CLOUD PEAK 500
presented by sky above, a wyoming non-profit
2020 will be for ITT's only.
2020 FINISHERS:
Paul Brasby, North Platte, NE--7 days, 5 hours 30 minutes!
This event is not sanctioned or organized in any way. There are no permits, prizes, entry fees or support. It is a group of people riding their bikes on the same route at the same time. It is an entirely self-supported race against the clock. No drafting, blocking or other teamwork, no support and no caching allowed. All that is provided is a suggested start time, a route and tabulation of results. There is no race organization, no checkpoints, and no support, riders assume all liability for their own safety.
A 500 mile gravel loop around the Big Horn Mountains and Cloud Peak Wilderness of northern Wyoming, starting and ending in Sheridan, Wyoming. The vast majority of this route can be driven by a 2wd vehicle, but a mountain bike is still a good choice. Gravel bikes should use the widest tires possible as there is one very rocky 4x4 descent and a small few rocky sections here and there.
Solo, self-supported. Rules are the same as for the Tour Divide Race: http://tourdivide.org/the_rules
Note: Wyoming law requires a white front light and a rear red light when riding at night! The lightly traveled roads on this route are good for minimizing car/bike interactions, but it also means that cars won't be expecting to see bikers. Light yourself up at night and ride with care!
The .gpx can be found here: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/38840969
Spot Tracking Signup: https://form.jotform.com/trackleaders/cloudpeak19
If you are renting a Spot, please register at least a couple of weeks early to make sure there is time to ship the unit to Wyoming.
SPOT Tracking
The race will be tracked by trackleaders.com, providing a live map, elevation profile and other stats that can be used to follow along. Carrying a SPOT and being tracked by trackleaders is not
mandatory but encouraged.
mandatory but encouraged.
The Cloud Peak 500 is a gravel loop starting and
ending in front of the Health Nut health food store in Sheridan, Wyoming. There is a group start on this route on
September 20, and it also works well as a tour, with well spaced resupply
options. Except for one rocky 4wd
downhill to keep the gravel bikes honest, the big climbs and fast, rolling
terrain can be negotiated with a 2wd vehicle.
Looping the Big Horn Mountains and Cloud Peak Wilderness, the route
passes through a number of areas of historic and literary interest. Many famous authors have written here, and the
Bighorn mountains were the site of many battles between Native Americans and
white interlopers.
“History is written by the victors,” said Winston
Churchill, and so all historical narratives should be taken with a grain of
salt. This can be seen even in the names
of the tribes which called this area home.
For example, the name of the Cheyenne people comes from the Dakota word,
“shaiyena,” which means to speak unintelligibly. The origin of the name “Arapaho” is uncertain,
but it may have come from the Pawnee word for trader, or the Crow word for
tattoo. The Arapaho call themselves Hinono'eiteen, while other tribes called
them People of the Sky, Cloud People, Blue Cloud Men or Blue Sky People. The Dakota, the Lakota and the Nakota were
commonly referred to as Sioux, short for Nadowessioux, little snakes, a name
given by their enemies, the Ojibwe.
The route departs Sheridan on 5th street
and Keystone road, which are right on the Bozeman Trail, an important route for
settlers and gold seekers in the late 19th century. There were numerous skirmishes and battles
along this trail. Generally, the
Lakota, Arapahoe and Cheyenne hated the Bozeman trail while their enemy, the
Crows, were willing to put up with it.
