Wyoming

Its all down hill from today. Just a small hill or two. Thats what I told the guys this morning. While it isn't wrong it certainly didn't feel like that cause of the wind in the afternoon the first half of the day was a fantastic ride along the North Sand Hills Park. Beautiful mountains, plains, and gentle downhill grade all morning. There was a small hill of about 200 ft that the guys gave me grief about and a 400 ft climb over a pass but that was it. The rest was a nice gentle downhill or flat the entire day. 

We made it to the border and Wyoming greeted us with a horizon of dark clouds and thunder. We played dodge the rainstorm before pushing uphill over the pass into a 10 mph headwind. Going uphill into a wind sucks. Seriously sucks. Going downhill into a wind isn't much better. Our nice 6% grade downhill on the other side of the pass only had me going 20 mph instead of the usual 35.

We eventually reached the town of encampment which is where I had switched from bicycling back to hiking on the CDT. This time there was a woodcutting festival and rodeo going on. We had made it for the tail end of the woodcutting events but the rodeo had just started. The local talent tried hard but I think the entire time I was at the rodeo there was only two successful events both by semi-pro contestants. 

We left the rodeo before it finished cause we didn't want to be on the road when it let out. Unfortunately we failed and were on the road battling crosswinds with no shoulder while drunk assholes in their trucks came flying by without giving us room. We made it to the town of Saratoga which I had stayed at on the CDT and has a fantastic public hot springs available. We stayed at a wonderful warm showers host which put us up for the night and got us all cleaned up. 

Where am I?

Turns out its not all downhill after all. I still have this thing call the Continental Divide to climb over like 8 more times. That's alright. The reason I chose the Transam is because it follows the Divide for as long as it does. It's giving me a chance to reminisce and visit the best hiking trip I've done so far. This morning was a long trek up the divide to willow creek pass. Even though we had to climb like 2000 ft the first 1200 ft or so was over 20 miles on a quiet back country highway. The scenery was fantastic the road was in good condition for Colorado and the traffic was basically non existent. 

The only problem was I couldn't figure out where I was on the divide. Unlike Hoosier pass I know I had hiked over this one. For the entire 8 miles of climbing up to the pass I kept looking at it trying to figure out when I had gone over it. Nothing looked familiar. It wasn't until I got within a mile of the pass that I finally figured out where I was. This was the pass with a hut on the mountain and 3 routes down it. I had gone down the Ley alternate which had me walk a steep ridge down to a road, the CDT went along a knifes edge ridge down to the pass, and the new CDT had you go north along another ridge before dropping down to the pass. I couldn't recognize it from the direction I was heading since the mountain blocked everything behind, including the hut, and the snow made the ridge and road I walked down unrecognizable. 

When we set out we thought the hard part of the day was going to be getting over the pass cause after that it was all downhill. Well it was all downhill a very slow gentle downhill. However the wind, oh man the wind, that was not downhill. That was a constant 20 mph crosswind with 35+ gusts. The wind seriously kicked our asses. Keith kept getting blown over. Whenever a truck would pass us the brief break we'd get from the wind by being in its slipstream would almost knock us over since we were leaning over so much. The traffic wasn't bad and we setup a draft train which basically took over our entire lane since we weren't drafting behind the leader but were on their shoulder. We had to give a couple feet of space since the gusts caused us to shift back and forth so much. That downhill section was exhausting. We were all wiped out by the time we hit town.

The only good thing about the wind is kept the mosquitos away. We had heard that this section and the town we were heading to had some horrible mosquitos. I don't know about the road section since any mosquitos had to have been blown to Nebraska but when we stopped at town and a store on the way we were swarmed. 

Its all downhill from here

So we got an "early" start by riding at 6:30. I was ok with that time cause it was cold out. The ride started out great we had a new section of road with a nice wide shoulder and it was downhill the entire day. We made fantastic time and had covered 40 miles by 10:30. The Transam had us take a 5 mile detour around a lake since the road we were following had fairly heavy traffic and the shoulder poofed. It was a great detour with nice views and a great spot for a picnic. Unfortunately we only had snacks since the store we had planned on getting lunch for was closed for renovations. 

