Yellowstone and the Tetons

The last four days are gonna be hard to beat. Our ride took us through both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and the rainy weather and brutal headwinds are behind us. I would guess the majority reading this have been to Yellowstone so we'll save the description, however, simply stated....one of the most beautiful places in the country. No epic wildlife stories...grizzly, moose, or wolf sightings....nada. At one point we attempted to take a ten mile gravel bike trail to see a little of the less explored areas, however, we were turned around by a group/herd of bison that were determined to use the path to travel in the opposite direction.

 

 

With the beautiful landscapes comes the tourists. Nothing like standing ten feet away from and elk and yelling at it to get that perfect photo. Shocking how tame and comfortable animals can really become. 

Anyways, after a beautiful two day ride through Yellowstone, and crossing the Continental Divide a couple times, we cruised into Grand Teton N.P. 

 

 

Having only seen the Teton Range once before, as a 19 year old kid, and it actually being the first real mountains I'd seen I had a very grand and huge picture painted in my head....and man did it live up to, and exceed, that memory. Our day was filled with, "Wow look at that!"...."I can't believe how beautiful that is!"....etc, as it was Sarah's first time through the area also.

 

After swimming in a crystal clear lake with a view of the Tetons, and Sarah curling up in a ball and taking a nap in front of the local grocery store, we left the park....peddled into a horde of mosquitos and danced the jig while we set up camp for the night.....

 

 

 

 

Which brings us to today.....after what we've deemed "the worlds smallest omelet" we spent the first half of the day crawling up a 2,600' pass with the Tetons in the rear view. 

 

After making the top, and apparently just missing two grizzlies playing in a meadow, we had a mostly downhill shot into the town of Dubois....where we shared a dinner out with a handful of other cyclists. We treated ourselves to a excellent home cooked type meal, a couple beers, and a huge slice of pie with ice cream. Camping out for the night, looking forward to what's ahead.....

We've been meeting and camping with a bunch of different cyclists lately it seems, with a small handful becoming regulars. Today we actually met a family of 5, not counting the lab, that are on a long bicycle tour. The three kids are between ages 2-5. The dad tows a covered trailer which two of the kids and the dog ride in. The mom rides one on a double bike. Pretty awesome to see. Also been meeting tons of people that aren't on bikes....the conversations usually start with curiosity as to what we're doing. The funniest reaction thusfar has been, "Wheeeeew, that is some deep spiritual sh@t man!"

 

Montana....you gloomy

Montana's been tough. She's chewed us up and today, God willing, she'll spit us out when we cross into Yellowstone National Park and Wyoming. The whole state has been beautiful, however, the weather the past week has been rather unfavorable. It seems when we weren't ducking from one place to the next trying to avoid the rain there was a relentless headwind trying to blow us the other way.

Since our last posting....the weather cleared up enough overnight to allow us to push off from our cabin and climb 3000' up and over our highest pass yet at 7,250'. After reaching the top we cruised 25 miles into the little town of Wisdom. Along the way we met a handful of cyclists and also spent some time at the big hole battlefield visitors center, which was a very interesting walk through of the battle between the Nez Perce and the U.S. Army that occurred in the valley. 

 

 

That night we were very lucky to find this covered pavilion in the local park, which we deemed the "hobo hideout", as the skies weren't looking promising.

 

 

Good thing as it rained all night and into the early afternoon the next day. Pushing off after a late breakfast and too many cups of coffee.....

 

 

 .....we were stopped by a local fella warning us of the "rainbow gathering" up ahead, informing us we should most certainly take a reroute around the chaos. We had been warned of the gathering in passing through the last 3-4 towns. The locals were panicked and on high alert to "protect their own", however, in our passing through the "chaos" amounted to a handful of dreadlocked kids hanging around town. Upon riding into Dillon, and our campground for the night, we met the campground host, Bob, with a 8" Rambo knife dangling off his belt. Bob needed to first assure himself we weren't "rainbow people" before granting us admittance into the campground....so after successfully passing a brief "how do I know you're not a hippie" interview we threw out our tent for the night.

We deemed the following day "eccentric Bob day". We met our second Bob at the grocery store in the morning. This fella has rode his bike all over the States. Every summer he rides a different tour, or does a hitchhike/bicycle tour combo. Rather interesting fella. Also interesting to see a fella in dirty sweatpants riding a $4-5,000 bike.

 

Our third Bob meeting in twelve hours came by the way of Bob in Twin Bridges. He biked the same route we're on back in the '50's when he was just 15 years old. When discovering Sarah's hands have been hurting he took us back to his house and modified her bike to remedy the problem. Very nice guy, with a really interesting story, and I can only dream of having a head of hair like his when in my seventies.

 

 

 

That night we stayed in Virginia City, an old mining town where all the original buildings from the 1800's have been preserved. The next day after a steep uphill we cruised down into the great little town of Ennis. After a late breakfast we emerged back outside to a super powered headwind. After a couple miles of attempting to peddle on we threw in the towel and headed back to town for the night with hopes of a calmer day the next..... It was for the first two hours of the morning, after which we spent the rest of the day peddling hard and inching along. Easily the hardest day of the ride thusfar. We covered half the distance we're used to in a day with twice the effort. Towards the end of the day we met a group of ten riding the same route, which were nice enough to share their dinner of hotdogs, venison steaks, potatoes, veggies, and beers with us. The following is a picture of the "tent city" of last night. That's it for now. On to a new state......Wyoming!

 

 

 

Rainy Days

After two rest days in Missoula we pushed off yesterday morning with a rather daunting grey horizon. After riding through drizzle and gusty winds for the better part of the morning we pulled over to fix a popped tire under the covered porch of a bar/restaurant in Victor, pop. 800. Just then the skies let loose. We hung at the bar for the better part of two hours drinking tea and waiting for the heavy rain to let up. There we met Janice, among others, who is the cook and also the local fear monger. Her stories went on and on concerning the local wildlife and what they're capable of...packs of hungry wolves, aggressive black bears, an over abundance of mountain lions, etc. On and on, if you didn't know any better, making you believe around the next corner they're all flipping a coin to determine who gets you for dinner. After realizing the rain was sticking around, and before Janice started configuring ways to mount a shotgun to our bicycle frames, we said our goodbyes and pushed off into the rain as she finished the last slug or her lunch break Budweiser. Twenty more miles through the rain brought us to the realization that riding a bicycle in the rain just isn't much fun, and to the Super 8 for the night.

The storm stuck around for the night and this morning we set off into a steady headwind along with some drizzle. Met two interesting people while taking breaks today. First was Lowell, the tour guide in a really cool museum with a lot of local history...there's a lot of Native American history in these parts. Lowell was an inspiration...a man in his seventies with the energy of a twenty year old. Then we met a lady, while waiting out the rain, who along with her husband traveled and lived along the Pacific Crest Trail, by horseback, for an entire year. They came down off the trail for two months in the winter and lived in a teepee by Redmond, OR. A rather interesting story. 

In just the last five miles of today we rode through a short but heavy and drenching rain/sleet storm, saw a  bald eagle from a stones throw away, I fell over on my bike, and we somehow missed 7-8 big horn sheep that were "right next to the road". We're shacked up in a little cabin for the night as sleet and snow are expected through the night just over our next pass. 

Also, for the long winded readers, we passed and admired this "ancient medicine tree" today.

 

According to Nez Perce religious teachings, a god named Coyote battled a huge ram at this site. The ram charged and, missing Coyote, buried his horns deep in the trunk of this large yellow pine. Coyote destroyed the ram, but left it's horn embedded in the tree. Indians found the scene of the battle and draped the horn with beads, declaring the tree a religious site....