Day Twelve – Jackson WY to Custer SD
Miles: 530
We got a very early start so we decided to eat at the Hampton. Never great for breakfast but we were riding by 6:15. We rode up US191 with the Tetons to our left as we rode, but we could hardly see due to the smoke. It was very disappointing but not much we could do about it. We headed east on US26 making a brief stop in DuBois. It was starting to clear some but still less than optimal. We chose this route because we wanted to ride through Wind River Canyon which we hadn't done since 2003. We started through the Canyon pulled over at what we thought was the best pull-over but we only stopped briefly and decided to continue on and maybe there was a better one. We got a few miles further in and decided to go back and returned to our original location. We stayed there a little longer than normal and then rode a few more miles in and made another stop. While at the second stop we noticed that there was road construction where only a single lane was in use, so we timed our departure so we would be first in line. It worked and we continued north on US20 before turning on US16 towards Ten Sleep. There was more construction on US 16 and the temperature was really climbing. We stopped once we got through the construction zone at Leigh Creek Monument. We had some water and kept riding. We decided to stop at Ten Sleep Brewing to have a bite of lunch and a pint. We took all of gear in so as not to have it sitting in the 100F heat. After cooling down we continued on and stopped next at Powder River Pass at 9,655' it was a welcome reprieve from the heat. The rest of the ride into Buffalo was nice but then we had to ride on I-90 for 100 miles in the 106F heat. We stopped at a rest stop on US16 in the town of Upton and continued on to Custer. We stayed at the Rocket Motel where we had previously stayed in 2012. It is a retro-motel that has been very well kept. We had dinner across the street at Mt. Rushmore Brewing. The menu descriptions looked great but the food was just average. The motel has patio area which was not there in 2012 and we sat there for a little while but moved closer to our room where we had better wi-fi reception and watched the Reds beat the Cubs.
