Devils Tower

Sunday 5/20 Day 30

YEE HAW

Rough start this morning for sure. I was wide awake at seven, even though I wanted to sleep a bit longer. Ryan made some coffee which helped ease me into moving. I said my goodbyes to both Ryan and Kerry and headed on my way down and out of Montana. The morning started off with a nice ride through Custer national forest, though it was weird because the park seemed to be covered in private property. Throughout the morning I had breakfast first lunch and second lunch, and had about two liters of water in me but I was feeling drained. I attributed this to the lack of sleep last night.

Mom and Dad looking at wild animal tracks

I made up for a little of the lost sleep in a park where I took a nap for about a half hour. It was like one of those power naps where you don't sleep for that long but it seems to recharge you to full energy. I road about twenty more miles and then found my parents driving towards me with flashing lights, waving arms, and a honking horn. It was good to see them driving towards me. It has been a long haul to get this far in this amount of time, so seeing them was a relief with a much needed break in the future. It was funny because I guess they came across another bicyclist a couple miles earlier and they thought it was me, he was wearing similar cloths and had similar panniers.
Well we headed down to Devils Tower in north eastern Wyoming. I filled up my stomach with a couple of homemade cookies that mom made. Seems to be a pattern when people visit me on the road they bring homemade cookies with them, a great pattern. When we got to town I took a shower and we went out for dinner.

Sexy beast infront of the tower

It was then followed by a spectacular evening and sunset around Devils Tower. It was said from ,Native American folk tails, that little girls were running away from a bear and prayed to be saved. The rock sprung from the ground which they were standing on. The bear tried to climb up it but only slid down the side creating the massive columns. We took a little hike around the entire spire. You can climb Devils Tower with gear and I will come back to do that some day. But when we came back around to the front of the tower we saw it glowing from the light of the sunset. It looked spectacular.

Amazing sunset

We finished the day off by going home to the hotel. I slept like a rock tonight!! But there will be plenty to do with my parents in the next few days.