After about 15 miles,
the route turns off the Bozeman Trail and reaches Big Horn at mile 30, then
past the Bradford Brinton museum of western art a few miles later. A bit further along, the route passes Road 77
along which runs Little Goose Creek. The
great chiefs Red Cloud and Crazy Horse frequently encamped along this river as
did General Crook later on. The horse
movie Flicka was also set at this location. In addition, it is rumored
that several members of the Jesse James gang hid out along this creek and
Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as
Butch Cassidy spent the summer of 1897 working for the
Hilman ranch down this road, writing either it was the “best home I ever had”
or "This is the only
home I have ever known.“
As a result of the
European laws of primogeniture, where the first born son gets the titles and
inheritance, this area was settled in large part by wealthy “second sons” of
European nobility who were unlikely to succeed to a title and wanted to be
horse and cattle barons. Oliver Henry Wallop, the Earl of Portsmouth, settled
in Big Horn in the early 1800’s and became the only person to serve both in
Britain’s House of Lords and Wyoming’s House of Representatives. His descendant, Senator Malcolm Wallop,
hosted a visit to Big Horn by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984, and Malcolm’s sister
Jean is the Countess of Carnarvon, recently well known from the television show
Downton Abbey. Consistent with
this history, Big Horn also hosts the oldest, continuously operating polo field
in the US.
From here the route
starts getting steep as it ascends Red Grade Road where the gradient
occasionally reaches 19%. Atop this
grueling climb, the route provides expansive views into Cloud Peak Valley and
the rocky 13,000 foot mountains, Cloud Peak and Blacktooth. As the closest big
mountain range to Chicago and the east coast, in the late 19th and
early 20th century, this was a
fashionable vacation spot. In 1884 Theodore Roosevelt killed a grizzly
here, writing, “This
bear was nearly nine feet long and weighed over a thousand pounds.” And Ernest Hemingway stayed here when
he was 29 years old, working on A Farewell to Arms, and writing to a
friend that he was “lonely
as a bastard, was drinking and eating too much, and that his whole life seemed
pointless.”
Passing this vista,
riders continue rolling through the pines with sightings of moose, elk and deer
likely, and at about 85 miles reach the first resupply, Elk View or Bear
Lodge. Both feature restaurants and a
small selection of trail food. If
touring, after about 105 miles you can turn off the route for roughly 5 miles
and visit Medicine Wheel. There are
about 150 known medicine wheels in Montana, Wyoming, Alberta and
Saskatchewan. The Medicine Mountain area
has been used by Native Americans for about 7,000 years. Arapaho, Bannock, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Crow, Kootenai-Salish, Plains
Cree, Shoshone and Sioux tribes have all used this area for traditional and
ceremonial purposes because they believe it harbors unique and powerful
spiritual energy.
After a rocky 4x4 descent, the town of Shell comes into view at around
135 miles. Shell has a motel,
campground, limited hot food and some trail food. There is also a bar with indeterminate
hours. Shell is named for the abundance
of fossils and shells found there, and is home to the University of Nebraska
and Iowa State University geology field station.
Leaving the
high desert of Shell, the route climbs back into the alpine zone and then drops
down to Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site at about 175 miles. This area has been continuously occupied for
about 10,000 years, and excavations down ten feet reveal numerous different
cultures have resided here. There is a
750 foot long sandstone bluff covered with over a hundred petroglyphs. There is also water, green grass and a
campground here.
Next is
another climb into the alpine zone and then a descent down through the scenic
sport climbing mecca of Ten Sleep Canyon and to the town of Ten Sleep at about
225 miles. There are a couple of
restaurants, bars, motels and stores in Ten Sleep. Ten Sleep’s name comes from Native Americans
who stopped here, ten sleeps from either Yellowstone or Casper. This was also the site of the Spring Creek
Raid or Ten Sleep murders where masked cattleman attacked and killed several
sheepherders. These cattlemen were
eventually sent to prison, marking the end of the sheep and cattle wars and the
end of vigilantism in the region.
Departing
Ten Sleep, the route contours through the high desert, eventually reaching a
remote BLM campground at about 275 miles.
The Middle Fork of the Powder River campground features water and a blue
ribbon trout stream. A little after this, riders pass the turnoff for the
famous outlaw hideout, “Hole in The Wall.”