We cruised another 20 miles to the next town and grabbed a late lunch there. Coming out of the town was another 5 miles of shitty hell with no shoulders and asshole drivers. Thankfully this time it was only light traffic and then we had a shoulder again but I wasn't pleased and Jim had a close encounter with an idiot similar to mine close to Hoosier. 

After another 10 miles or so we entered a really cool canyon. I instantly recognized it from the cross country train trip I did in 2002. Of course there was no shoulder but the traffic didn't bother us since they seemed happy to take the time to admire the scenery and we kept pulling over to take pictures. When we came out of the canyon we were at our destination of Hot Sulfur Springs. A cute tourist town with free camping next to the river and hot springs which we could soak in for a fee. Nobody ended up soaking cause there was only 2 hours left and it was seriously hot out.

Breckenridge to Silverthorne

After finishing the hike up mount Baldy I went and grabbed my bike from the hostel and rode down to Silverthorne where Jim's friend's condo was. While I woulda enjoyed a third night at the Fireside Inn Jim and Keith wanted to get up and going early in the morning since we had a long ride tomorrow with hot springs available at the end. 

The ride from Breckeridge to Silverthorne was one of the top 3 of the trip so far. The entire section was slightly downhill, with a tailwind, along a bike path next to either a river or a lake. It was peaceful easy riding. I stopped off in Frisco to buy one of those goofy cyclist hats since I had apparently gotten sunburn on my head since I got my haircut in pueblo. I think it was from the hiking not the cycling but either way I got one of those stupid hats. 

When I got to Silverthorne I grabbed dinner with MeHap who had hiked the CDT with me and drove up from Denver. It was a great time but remanising made both of us want to get out and hike. MeHap was even talking about quitting his job and coming out to join me... Unfortunatly there is still way to much snow on the PCT to start so I gotta keep riding. If the rest of the trip is like today I think I'll enjoy it if its like Hoosier pass I'm quitting.

Breckenridge zero

So I have a rule for all my trips, never quit on a bad day. Yesterday was a bad day. Today after spending a night in what I considered the best run hostel on the entire CDT, The Fireside Inn in Breckenridge, I needed a day off. Keith, Jim and Bobby rode on to stay at a house of another one of Jim's friends while I stayed in the hostel. I had always planned to take a day or two off here. There was a section of the CDT that I took a shortcut passed by walking the bike path. I wanted to hike that section cause the rest of this part of the CDT was gorgeous and I had heard good things about it. However, that didn't work out. That section of the trail was still snowbound and the portions that weren't had overflowing creeks.

So instead of hiking along the CDT I went up to Breckenridge resort to hike around up there. There is a gondola that takes you from the center of town up to the resort and after riding it up I swore off gondolas forever. It was a windy day and the gondola kept stopping with my rocking and swaying all over the place due to the wind and start/stop motions. Unfortunately the trail I had planned on taking back down the hill was closed so after hiking around for an hour or two to let my stomach settle I got back on the gondola and went back to town.

I ended up taking a second zero and for the first half of the day Keith and Jim called up and suggested we do a nice little 5 mile round trip hike up a forest service road. The hike was really nice there were streams, waterfalls and at the end there was an abandoned mine. When we were exploring the mine a couple of state park employees mentioned there were a few more a couple miles up the mountain. We decided to go check them out since Keith was collecting rocks for his sister.

After getting up to the mines we took a break and admired the views and played a game of throwing rocks to see who had the best aim, I lost. Keith wanted to go up to treeline which we all agreed to but I said I didn't want to go any higher than that since I hadn't brought a jacket and knew it was windy I'd get cold if we went above that.

Of course we didn't stop there and went up to the false summit. It was another great set of views and even though it was cold once we crested the ridge we were able to hide out from the wind and take a nap in the grass.

High points and low points

We got up to frost covering our tents. Our plan was for everyone to ride out together to go over the pass. While the climb wasn't that bad the traffic was supposed to be the worst of the trip

Dillon to wisdom

I caught up with the others at a gas station where they were having breakfast. Today has us going over two passes then down into the big hole valley. I heard from the guys in front that these passes were more difficult than yesterday's, just cause combined they were longer. After the passes was supposed to be one of the worst mosquito stretches yet.

