you have to come take me home to my warm bed…

Eventually I just laid on the side of the road, looking around at the astounding lack of trees. Brilliant idea hammock camping was Alan. Just fantastic. What’s the plan now? Roll down into a ditch and wait for morning?

That honestly sounded appealing vs more time in the saddle.

However, Ardan would have none of that. He dug out the hot chocolate, and Tom dug out his Jetboil, and before you could say “We’re surrounded by private property and even if there were trees we can’t camp here”, I had hot chocolate in my hand, my coat on my back, and was feeling surprisingly well! We packed up and kept rolling over to Sundance Horse Camp.

Here, at what felt like the middle of the night but was really just about 9pm, Ardan & I strung up our hammocks and climbed into bed.

And at about 11pm, Ardan was freezing, so we got out the under quilts. Thanks Ashleigh!

Continued in The Tower 300 Adventure Day 2

This day started much less stressful than the previous. I had survived one night! I didn’t get eaten by a bear! A surprise Narnian lamppost didn’t appear above my campsite and illuminate my face all night! (Although the moon was almost full and quite bright, I was tired enough to not care)

We woke up, packed up camp, jetboiled some water for oatmeal, and started on our way up into the Bearlodge mountains.

Now, if you haven’t been up into the Bearlodge via the Sundance Horse Camp campsite, you are in for a treat. It’s really steep and includes several steps that you have to hike-a-bike up. At least I did. I’m sure some of the racers out there hucked it up the mountain. I can see why they call it the “Horse Camp” and not the “Bike Camp”.

It did have beautiful views!

And more broken spokes. At this point I’m down 3. It seems every mile further we got, I lost another spoke. And to make it worse, they were all snapping on the same side of the wheel. Breaking spokes is bad. Breaking them all in the same place is even worse.

I keep telling myself that I got this far, and that’s further than I ever thought I’d get. My goal was to get up to the “meadow” as Gus calls it. When we rode the Bearlodge Mtn Classic a week prior, riding through the meadow is one of Gus’s favorite parts.

Lucky for us however, Ashleigh had been chronicling our adventure online. A fantastic bike mechanic reached out to her and offered to come to our aid! It turns out mobile bike service is allowed in the Rules. We met him on a gravel road where he got me rolling again, and then we started zooming downhill (the best direction to go with a fully loaded bike, fyi) headed towards Sheepnose Trail

Now, I want to be clear - “trail” is a very strong word for what we were experiencing. One might hear the word trail and think a nice straight gravel path. Or potentially some single track dancing through the woods. At worst, maybe it’s an overgrown pitted cow path.

That was not Sheepnose.

Sheepnose is more like you dreamed of a trail once when you were young, and now it’s years later and you are trying to recall this trail. Where did it go? Was it in the woods or on the rock? Was there ever a trail at all or did someone just convince you there was and you fell for it?

Thats Sheepnose.

Occasionally we’d get a glimpse of one of those little diamond trail markers that give you hope, only to have that hope dashed by a cluster of trees or rocks that would make no sense in this place on a real trail.

It was - by far - one of my favorite trails we experienced. I love that stuff.

At one point we were running low on water. Who knew you could go through so much water while simultaneously making so little progress? Luckily there was an idyllic cool babbling mountain stream at one point that we filtered. That water was fantastic.

Eventually the sheepnose saga came to a close and we found ourselves back on a gravel road headed down hill towards Cook Lake. Cook Lake was not “along the way” at all. It was several miles north as well as many feet of elevation down. Fun to get to, but not exciting to think about leaving. We were again low on water. That’s ok, we heard there is a pump here. We can find it once we finish Cliff Swallow Trail. This trail was excellent. A little steep in a few places but I absolutely would ride it again. Ideally when I’m more awake and better fed. We were getting pretty hungry at this point, having not had much to eat aside from beef jerky and nerds gummy clusters for much longer than you want to eat only beef jerky and nerds gummy clusters.

We finished Cliff Swallow then headed to the camp host site where the pump was. We found it. We did not however find a handle on the pump. At the post race discussion days later we found it the handle was still in place just a few hours earlier. I guess that explains who we saw driving away as we got in there. The camp host - with the pump handle.

It was still many miles to Hulett, and we were almost completely out of water. I guess we’re drinking filtered lake water?

