Tuesday, July 12th, 2016
We dedicated our ride to day to Catherine Kemp’s best friend’s mom, Jeni Lehnert, who is currently going through treatment for lung cancer.
Today is the day we all agreed on liking Wyoming. It had been a rough previous 3 days, but today was beautiful. We left for the Big Horn Mountains at 6 a.m. Our cues said to get on US 14 West and we didn’t turn off until 71.8 miles later. We climbed up through the Big Horn National Forest for about 17 miles, enjoyed a downhill, and then climbed about 15 more miles to complete our 6,207 feet of climbing to the highest point. We reached our maximum elevation of 9,038 before enjoying 6,309 feet of downhill. There was a sign that signaled an 18 mile downhill coming out of the mountains. It was glorious.
The morning was very cold, and the afternoon warmed up quite a bit as we descended. Many of us had numerous layers and winter gloves on, then peeled them off as it got warmer. To give you an idea of how drastically different climbing is from descending, it took us 6.5 hours to climb 35 miles, and under an hour to descend them. The view was also unbelievable. Winding down the mountain provided great views of the valleys and we exited through a red rock canyon. The mountains were so green and forested and the rocks so vibrantly red, it is impossible not to like Wyoming after the experience.
We are staying at Greybull Alliance Church. We did a portrait with two members of the church, Kathy and her daughter, Amy. Kathy survived inflammatory breast cancer. She talked a lot about how cancer has changed her perspective. She has become a more thankful person and tries not to worry about things that don’t matter. She also talked about how she believes love should be at the center of everything, and desires to share her experience with others. She is in the process of releasing an album of songs she wrote during her cancer experience titled, “Hope is Alive.”
The portrait was a great end to a beautiful day. We are looking forward to what else Wyoming has to offer.
DR