Turns out both were true. The first pass was short and not to steep but the second one hurt. I think just the cumulative effect of 5000 ft or so just wore me out. The mosquitos didn't bother us while riding but when we stopped in town they were everywhere. Luckily wisdom had setup a nice shelter provided by the American legion with mosquito netting. That gave us a place besides the bar to hang out and eat. Which was desperately needed cause they had freshly baked pie in the bar and I was going to go broke if I lingered there too long.

Storm dodging

Back to the ride again! One of the main reasons I was taking time off in Ennis is the big pass once you leave it. So I wanted to have the cold beat and coughing under control before starting. Mission accomplished. There was still a little coughing but a cough drop quickly got it under control.

When I was about a mile from the top I stopped at a scenic point. When looking uphill to the pass I saw this bright yellow thing on the road. Since it wasn't moving I decided it was a road sign of some sort. Nope it was the britts and flag wearing Americans. One of the Americans had a tire blow and was replacing it. Luckily someone in the group had a spare or he would have had to hitch to Dillon to get a new one.

We cruised over the pass and down to a little town where we got inside right as it started to rain. The others had breakfast while I just lurked before going to the next town 5 miles away that had a bakery for breakfast. Once again I got inside right as it started to rain. Instead of going for the lemon bars they were known for I tried out their newest concoction which was a lemon bar combined with a strudel. The pastry to filling ratio was off and slightly over cooked but for a first attempt at a new dish I had to give it a thumbs up.

Next up we cruised 10 miles or so into a headwind into the town of three rivers/forks/something where we did a 160 degree turn and headed back up the far end of the valley to the town of Dillon. This time we had a tailwind and we were cruising. The others went to stealth camp in a graveyard while I decided to get another motel room since I'm still recovering. Glad I did cause they had mouse issues with one of their tents getting a hole in it.

Ennis zero

Ennis is a cute little tourist town seemingly entirely devoted to fly fishing and selling ranches to billionaires. Other than one bar and maybe a real estate agency nothing was open after 7pm.

After spending the night in town I was still coughing so I decided to take a zero. Then I took a second one and visited the local doctor. He said it was just a normal cold going around with a lingering cough for up to 3 weeks. He gave me a steroid allergy shot and sent me on my way. While hanging out Jim and Keith caught up and we spent the day hanging out. But they rode on while I was taking the second zero. I should catch up to them since Jim is going to spend the 4th in Missoula with his girlfriend. I wouldn't see Keith again in this trip : (.

Earthquakes and tailwinds

I got up feeling much better. Only coughing a little and no sore throat. So instead of taking a zero in the campground with its huge temperature swings I decided to ride on.

It was chilly again, so much so that I stopped at a fishing resort to warm up with some coffee and a giant pancake breakfast. Next up was a tour around earthquake lake. Back in the 50s there was an earthquake and landslide here that ended up damming the river causing flooding and a few deaths. The landslide is really impressive. A giant chunk of the mountain just came off and slid down into the valley below. It's still damming the river but is getting eroded slowly. The lake it created still has dead trees sticking up out of it. The best part of it for me is they were repaving the road around the entire lake so I had 10 miles of brand new road all to myself except for when the cars from one side or the other would pass by.

After leaving the lake I had 50 miles of a downhill grade following the Madison river to the town of Ennis. This might be the easiest ride yet. The entire way had a good shoulder, well not counting the 10 miles or so that they put rumble strips in the shoulder, and there was a nice strong tailwind. I wasn't pedalling hard, I know cause I wasn't triggering any coughing, and was averaging over 17mph. When I finished the day my average was at 14.6 which includes my slow roll around earthquake lake.

Yellowstone zero

I was still feeling badly but no longer hada sore throat just a buncha coughing. So rather than aggravating the cough by riding the bike 75 miles we decided to go visit the part of Yellowstone we missed.

The main attraction of the day was Yellowstone falls. This was fantastic. The Yellowstone river was flowing strongly right over these 200+ ft falls and we got all the way right next to where it goes over the cliff. Like 2ft. or less from the edge. On top of that the water was crystal clear so you could see through it as it's going over. I was more impressed by this than old faithful.