If you are curious, filtered water from cook lake tastes as bad as an idyllic cool babbling mountain stream tastes good. At least we didn’t get sick. The filter worked.

From there we climbed back out and worked our way to Black Tail County Rd and started flying down towards Hewlett. Even though we were tired and hungry and cold, this descent was majestic. Full moon in a clear sky. The occasional cow watching from the side. I’m sure those cows were jealous of how fast we could move.

Finally once it was quite certainly night, we arrived in Hewlett! Time for dinner. Maybe we should get some steak? Or pasta? Sandwiches perhaps.

Wait. We’re in a tiny Wyoming town at 10pm. There is nothing open. Believe me, I tried calling several places. Except Captain Ron’s Rodeo Bar! They had not only frozen pizza they could make, but also pop! I’ve had some pizza in my life - some real fancy pizzas. I’ve had home made pizza. I’ve had Pad Thai pizza. I’ve had fully loaded supreme pizza with so many toppings you couldn’t even count them all.

None of those tasted as good as those simple cheese pizzas we got that night. They don’t even come close. If there were the “Seven Wonders of the Modern Culinary World”, this pizza would be squarely at spot number one.

With full bellies and a realization that we still didn’t know where we were sleeping, we wandered north till we found a small string of trees next to a track field. This seemed far enough out of the way that no one would care if a few pizza lovers setup their hammocks for the night…

Continued in The Tower 300 Adventure Day 3

Day 3 began suddenly - our tucked away tree line that was so well hidden on a Friday night turned out to be right by a horde of parents dropping their kids off for a bus - on a Saturday!

I quickly woke Ardan & Tom and we packed up as discreetly as one can pack up hammocks, under quilts, sleeping bags, and clothes on to a bike. I’m unsure if the parents to the west of us and the police car to the east of us didn’t notice us, didn’t care, or didn’t get to us in time.

We rolled out of there and quickly headed to the first restaurant we could find for breakfast - The Red Rock Cafe. Their biscuits and gravy were fantastic. We also were not the first racers to have gone through there! The waitress wanted to know our names so she could follow us on trackleaders.

From there we started working our way out west on New Haven Road to curl our way in the general direction of Devils Tower.

After many miles of great conversation we spotted the odd looking feature on the horizon…

Our intricate plan for tackling the traversal of the tower hinged on one key element - ice cream. We found this sign at one of the shops right at the park entrance…

“1 SCOOP - 6$. 2 SCOOPS - 7$”

We opted for 2 scoops. Besides, we had earned a couple scoops of ice cream!

It turned out 2 was more like 7. Maybe the dollar sign was on the wrong number? Either way, it worked out in our favor. The ice cream did not survive long.

From there we rolled onward into the park. It was a fantastic September day, with more people trying to get into the park than probably live in the entire state. The queue to enter the park extended for some distance… but it did not extend to us! We casually peddled our way along the shoulder, leapfrogging the cars.

Finally, we parked our bikes and started the hike around the tower.

From there we turned back east and started working our way on Lytle Creek Road up towards Warren Peak. This climb was surprisingly pleasant and fairly uneventful.

We did pass a group of other bikepackers who we later found out had wandered over to the Bearlodge from Spearfish Canyon!

Eventually we made it up to Warren Peak. Ardan insisted on us going to the top of the watch tower. I can’t blame him! It took us about 200 miles to get here, we might as well go the extra few feet to get the best view we can.

From here we had a fun little ride down the ridge and onto some cow paths. And that one water bottle that tried to escape right at the start? It finally got free. We realized this after descending several hundred feet. Ardan turned around and started going back up to the peak to find the bottle. Tom & I convinced him to just let it go. Besides, if we hurried our way down we could still get to Subway before closing! The thought of a foot long sub had been ringing in our heads now for several hours.

There was an exceptionally obnoxious cow path on this section that I’m pretty sure went straight up the side of a cliff. I’m unsure how the cows managed to pull that off. Between grabbing on to trees with one hand and dragging our bikes with the other we got to the top. Then more cow paths down. And more up. And more down.

Eventually we got back to the trail we recognize from the Bearlodge classic. Climbing that at night was fantastic.

