Somewhat Belated: The Bighorns of Wyoming and Black Hills of South Dakota

Hi all,

We have made it to the plains!  Many people describe places like Nebraska as being “flat.”  We have found otherwise.  True, there are no significant mountains here, but riding a bike across this part of the country dispells any myths of flatness.  Rolling hills are the norm, and often a day of biking up and down them can add up to as much overall climbing as a day in the mountains. 

We've gotten a bit behind on the blog- haven't found much time to be on the internet.  We're almost all the way across Nebraska, but here's an update about our time going through the Eastern half of Wyoming and our little jaunt through the Southwest corner of South Dakota.

As we traveled through Wyoming, there were a lot of opportunities to observe and ponder people’s relationships with animals, both wild and domestic.  Wolves, bears and cattle are all of constant concern with all sorts of people we meet. It’s interesting to me that most people seem to have very low opinions of animals’ intelligence and reasoning abilities.  In contrast, I have been struck by the many psychological similarities between animals and humans.  A few examples:

-Recently there was a fatal bear mauling near Yellowstone.  One of the reasons the bear frequented the campground was because campers had been leaving food unattended in their sites.  It’s a phenomenon of bear behavior: if they find a good meal somewhere once, they will always come back in hopes of finding more.  This may seem simple minded.  The thinking goes, “why should a bear expect to find another meal just because it randomly found some food laying around in the woods?”  Truth is, I think people work the same way.  I’ve traveled all over the U.S. with my family and the UC Davis marching band, and of all the memories that stick with me, some of the most clear are of the random places where I’ve had delicious meals.  I can’t tell you anything about Colorado Springs except that there’s an amazing Mexican restaurant there.  And the next time I’m there, that’s the first place I’m going to want to go. 

-We heard from a National Park employee that mother bears in Yosemite are teaching their cubs to distinguish Volkswagon Beetles from other cars; apparently a bear can climb on the roof of a Beetle, jump on it, shatter all the windows, and eat whatever goodies are inside.  Some people seem awed that a bear could be smart enough to distinguish between different makes of cars.  I just think that humans, bears, dogs, etc all have similar learnin capacity, it’s just that we only take time to learn things that are relevent to us.  After working for Unitrans for 3 years, the difference between an Orion, a Bluebird, and a Gillig bus are glaringly obvious to me- to the point where I’m almost incredulous when other people can’t tell one from the other.  It’s all about what we feel the need to be familiar with. Until recently, bears never needed to know the difference between car makes.  Once they learned that a Volkswagon Beetle was an easy access vending machine, they learned to pick one out as easily as I can pick out a Gillig.

-In the Shoshone National Forest we came upon some cattle that were being herded along the highway.  Cars were passing within a few feet of the cows annd they barely blinked an eye, but when Neale and I biked past we spooked them all.  It seems possibly “stupid” for an animal to be afraid of a person on a bike and not of an SUV many times my size; the SUV is infinately more dangerous to the cow.  But it all comes back to familiarity.  The cows have cars driving by them hour after hour, day after day.  Bikes arer completely foreign.  If you had never seen a bicycle before, you’d be quite afraid (for multiple reasons) if you saw me hurdling towards you at 15 miles per hour with flailing legs, an untrimmed mountain man beard and covered in road grit.  Some people in the plains states are as weirded out by us as the cows are.

Now for pictures!  Most are from the Bighorn Mountainsand the Black Hills.

-Dave

Neale and the looming Bighorns.

In the mountains!

Out campsite in the Bighorns, just a few miles to the pass.

Powder River Pass, 9,666 feet.  Highest point of the entire trip!

Leaving the Bighorns, headed for Buffalo, WY.

Hungry as always.  We made "camp pizza"- triscuits, tomato, cheese and pepperoni.

Beautiful Wyoming day with tailwinds up to 35 mph!

Heading across Northeastern Wyoming; clouds over the Black Hills in the distance.

South Dakota!

The Black Hills.

Wind Cave National Park in the Black Hills.  There's a maze of over 130 miles of caves in a 1 square mile area.  This tiny hole is the only natural entrance.  The first explorers went in with just a candle and a ball of string.  We got to go down through a man-made tunnel, thankfully.

Neale inside Wind Cave.

Tunnel in Wind Cave.

Leaving the Black Hills.

Fill 'em up!  We stopped for lunch at an abandoned gas station- the only place with shade for miles!