We drove around for a bit more seeing different hot springs and waterfalls before heading back to camp and sending my sister home. It was a great visit, unfortunately I later found out that I got my sister sick which I was trying to avoid but I guess was inevitable after spending a day in a car with her.

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.

Most difficult day

Today sucked. By far the hardest riding conditions of the trip. We had to do 80 miles to get to Dubois with only one convienece store at mile 30. The rest of the way was Indian reservation land with no stopping. We were going uphill all day and there was a strong headwind, like 15mph constant with 30+ gusts.

We tried drafting which actually was easier  than anytime in the past since it was a headwind rather than a crosswind for once. But with my hamstring I had a hard time keeping up. I'd fall off just a pedal or two but couldn't burst hard without straining the hamstring to catch up. At which point the headwind would hit and I'd lose the draft. This was the closest I've been to hitching into town.  If the guys hadn't been there slowing down and letting me draft I wouldn't have made it.

We were so tired that when we reached the beautiful canyon before Dubois that was exactly like Bryce canyon we barely took any time to admire it. Seeing that canyon made me truly appreciate our national park system. Cause here was a canyon with the same coloring, rock formations, and beauty as bryce canyon but it was ruined by these big ugly houses. These houses were built all over the cliffs just totally detracting from the gorgeous scenery. But thanks to the parks system we have places like Bryce canyon that haven't been destroyed by millionaires and billionaires wanting exclusive rights to it. Anyway if you pass by the canyons are worth visiting even with the eyesores.

We did make it but we were all extremely dehydrated. Keith and Jim each drank 2 pitchers of water at dinner and I had one. None of us got up in the night to pee.

The Winds but no wind

So the leg felt better, it was still sore and a bit tight but the knot from yesterday was gone and I could walk normalish. Today's forecast had no wind but high temps. With that in mind everyone got up and moving. The brits and flag wearing Americans were gone by 6 and we went over to the bar for breakfast.

That was a mistake I'm pretty sure I caught a cold from that damn bar. Still it was necessary since I got my first flat of the trip and the mosquitos were relentless. A tiny piece of tire metal had made it into my tube. Not bad considering this is the first flat in over 2500 miles.

So I figured out why there are so many mosquitos in the desert. Apparently this entire area is a frozen marsh. The pioneers would cut blocks of ice and take it down to Utah to help with the heat. It doesn't usually thaw until late July or August. With the lack of wind the mosquitoes were vicious. This was only the second time I've been forced to use deet.

The ride was uneventful except for the heat. We got up close and personal with The wind river mountain range. I tried explaining how amazing they are to the guys but until you get 20 miles into the backcountry you can't appreciate them. They'll just have to go hike them to see for themselves.

The final 9 miles into Lander was terrible. I was limping along with my sore hamstring in 98+ temps. We made it but there was a cow pond I was seriously considering jumping into. When we got to Lander we stopped at the first place with a.c., a McDonalds. This might have been the first good experience I've had at McDonalds. An all you can drink sweet tea for a dollar and 55 cent ice cream.

Once we were cooled off enough for us to leave McDonalds to find somewhere we could get edible food I got my second flat of the trip. This was a bad one my tire didn't even hold air for a minute. The bike shop, best one on trail btw free ice cream and beer, said it was due to the liner that keeps my spokes in place rubbing the tube. The mechanic said it was because the liner wasn't glued down and once he replaced that on both tires I had him due chain maintenance since he did such a good job and Jim hadn't finished his beer yet. We eventually got dinner then camped in the city park.

Up up and more up

So begins the climbing. We started out the day with a nice easy climb up the 8 mile hill. Follow shortly by another hill that felt much longer than 8 miles. After that was another hill or two. Even with all the hills I wasn't tired since the grade was so gentle. There were also the views to distract me from the times that I did get worn down.

Although to be honest what probably was the actual reason I wasn't getting tired was because I had given my paineers to Paul for the day. It's not a big difference in terms of my total weight but the psychological boost was legit.