The trail then turned to head back down the mountain. There was a small stream right as we turned, and we ended up on the wrong side of it. Headed down hill for a few hundred feet until we realized our mistake. It was at this point that Tom hopped off his bike, threw it to the ground yelling “Goddamit Jason!”

I laughed, hard.

We climbed back up to the stream crossing and proceeded back down again, this time on the correct side. This was another mixture of cow paths, but at night. Descending was a blast. We shortly came to an odd fence crossing. It looked reasonable enough, but it was at this point that Tom’s rack mounts slipped lose and his rack fell off the back of his bike. He suggested we head on down to reach Subway, and he’d fix things up.

Ardan and I proceeded onward to the road. I briefly stopped to phone Subway, just to verify their hours. They confirmed 8:30, plenty of time.

Did you know the Sundance Subway is REALLY far to the east vs the rest of the town?

At about 8:15 we finally got there. I walked in, and promptly ordered 5 foot longs. The “Sandwich Artist®” stared at me a moment… “Are you the one who called earlier?” Yes sir. We are bikepacking and on the brink of starvation.

We got our sandwiches and devoured at least one of them each. Perfect, time for bed.

Wait, the nearest camp site is several miles back into town.

It was at this point that I was shaking pretty uncontrollably. Probably due to cold, or adrenaline, or sandwich high. Whatever the reason, we decided to instead grab a hotel room, since there was one right next to us.

They only had a room on a second floor, which meant hauling our bikes up a flight of stairs.

Ardan is a stickler for rules. Rule 1 - “Complete the entire route as provided in the GPX file, under your own power, and only your own power.” He insisted on bringing his bike up the stairs himself. He’s growing up, but when you see him trying to drag an awkward 55 pound bike up a flight of stairs, you realize he’s not yet fully grown. He managed to get it to the top, and we promptly crashed for the night.

Continued in The Tower 300 Adventure Day 4

Footnote

1. We were not actually starving.

There was a bit of a debate the night before, where Ardan wanted to set his alarm for 5:00am, and Tom & I convinced Ardan to let us wake up at a more reasonable hour. We settled on the reasonable hour.

When we awoke however it still didn’t feel very reasonable. We packed up and hauled our bikes back down the stairs; each by our own power of course, grabbed breakfast from the hotel and got on our way.

Then we backtracked into Sundance to properly complete a section of the route that we missed the night before in our Subway Scramble. From there we hopped onto the city path and worked our way out towards Green Mountain. The morning clouds provided the perfect shade.

After that we worked our way toward the hills, then back away again, then back up again by Fish Mountain. I hadn’t been this way before, and I’m certainly going to go back there. It was a beautiful ride all the way from the bottom to the top. We stopped briefly for second breakfast (some apple pies that Ardan convinced me to buy back in Hewlett).

As we navigated the scenery, we kept wondering when Jason would put another absurd cow path on the route. However we were presented with nothing but beautiful riding and fantastic views.

The only thing we really were missing at this point was food. I had consumed all my beef jerky, all my nerds gummy clusters, and all of the peanut butter protein balls that Ashleigh had sent with.

I loudly lamented my situation. Tom & Ardan chimed in.

We peddled on for a few minutes. Suddenly I heard Tom yell from behind us “THE SANDWICH” as he stopped, opened his saddle bag, and pulled out a glorious foot long Subway sandwich. He had stuck it in the fridge the night before and forgot until now that he brought it along. That 1/3 of a sandwich was absolutely on par with the pizza from day 2.

After a few more miles of some of the best riding of the trip, we finally got up to Trails Head Lodge. Well, almost got there. We could see it from over the fence in front of us. Unfortunately there were locks on the gate. This meant we had to haul our bikes over the fence. It was quite a feat even for myself to lift my bike up and over. However Ardan, being a stickler for the rules, insisted that he lift his himself. After about 5 minutes of him struggling, and Tom and I watching helplessly, I finally noticed that the locks hanging off the gate were decorative… I unwrapped the chain, pulled the gate open, and much to Ardan’s relief, he rolled his bike through.

This was worth a reward of a hefty amount of food, including a lot of cheese sticks.

Next step from there was to finally roll back down to Little Spearfish Trail. This has been on my list of trails to ride for years, but I just never quite found the time. I will most certainly be going back.

