Friday, July 17, 2009

Friday. I really struggled today. I think the accumulated fatigue from the last two days caught up with me. The ride was only 48 miles, but there were two big climbs. Luckily they were spread out. One started at 6 miles and the second at 35 miles. I rode slow and steady focusing on keeping my cadence high to take stress off of my legs. Up the climbs the focus was on completing goals of very short distances and after a while I found myself at the top with a good downhill for recovery. We’re staying in Jackson , Montana camped out on a lawn behind the Jackson hot springs resort. The town has a stated population of 38 so there’s not much here. Because of the thermal activity there’s actually no cold water here. That includes the shower and all faucets so without ice we’re looking for chilled bottled water. Pretty weird. More lewis and clark sites as we approach the bitterroot mountains.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thursday. Another 72 miles, ennis to Dillon, Montana. 144 miles in two days. everyone is tired. Today started with a 10 mile uphill pull. Not real steep but at 3 to 5 percent grad for that long takes a lot out of the legs. The climb took us up to about 6500 feet then we had a quick descent and stayed relatively flat down at around 5000 feet. The landscape changed dramatically. Irrigated grasslands everywhere with grazing cattle, horses, and sheep. Much of the day was spent following exactly in the footsteps of lewis and clark. Pretty cool. In some of the areas there’s so little development that it probably doesn’t look much different than it did in 1804. Another milestone today with crossing the 3000 mile mark. 1300 to go.

alix at camp

benjamin killing time playing on the beach in oregon awaiting our arrival

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Wednesday. West Yellowstone to ennis, Montana-72 miles. Rode out of camp a little after 7:00am in heavy fog and the temperature hovering below 40. There was so much moisture in the air that I had water dripping from my eyebrows. At least there were no clouds so after 2 hours the fog burned off and the temperature rose to a very comfortable level. The whole day was spent riding down the Madison river valley which we had actually picked up near old faithful a couple of days ago. At 20 miles in we stopped at a cafĂ© attached to a camping/fishing area right next to the river. There special was blackberry pancakes, actually blackberry pancake because it was about 10 inches in diameter. Delicious. Powered me all day. Another short distance down the road brought us to earthquake lake. In 1959 an earthquake brought the mountain down blocking the river causing many fatalities. I’ve documented below. The rest of the ride was just beautiful riding along the river with mountains on both sides. This is a big time fishing area. I spent much of the day visualizing our friend tom stiffler in his waders casting and reeling, casting and reeling. One fisherman that I spoke to claimed he caught 40 fish the other day, rainbows and brownie I think he said. All in all a terrific day on the road. All pictures posted today are from today’s ride. I couldn’t help myself.

evidence of landslide that created earthquake lake

pancake place

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Monday. Today’s ride started at grant village in Yellowstone park and ended 50 miles later in west Yellowstone, Montana. The day started at colter bay in grand teton. We were not permitted to ride out of camp this morning due to heavy construction on a large part of the road between teton and Yellowstone. We were forced to use the van as a shuttle and because of all the gear it took two trips. I volunteered for the second one so I could sleep in and have a leisurely morning. As it turned out I didn’t get on my bike until close to noon. The first 17 miles were probably the most unpleasant and potentially dangerous miles we’ve ridden the whole trip. Three hard climbs crossing the continental divide each time, narrow road, almost no shoulder, and very heavy traffic. It was as if I was riding in manhattan, but with pretty scenery. Many large rv’s, but the scariest vehicles were the cruise America rental rv’s. I’m sure the drivers of these had no idea how wide they were or how far the side view mirrors stuck out. They seemed to drive like they were in their chevy malibu’s. everyone survived but it was not fun. The terrain also seemed to have gotten much steeper since I was here last time. It turned out that everyone was headed to old faithful. I stopped and watched the geyser and stuck around for lunch at the old faithful lodge. the rest of the ride was very pleasant as most of the tourists headed back the way they came. Having visited so many other national parks in the last few years I would put Yellowstone way down on my list of favorites. I guess it’s the most famous and well known throughout the world so it attracts way too many visitors and the roads get jammed. We’re staying in west Yellowstone which is outside of the park and quite honky tonk. Another rest day on Tuesday so everyone can explore more of the park. I will take a pass and enjoy a quiet day. No post

josh too

emily enjoying her first banana split

low key welcome to montana

old faithful

crowd waitinig for old faithful