Wyoming - Day #1

REV3Adventure has been fortunate to partner with the state of Wyoming to put on an adventure weekend in July 2013 consisting of a 3.5-day Adventure Race that takes in some of the best and most interesting parts of the state, a family adventure race, a 5K glow stick run, and other festivities based out of the town of Casper.

With 11 months left for planning and preparation to make our REV3AR’s event, Cowboy Tough, happen, we headed west to Wyoming to scout out the courses and meet with sponsors and the team that was going to help make the event a reality.

Mike, Greg, and I had an early start from Dulles Airport, catching a 6 am flight to Denver.  After some fun and games (on the part of the car rental place), we finally got our vehicle and headed north to Cheyenne, the state capital of Wyoming. As the Rocky Mountains faded away to the left of us, we drove through the scrubland of northern Colorado and then into southern Wyoming. After a few stops for photos we arrived in Cheyenne and met up with Dominic at the state parks headquarters. Dominic is our contact with Wyoming and is critical to making the event happen. He is our eyes on the ground and the main go-to guy for local area knowledge.  Without Dominic, this thing would not be happening.  He is a great guy and we appreciate all his help.

 

After meeting up with a few potential sponsors, we headed to the state capitol building to meet Renee, the governor’s marketing director.  We discuss the upcoming press conference set for Monday, talk about the event and how it is going to highlight the state, and reiterate how happy we are to be able to work with the governor’s office to make the Cowboy Tough AR a reality.

After bidding Renee farewell, we grabbed lunch at Taco John's, where we sampled the famous "Tata Tots" and then headed over to Bicycle Station, where Wendy hooked us up with some great Specialized 29er demo bikes.

We were ready to ride, so Dominic ran us up to Curt Gowdy State Park, a super nice state park just west of Cheyenne.  After setting up camp we headed out to sample some of the trails the park had to offer.  The trails were very similar to trails on the West Coast--loose with a mix of rocks and switchbacks—and enjoyably technical.  The one thing none of us had taken into consideration was altitude.  At 7500' and coming straight from sea level on the East Coast, we all felt the burn in our lungs as we tackled the hills. After about 10 miles of trail riding, we headed back to the campground, cleaned up, and headed into the town of Laramie for some food and supplies.

We finally hit the sack at around 11 pm (1 pm EST), making for a long—but exciting—day of exploration. We are pulling together what looks to be a fantastic, unique, and fun race. Tomorrow brings cattle rustling and a tour of the reas north of Cheyenne