Tetons to grant

What a chilli morning. I was off early since I had read that the traffic in Yellowstone was lighter if you go in early. Unfortunately Jim and Keith were not coming with me. They wanted to spend a day exploring the tetons, and who can blame them, while I was looking forward to seeing my sister in Yellowstone tomorrow. So for the first time since Kansas I had to ride solo. Leaving those two behind was hard since we had such a great time together but I should see them in Missoula or something so it's not goodbye for good.

Most of the morning was spent with my head cranked too the left so I could stare at the mountains. Every clearing I found had me stopping to take another set of pictures. I need to come back here sometime and see if there is more to those hills than visible from the road.

Since I was now solo I started to get the bearanoia going since I had stories from guys riding the other direction about encountering grizzlys in the parks. So I swung by the Teton lodge to pick up some beer spray and while there I decided the best way to warm up was to eat an all you can eat buffet there.

I was back on the road and eventually left the Tetons behind and crossed into Yellowstone proper. So far the traffic had been average and there was a nice shoulder to ride on so I was beginning to wonder if the reports of bad riding in the parks was outdated info. Supposedly they were working on improving the shoulders to allow safer conditions for cyclists and to encourage more people to ride.

Well they still have a ways to go. Once I got 5 miles in and started climbing up the hill to grant village the shoulder disappeared, the traffic got heavy, and I stopped having fun. I later learned that it was actually a good idea to come into the park in the late afternoon and leave in the morning since you would be going against the traffic rather than with it. The cars were actually very polite and there were no jerks that flew by without giving enough space. I was trying my best to let the cars pass by pulling off the road when I could but there wasn't that many opportunities since the road was along a canyon with a guard rail and a 1000 ft. drop. I was riding well into the center of the road for that section. It wasn't that I was afraid of the cliff I just wasn't confident in my ability to not fall off it on my bike.

While going up I started coughing like crazy and thinking it was my old nemesis cough I tried my usual remedy of slowing down, taking medicine and drinking lots of water. That didn't work. When I made it to grant village I setup camp and did laundry and had a shower for the first time since Silverthorne. This was by far the longest stretch I've had in this trip without one.