Yellowstone bike touring

If you thought yesterday was cold today was worse. I tried getting going early at 4 so I could be riding by 5 to avoid the traffic but I couldn't even get my head out of my sleeping bag. I tried again at 430 and opened the tent before crawling back in, I checked the temp on the phone and it said 28. Nope back to bed.

I finally got riding by 7 but it was difficult. Still today was a big day. Ever since I started the trip my sister had asked about joining on this section. With a few messages and time adjustments today is the day I'll meet her. We left camp at the same time she's got about 40 miles on a triathlon bike that weights 15ish pounds and a slight uphill. While I have a loaded touring bike in the 60# range with two divide passes to cross. Who will make it to old faithful first?

Me of course but only cause she took some detours. While waiting on old faithful we rode our bikes up to the hot springs. They looked the same as before and my sister inevitably got asked, those special shoes you wearing.

After watching old faithful go off right on time if a bit underwhelming, there was less water than I remember which is supposedly normal, we started riding through the park. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there was a nice shoulder for us to ride on. Factoring in the shoulder and the hell that everyone in the cars were going through trying to see the sights and a parking spot I think bikes are the best way to see this section. The Grand Enchantment pool musta had a line of 25 cars waiting on parking and people walking for half mile or more from street parking. Meanwhile my sister and I rode right up saw the pools and were on our way with bike racks on the approach trail and only our bikes using them.

Once we hit all the major attractions we had an easy 20 mile flat/downhill cruise to the campground my sister had her car in. Along the way we stopped off in west Yellowstone to pick up some cold medicine for me since I was definitely sick.

I love the great divide basin.

So the wind forecast was the same as yesterday. If we make it to the town of muddy gap we'd have no wind otherwise it'd be hell. Since it was 50 miles to get there we got going early, like leaving the hotel by 530 early. I don't think that has happened since I started riding with these guys.

After a quick and terrible breakfast at McDonalds we started climbing up another continental divide pass. I don't remember it being such a long climb from when I did it last time but it was.

Once we got over the pass I was finally back in the basin. Taking a different route than last time but it was even more beautiful. There were no rides with wild horses but the gentle downhill and flats had us flying along at 16 mph average.  definitely one of the best rides of the trip. We made it to muddy gap by 11 even with stopping for 50+ pictures.

Unfortunately somewhere in there I strained my left hamstring. I think it was when I was bouncing along on my pedals to some heavy metal. I'm hoping that it's just a stain and not a pull. It feels like a Charlie horse so there is hope.

We made it to Jeffery city which is a shit hole of a town of 25 drunks, 1 million mosquitos(makes no sense its a desert), and a nice church hostel. We took over the hostel thinking we'd have it to ourselves but around 8pm 5 ppl roll in, 3 brits and 2 flag wearing Americans. They seem nice but totally ruined our nice quiet peaceful night.

Interstate only kinda sucked

So last night I checked the wind forecast using the app windy. It said as long as we are off the road by 2pm we wouldn't have any wind issues today. It was spot on. We only had two options, 45 miles into Rawlins or 120 miles into Jeffery city. After the last two days battling the winds we chose to stop early. It was a great decision imo.

The first 20 miles was on a nice quiet road with a slight downhill. This is what I envisioned yesterday to be like. We made great time even with stopping for the scenery.

The next 10 miles was along interstate 80. It wasn't as bad as I had imagined cause there was a huge shoulder that kept us away from the traffic. However,  there was a 1 mile section with road construction that had a much smaller shoulder. Keith said he had a truck come dangerously close to him in that section. The other issue with the interstate was all the road debris on the shoulder. I spent the entire 10 mile section staring at the ground dodging tire scraps and glass. I had to move 3 entire exploded tires from the shoulder so I could get by.

The final section had us ride the frontage road past the town of Sinclair. The only significance of the town is that it's the home of Sinclair gas. We road right past the big stinky refinery.

Rawlins was exactly how I recalled it from the CDT. I even ran into another hiker heading into the basin.

Now that I've done the mountain bike route and road bike from Saratoga to Rawlins I much prefer the mountain bike route. Especially the part where I ended up riding jeep track roads thanks to Google. It was annoying cause I wasn't prepared but riding the mountain bike along the jeep track ridge was one of the main reasons I'm doing this trip. The other part was when i was riding across the basin with the wild mustangs pacing me. I'm extremely excited about tomorrow's ride across the basin.