Cycle Across America
RA
Day 50 of 7316 July 2010

Day 50: What's Wrong With Jeffrey?

Day 50: What's Wrong With Jeffrey?
View route map — see where this day sits on the trail
Route overview

73 days, one line across the country

67 riding days · 6 rest days · 4,227 miles · Yorktown, Virginia → the Oregon coast

Start — Yorktown (Atlantic start), VADay 1 — Chickahominy Riverfront Park, VADay 2 — Ashland, VADay 3 — Ashland, VADay 4 — Mineral, VADay 5 — Charlottesville, VADay 6 — Afton, VADay 7 — Lexington, VADay 8 — Lexington, VA — rest dayDay 9 — Daleville, VADay 10 — Radford, VADay 11 — Rural Retreat, VADay 12 — Damascus, VADay 13 — Rosedale, VADay 14 — Breaks Interstate Park, VADay 15 — Hindman, KYDay 16 — Hindman, KY — rest dayDay 17 — Booneville, KYDay 18 — Berea, KYDay 19 — Bardstown area, KYDay 20 — Hodgenville, KYDay 21 — Rough River Dam State Park, KYDay 22 — Sebree, KYDay 23 — Cave-In-Rock, ILDay 24 — Eddyville, KYDay 25 — Carbondale, ILDay 26 — Carbondale, IL — rest dayDay 27 — Chester, ILDay 28 — Pilot Knob, MODay 29 — Eminence, MODay 30 — Houston, MODay 31 — Fair Grove, MODay 32 — Golden City, MODay 33 — Chanute, KSDay 34 — Eureka, KSDay 35 — Newton, KSDay 36 — Larned, KSDay 37 — Ness City, KSDay 38 — Scott City, KSDay 39 — Sheridan Lake, CODay 40 — Haswell, CODay 41 — Pueblo, CODay 42 — Pueblo, CO — rest dayDay 43 — Cañon City, CODay 44 — Fairplay, CODay 45 — Silverthorne, CODay 46 — Hot Sulphur Springs, CODay 47 — Walden, CODay 48 — Saratoga, WYDay 49 — Rawlins, WYDay 50 — Jeffrey City, WY (you are here)Day 51 — Lander, WYDay 52 — Lander, WY — rest dayDay 53 — Dubois, WYDay 54 — Colter Bay, Grand Teton NP, WYDay 55 — Grant Village, Yellowstone NP, WYDay 56 — West Yellowstone, MTDay 57 — Ennis, MTDay 58 — Twin Bridges, MTDay 59 — Jackson, MTDay 60 — Darby, MTDay 61 — Missoula, MTDay 62 — Missoula, MT — rest dayDay 63 — Powell, IDDay 64 — Kooskia, IDDay 65 — Riggins, IDDay 66 — Cambridge, IDDay 67 — Richland, ORDay 68 — Baker City, ORDay 69 — Mount Vernon, ORDay 70 — Mitchell, ORDay 71 — Redmond, ORDay 72 — Eugene, ORDay 73 — Florence (Pacific Ocean), ORYachats, ORLincoln City, ORPortland, OR

Every dot is a real day on the trail, placed from the towns named in that day's post — click one to jump straight to it. Hollow-ringed dots are rest days along the way. The lighter branch up the coast is the post-ride detour to Portland. A few days without a clearly named stop are interpolated between the nearest confirmed ones. The highlighted dot is where you are right now.

OriginalStorytelling

70.00 miles (Total: 2744.85) Avg Speed: 12.5mph Max Speed: 34mph

The early riding again was great, I’am really enjoying Wyoming. About a week ago we had past an Eastbounder who told us to get out of Wyoming as quick as possible because its just a desert! He was from L.A which in my books is the worst place on earth so what does he know? Clear skies and perfect heat forecast, again with none of the headwinds we had been told about.

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Morning guys.

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The scenery rapidly changed again into something resembling more of the wild west with red rock formations, mesas and buttes sticking out amongst the flat landscape. We approached a cafe for some lunch which turned out to be closed and then pressed on towards the next services at Muddy Gap. We encountered a group of 5 female cyclists who warned us strongly against staying in Jeffrey City where we had planned to stay. It wasn’t the first time we had been told this and they gave us some more negative stories about the town. They seemed like a miserable bunch though and all this bad press for Jeffrey City has made me intrigued to the point at which I WANT to stay.

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The roadside turned to sand.

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Stuck between rumble strips and rubble.

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Wyoming is beautiful

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We got refreshments at Muddy Gap, it was the only services for miles around so everything was treble the price. A bunch more people got talking to us including a dad and his son about my age. He jokingly slapped his son on the head and said “Why aren’t you doing something like this!”. We continued to Jeffrey City now almost excited to see what the fuss is about. We know this, it was once a uranium mining town with a population around 7,000. It went bust and is now a ghost town with about 70 people. Once we arrived we headed to the cafe/bar, a few sorry looking locals are in there each strangely sat behind a laptop playing online gambling games. One elderly woman was even playing Warcraft! It seems this is literally the whole town, every other building is closed. We sat and had some beers whilst making use of the wifi. We talked with a guy who had just gotten out of jail after 6 months for what he said was running a stop sign. It all made for great people watching and we spent about 4 hours inside before heading over the street to the old Lions Clubhouse.

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The Old Lions Club

It had an outdoor pavillion and a derilict building. Mosquito’s swamped you outside so we opted to head indoors. The place looked as though it had literally been left behind the day the town went bust with papers and books dating back to the 80’s. The building had no electricity or water but we had stocked up on the latter in the bar. One end had a toilet block which must have been left for some time and now kicked up abit of an odour. At the other end of the building however it was fine. Terry cooked some pasta and we set our tents up inside anyway to avoid the bugs. It may not be a nice place but I’m glad we stayed hear and ignored the naysayers. Its free afterall and was probably the most unique evening of my trip so far. If you have to stay in Jeffrey, don’t be scared.

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Home for the night.

1 comment from 2010

keith16 July 2010

Hiy y'all.muddy gap,what a great blues singer.Jeffrey city sure looks like a one horse town,if i was that horse i would be packin my saddle bags and gettin the hell outta there.Take it easy pardner.

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