Wyoming to host new “Cowboy Tough” adventure race
Gov. Matt Mead announced Monday that a new adventure race is coming to Wyoming. The inaugural “Cowboy Tough” Adventure Race Weekend will take place in July 2013. The adventure race will combine mountain biking, trekking, canoeing, rock climbing and several other challenges. Mead said events like this showcase Wyoming and attract visitors.
“I believe Wyoming has the best resources in the world. These include our wide open spaces, striking vistas, mineral resources, and of course, the amazing people of Wyoming. We are always looking for ways to promote this state and all its great attributes,” Mead said.
The adventure race will take place over several days, starting near Cheyenne and ending in Casper. The race organizer, Rev3 Adventure, says it will attract elite teams from across the country and from other nations. The race will be structured in a way that people who are serious and those that are not as serious about adventure racing can all compete. Additionally, there will be events in Casper for people of all ages and skills.
“This is going to be one of the toughest adventure races in the world,” said Michael Spiller, Adventure Race director for Rev3 Adventure, which will organize the event. “We want to highlight the history of Wyoming and its outdoor adventure opportunities,” Spiller added.
The City of Casper will serve as host city for the event. The Cowboy Tough adventure race was created with input from the National Outdoor Leadership School, State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails and the Office of Tourism.
The late Boyd Charter, who grew up ranching in Jackson Hole, then later ranched by Roundup, MT, and was a founding member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, enlisted in the Navy for WW2, because, as his wife famously quoted him, “Cowboys don’t walk!”
Dunno about you , but in 61 years of living in Wyoming I have seen maybe two cowboys on a mountain bike, and the only one I know that ever canoed was poaching a big bull Moose on the lower Shoshone River at the time. I would think it’s difficult to rock climb in cowboy boots, too, and ‘trekking’ to a cowboy is the short distance he must walk between his saddle horse and the truck . But maybe that’s what this ” Wyoming Special Olympics” adventure show is all about…normal Wyoming folk in abnormal scenarios, making fools of themselves.