Kindness of a Young Wyoming Man

I have embarked on what I hope will be a 4 month, 17,000 mile motorcycle ride through the US and parts of Mexico and Canada to visit family and friends and to benefit Children International.  Please consider supporting me – learn more here Will's Charity Ride for Children International - PledgeIt

July 4, 2024

I´ve arrived Rawlins, Wyoming 13,261 miles from home.  Today, I had an “adventure,” unique to this 3 month travel.  My host in Casper (for this story, to go unnamed) and I talked about how to ride to Rawlins, WY and I expressed my desire to ride ¨backroads¨.  He suggested that I could ride through the back country passed Pathfinder and Seminoe reservoirs and that it was mostly paved with a “few" gravel sections intermingled.  At least, that is what I heard.  It turns out that it was more gravel, and sketchy roads and less pavement.  

Here this looks totally doable!

And as I progressed, the “gravel" road became more extreme in that the inclines, both up and down became steeper, to a worrisome degree and spattered with various sized gravel.  I was reminded about my fault in Batopilas as I climbed up the sketchy steep gravel road, meaning that forward motion on such a steep incline cannot stop.  As I climb, the front wheel wandered as it skipped over various sized rocks of various depths. 

Don't ride here with your road bike!

As I crested the summit, the descent was steeper than the ascent.  This 900lbs bike is not designed for this!  I was careful to keep my hand off the front brake and only use the rear brake, but only to keep the downward speed constant at 13 to 14 mph, no sudden adjustments.  And, of course, as in the past on this ride, when these kinds of extreme situations occur, I am not about recording it, I am about concentrating and surviving.

As I arrived at the bottom of this incline, Google indicated to break right onto what appeared to be a road less travelled, meaning that there was overgrowth between the wheel paths, meaning that this wasn't a well travelled road.   Yikes!  Now to follow this road that seems to be worse than the roads I've just travelled,  

Truth, I was scared and didn't know what to do.  Go back 40 miles of what I already knew, or forge forward into what was clearly the shorter path, BUT seemed to be venturing into what was less and less appropriate for my skill, desire, and bike I was riding.  As I was still contemplating my navel, suddenly a faded blue pick up came rattling down the road in my direction.  (Which I was hoping would happen before I had to decide which route to take.  Simply for counsel about whether Google was telling me my best option and to understand was I in for more of the same road conditions or worse.)  

As this video explains, I was scared, I was in the middle of BFE and thinking that following Google would only have directed me into an environment that I was less capable of managing and less likely to encounter other travellers.

I unabashedly waved it down, when it stopped, I stuck my head into the passenger side window and asked about the rational of turning right onto that sketchy road to get to Rawlins and he explained quickly that, “No, that was NOT way to Rawlins!"

Enter here, an angel, I introduced myself and he indicated that his name was Timely, or maybe TimeLee. But honestly, really, is this happening, that a young man named Timely has arrived so timely in my situation?  

Well after explaining that he also was headed to Rawlins from his grandparents ranch to see the fireworks and see his girlfriend, he offers, unsolicited, to follow after me just in case I have a problem navigating the rest of the gravel road.  As I write this, it brings tears to my eyes thinking about how this young man who doesn't know me has offered to escort me to safety.  His kindness and generosity is overwhelming as I think about how desperate I was alone in the back country of Wyoming and he simply offered me a path to safety. 

When we arrived in Rawlins, we stopped and again I thanked him profusely and offered to take care of his gas, but he refused any reward or compensation saying that he was headed this way anyway.  Wow, an angel!

His name is Timely, and that he was!