Avoided the rain down the mountain, not sprinkles

In a previous post, I wrote about climbingThe Bighorn Mountains. The next day as I was preparing to descend, I noticed dark loomng rain clouds seemingly coming my way. Biking down 7 to 8% grades for 7 miles can be a little scary doing so, in a heavy rain storm sounded just downright dangerous, and I wanted to avoid it. I went down as fast and as safely possible. I then saw storm clouds in front of me too. I managed to avoid this rain completely by luck.

That brought me completely dry and safe into Buffalo Wyoming, where I had a nice lunch at the Busy Bee cafe and caught up on all my correspondence having been w/o internet for two days. In the restaurant I overheard people talking about rain inthe Bighorn mountains.

From the restaurant, I called the town hall in Claremont Wyoming to ask them if I could sleep in the public park. It is where I wanted to end up for the day and there are no accommodations in town.They consulted the mayor and he said that was just fine. Claremont Wyoming has absolutely no services whatsoever, so I got my provisions in buffalo wyoming. As an aside story while I was outside the grocery store, three or four people wanted to talk to me and find out what I was doing. One of them even gave me $20 for my climate fundraising.

When I arrived in Claremont a couple hours later a lady was standing outside, waiting for me. She showed me where the public park was and then invited me back to the historical society at eight am.The following morning.

I was setting up my sleeping bag to sleep on the ground in the park without a tent because there was a zero percent chance of rain. While doing that, Shirley from the town church invited me to sleep inside. I preferred to sleep outside so I declined. That was a big mistake that I now regret. You see, there was a zero percent chance of rain overnight, but a one hundred percent chance of sprinkles at two a m. I should have known better. There are no green lawns in Wyoming without daily sprinkling. I woke at 2 AM with an industrial size sprinkler head spraying water pointed right in my face. I naturally moved quickly, but myself and the sleeping bag got quite wet. I moved my wet sleeping bag and pad to the picnic shelter and slept on top of a table and shivered the rest of the night.

One of my biggest regrets on this trip is not accepting.The offer of the lady at the church to sleep inside.