MOUTH FULL OF DIRT : Super D's Blog: Guernsey

Our time at Glendo State Park continued with more exploration of the trails and then venturing onto the road for some pavement miles. I was up at sunrise again to start in on the trail. The park features about 40 miles of trails with more in the construction phase. I rode most of the trails on our first full day at the park. There was but one section of trails left for me to ride. These trails went along the ridge on the other side of the North Platte River. The Feather Rim trail had plenty of climbing and great views of the winding river. I think it was my favorite trail as I loved the technical sections at the start and then the flow that ended the trail and took you onto Rattlesnake Ridge which was also very fun. I played on top of the hill for a while before heading down to the power plant to do the last climb on my list which was up the tough 91 Gigawatt trail. That's about how many watts you had to put out to conquer this steep trail. It hurt!

North Platte River from the Feather Rim trail

Feather Rim

Rock sidewalk on Feather Rim

Snake in the grass

View from Porcupine trail. I accidentally kicked a cactus while walking to get this picture. It took me forever to get all the spines out of the toes of my riding shoes!

I grabbed breakfast at the campsite and then hopped on my road bike to ride through the park. It was 10 miles from our campground to Sandy Beach. Descending to the dam was fun and I really enjoyed the climb that followed. The road after that was typical Wyoming. It was wide open views and lots of wind.

Shannon got this shot as I crossed the dam. I'm the black speck on the road down there. The views here are huge!

Climbing up from the dam

Beautiful views behind me as I leave the reservoir. Laramie Peak in the distance.

Long, straight, open road after Sandy Beach

Me heading further out to nowhere

We were going to the town of Guernsey to see some sights. I was planning to ride all the way there, but the road turned to gravel when I reached the park boundary and the gravel rocks were too large and deep to ride on my skinny tires and wheels. I had to hop in the car until the road was rideable again. Then it was a lot of gradual climbing into the wind before I finally got a big descent into the town of Guernsey and ended my ride near the Guernsey ruts. I knocked off 21 miles on the mountain bike and then another 36 on the road to end up with four and a half hours of riding today.

The bike got packed into the car and we had some lunch before started a short hike on the south side of Guernsey to see the Oregon Trail Ruts. There is a section of the original Oregon Trail where ruts from wagon and hardcart wheels cut into the rock and are still visible. When I read about this while planning for the trip, I had to go see it. It's almost hard to imagine how hard it was for the pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail. To me, it's an amazing part of our nation's history and I loved being able to stand right where those wagons went. There are even names of some of those travelers carved into the rocks in one place at the top of the hill.

The Oregon Trail Ruts, sometimes called simply the Guernsey Ruts.

Lots of wagons must have come through here for the ruts to be that deep.

Names carved in the rock

A few miles away there is another huge rock with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of names carved into it. This rock is known as Register Cliff. Travelers along the Oregon Trail stopped by this massive rock that was used as a navigational landmark. Families were sometimes separated during the journey, going with different wagon and handcart companies to make it to the west. They would carve their names into the rock so that the family members behind them could see that they had made it this far. Register Cliff and the ruts were some of the coolest things I have ever seen. Prior to this, I didn't know that any of the original Oregon Trail was still known. We played the old Oregon Trail computer game often when I was in elementary school. It was really awesome to walk part of that trail, and do it without dying of dysentery.

Register Cliff historical marker

Register Cliff

Most dates are from the 1800s.

One of the former owners of this land built a food storage cave into the bluff where Register Cliff is located.

We marveled at how nice the handwriting was in the rock, especially considering they chiseled it. It must have taken some time. Nowadays you can't read anyone's handwriting. There were a lot of newer carvings too. It is a shame that recent visitors had to carve their name in the rock and ruin an authentic piece of history. To me, if you didn't go through what the pioneers that wrote on this rock went through, then you have no business even thinking about carving your name on there. There is a fence up now to keep people away from the rock so they can't further destroy it. Graffiti is one of those things that really irks me.

We had one more stop to make in Guernsey, this time at Guernsey State Park. Like Glendo, this park surrounds a reservoir, the Guernsey Reservoir to be exact. We drove through the park to see the sights and visited the park museum, which features displays on the geological history, peoples of the past and local wildlife. We cooked dinner down by the beach and then headed back to Glendo for the night. The ranger stopped by our campsite to see how we were doing and she asked if we were there for the race. I asked what race because we didn't know anything about a race. Turns out there was going to be a 24-hour race the next day called the Two Moon 24. I looked it up on my phone as I was interested in any kind of race, even though I had done a ton of riding the last two days and we were planning to leave the next day as well. If the entry fee hadn't been so high and if I had a helmet light I would have done it. I looked at joining a team, but even splitting out the entry fee was still too much for me. The course was super tough and included a lot of rocks and the tough climb up 91 Gigawatt. Going solo would have been super tough on that course.