Remote and secluded, with narrow passes, it was easy to defend the Hole
in the Wall, and impossible for lawmen to approach with stealth. The Hole in the Wall has featured in numerous
westerns and from around 1870 to 1910 many outlaws such as Kid Curry, Black
Jack Ketchum, Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, the Sundance Kid and others used a
small cabin here as a hideout. The cabin
is now preserved in the Old Trail Town Museum in Cody.
A bit more
high desert and then a descent to the town of Kaycee at about 330 miles for a
good resupply. Kaycee is in Johnson
County, site of the Johnson County Wars.
In 1889, conflict erupted between large landholders and small
homesteaders when a harsh winter and a dry summer strained the range to the
breaking point. The conflict lasted
almost 4 years and eventually the large landowners brought in 50 hired guns
from Texas who shot and hung several innocent people after accusing them of
rustling. President Benjamin Harrison
interceded to make sure these hired guns escaped justice. The Virginian and Shane were
written about this war along with the film Heaven’s Gate. Rooster Cogburn, John Wayne’s character
in True Grit, fought in this war on the side of the large landholders.
Next, riders ascend back
toward the alpine zone, passing the site of the Dull Knife Fight. This fight ended the Northern Cheyenne's
resistance to the United States for all practical purposes. General Crook
telegrammed the War Dept., "This will be a terrible blow to the hostiles,
as those Cheyennes were not only their bravest warriors but have been the head
and front of most all the raids and deviltry committed in this country." Dull Knife's followers were left in the
freezing November weather without sufficient clothing, and many suffered from
frostbite.
Eventually
the route descends down Crazy Woman Canyon.
The best known legend of Crazy Woman holds that while traveling, her
family was wiped out by Sioux warriors and she was the only survivor. She supposedly grabbed an axe and killed four
Sioux as they fled, and then went crazy before dying of starvation
Buffalo, Wyoming, with
full services, is the next resupply at about 405 miles. Buffalo has enjoyed fame recently as the site
of the Longmire series, by local author Craig Johnson, about a fictional,
no-nonsense Wyoming sheriff, Walt Longmire.
After Buffalo, riders pass through the “town” of Ucross, at about 430
miles, site
of the Ucross Foundation which provides many artists a place to work. This foundation has hosted such artists as
Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Proulx and Doug Wright, MacArthur Fellows
Charles Wuorinen, Sarah Ruhl, and Colson Whitehead, Tony Award-winning composer
Adam Guettel, and National Book Award winners Ann Patchett, Jean Valentine and
Ha Jin, as well as Elizabeth Gilbert.
It is about 60 miles back to finish the loop
in Sheridan. If touring, one can head
about ten miles off route to the town of Story.
This town is named after Nelson Story who was one of the original people
to drive a herd of longhorn cattle from Texas up to the Bozeman Trail. Numerous books have been based on this type
of cattle drive, the most famous of which is probably Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome
Dove, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986.
Story is also the site of the Fetterman Massacre during Red Cloud’s
War. A group of ten warriors from the
Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho, including Crazy Horse, used taunts and insults to
lure the troops out of Fort Phil Kearny.
Once the troops were away from the protection of the fort, a larger band
of Native Americans materialized and wiped out all 81 soldiers. Story is also the site of the Wagon Box Fight
where 26 soldiers and 6 civilians were attacked by hundreds of Lakota
warriors. This was allegedly the first time
that the defensive tactic of “circling the wagons,” was used. The soldiers were also armed with new
breech-loading Springfield rifles and lever action Henry rifles and were able
to hold out, suffering few casualties.
Finally, the route ends
in Sheridan, Wyoming’s cowboy town, where Buffalo Bill Cody auditioned live
acts from the porch of the Sheridan Inn.
The movies Wild Horses and Endangered Species were filmed
here, and it was in Sheridan, in 1986, that MTV hosted the world premiere of
Prince’s movie, Under the Cherry Moon. This is also where the tv series
“13 Reasons Why” was written by Jay Asher, while he worked as a cashier at the
Holiday Gas Station. Sheridan has full
services.