We finally ended up down by Roughneck Falls Road, only to be directed into an odd feature…

We poked our heads in, then back out again and up Rimrock Trail till we got up to Tinton Trail

By this point it was night. Any other trail system, and we would probably have set up camp. However, we all knew Tinton quite well after years of the Dakota Five-O. So we promptly ripped the last 15 miles of trail at a surprisingly fast pace. Coming down cardiac at night is one of my favorite rides, no matter the weight of the bike. We slowed down again after that, deciding to just take it easy.

Mother Nature, however, decided we should panic.

Several incredibly loud thunder claps later, including one that almost caused Ardan to crash, we ended up on Tinton road. After a brief look at the radar, we saw a gap of about 20 minutes before the next big red cell where we could try to get to Crow Peak Brewery - the finish line.

We raced back through town, seeing people waving to us by Killian’s and again in the middle of town. Finally, about 1 mile from the end, Ardan misnavigated the bike path and crashed. His single crash on the entire course, and it was on the path he’s ridden more than anything else. He picked it back up, and we proceeded all the way to the end.

Seeing Ashleigh and Ailis and Gus, and Tom’s parents, waiting for us was all the reward that we needed.

Then the rain promptly dumped on us, and we headed to Taco Bell.

The end!

The weeks building up to it was pretty exciting, and a bit stressful, since the last time I went camping only ended with me cursing the campground street light above our tent that was on all night. We were also a bit short on time so I didn’t really have time to test our setup; I just ordered some saddle bags & a few Old Man Mountain Divide Racks & Fork Mounts and hoped for the best.

Two days before the race, I got the racks mounted our bikes. Ardan & I were both on a Gen 5 Trek Fuel Ex. We opted for hammocks with under quilts for our sleeping system. Initially I was pushing to skip the under quilts since they were pretty bulky, but Ashleigh (my wonderful wife!) insisted we bring them… Everything seemed good. I had my fully loaded setup ready by Wednesday the 23rd, and that evening took it for a spin around the Dog Park. It seemed oddly spongy. Upon further investigation, there was a crack on my top tube right at the weld of seat gusset…

I called Ashleigh, and informed her that I was out of the race. At that moment I was somewhat relieved. No more stress, I had a very good reason on why I couldn’t attempt this. Ashleigh, of course, would not stand for this. She insisted we had to find some other options. Well, at my office there is a Trek Slash (a long travel enduro bike). It’s an XL frame, not the ideal bikepacking rig but my options were pretty low at this point. I grabbed the bike, and started transferring over my racks. First the fork mounts - those went smoothly. Then the rear axle mount… Oh no… Turns out the Slash is not UDH, meaning I couldn’t use the through axle with the mounting points!

I told Ashleigh, I guess I’m out of the race. Relief again. Disappointment, but at least no more stress - just a really disappointed son. Ashleigh, of course, would not stand for this. She insisted we could fix this. What about the threaded rod we used when I hauled the Burley trailer behind my fat bike? Well, I dug out the rod, but it was about an inch too short. Ashleigh suggests we can possibly buy another rod? But it’s 8:30 pm! Where could we possibly get more threaded rod at this time of the day? It turns out Tractor Supply was open till 9pm, and indeed had threaded rod. We drove over there and got the perfect length piece. This let me mount the Tour Divide Rack on the rear successfully. I guess good to go?

I took it for one final night time spin around the block, it didn’t fall apart, so I guess I can ride. I didn’t sleep great that evening…

The Slash mid bikepack conversion

Continued in The Tower 300 Adventure - Day 1

I’ve been having fun recreating an old half-life mod in Godot and in the process have spun out a few separate libraries:

• goldsrc-godot A GDExtension to load goldsrc resources (bsp, mdl, spr, wad). Part of the fun here was implementing PVS Runtime Visibility Culling and BSP Hull Collision. Although you can’t implement the same exact goldsrc hull collision without a custom physics engine…
• hop-godot A GDExtension that uses the hop physics engine (A standalone header-only fixed & floating point C++17 physics library for swept-collision simulation) which lets us implement the Goldsrc BSP Hull Collision. However you also really want the low bandwidth netcode…
• goldnet-godot A GDExtension that implements goldsrc style netcode - an unreliable, delta-against-acked-baseline snapshot stream. It’s almost a drop-in replacement for a MultiplayerSynchronizer.

Had a fairly fun gaming session last night with surprisingly few bugs…