Day 55 - Livingston, MT

I woke up extra early and packed down my tent and gear excited to see more of Yellowstone. After spending the day before on the east side I decided to cut over and ride the west side of the upper loop of the park. The temperature is quite cool in the morning, perfect for riding and my legs felt pretty strong. The shoulder of the road disappeared 7 miles into my ride but luckily encountered little traffic and almost no RVs, the transportation of choice in yellowstone. I passed through another valley again with bison strewn across the fields. At one point there were large rock caves just off the side of the road, which i didn't bother to inspect.

Though i was gaining elevation I didn't particularly notice and i was well into the 21 mile stretch to Mammoth. I turned a corner to realize i was at the top of a high mountain pass looking down into huge canyon below. The road carved into the stone mountain side winded its way down below. I attempted to video parts of my descent managing to keep on the narrow road as the cars drove past. I sailed along a few miles of downhill until i saw a sign for the Mammoth Hot springs and turned into see the jewel of Yellowstone.

A vast array of thermal pools are spread out over the side of a stone hill. Over thousands of years the springs have bubbled up stone and minerals leaving deposits along the waters path, creating the effect of a stone watterfal. The springs themselves contained deep blue pools of water and dark red stone. They were really amazing to look.

I got to Mammoth lodge by noon with tons of energy left so I decided to push on out of the park. The road continued along a steep downhill following the Yellowstone river where I cruised at 45 mph keeping up with a few motorcycles next to me. Along the way i passed the 45th parallel and the state Montana state line, the 13th state of my trip. I stopped int he town of, a poor looking town seemingly propped up by the run off tourism of yellowstone to get a bit to eat and internet access. A cafe charged $2:50 for the net. Not for 20 minutes, or an hour, but the whole day.

I call my good friend Bob who lives in Missoula and I am eager to see before he and his family move to DC. My original plan was to get there on the 4th but the extra time spent in Yellowstone has put me off that time frame. I decided to ride another 55 miles to Livingston before they day was through, hoping the my legs, the hills and the wind would all cooperate.

Just before leaving town I got a text from Ryan saying he had left the park on the west side and was in West Yellowstone. I know this likely much meant the end of tour together after riding some 3000+ miles. We were tracking for different destinations and would be splitting up at some point. Now seemed as good as any.

I hoped on my bike at 3:30 and headed out of town along the Yellowstone river. I had brief moment of panic about an oppressive headwind as I saw the grass bend back in forth in a strong breeze. Then suddenly i didn't notice any wind at all; it was all behind me. Quickly i was up to 30 mph cruising along with little effort. I sat upright leaning on the top of my handlebars letting wind push me along, at some points running out of gears to keep up with the the wind allowed. Mile marks passed by with frequency. In two hours I had knocked out 50 miles and was just 4 miles out of town when the wind did an about face and slowed me to a crawl. I pushed my way into town and decided to not press my luck by continuing to Bozeman.

In the evening I caught my first rodeo which was a blast to see after hearing bull riding stories from a cowboy in colorado. Folks were decked out in there wranglers and cowboy hats, buying beers by the six pack laughing at the antics of the clown in the ring between events. I got close look at the roping contest and was truly impressed with the riders' ability to maneuver a horse at full speed.

Day 54 - Yellowstone Park, WY

The Yellowstone roadway is a large figure eight and we knew we weren't going to ecompass all of it. After some debate we took the east side route skipping old faithful and the other gueysers in favor of riding along the lake and through Hayden valley. "see old faithful when you are 70 with your grandkids" one guy who camped in the park told me and I took it to heart.

The morning was beautiful and cool as I rode along the tree lined lake from Grant Village. The road took me up over several hills as I spun along enjoying the view of yellowstone lake and the mountains behind it.

I passed several areas of trees which had been burned in a forrest fire. I had learned this is good overall for the forrest to prevent feul build up. In addition the lodgepol pine tree will reseed the ground with one type of cone which opens up only under extreme heat. Fires were always a part of the forrest and he trees have adapted.




I entered Hayden valley, a huge open and rolling clearing along a river with up to two miles of visibility. Herds of Bison sprinkled the hillside. Some sat right by the road side resting under the trees without the faintest care for the passing tourists. These massive animals are around 2000 lbs and have to give themselves a coulpe heave ho's to get themselves back on their feet.

I stopped along the route to spy a grizzley bear and two of her cubs through binoculars I borrowed from one of the several people watching them. A little ways beyond a coyote lazed about in the grass, unaware of all the watching eyes.




I approached south rim road and rode up a steep hill with the promise of a great views of Yellowstone grand canyon. Iwas not dissapointed. I stopped at uncle toms trail which lead me down a steep series of metal stairs halfway down to the base of the lower falls which spilled volumes of water over ancient stone down into the canyon river below.




I continued along a foot trail for 1.5 miles along the rim of the massive canyon. The stone along it's walls where brown and an ochre yellow ( hence the name) stained from minerals and other geothermal activity. The foot path was slight at points runing right along the edge of the canyon. Trees on the edge of the cliff had half of their roots exposed from the slow errosion.

I was so amazed by the canyon I decided to follow the north rim after hiking the south rim to experience it again.


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Day 53 - Yellowstone Park, WY

We layed into a breakfast buffet at the camp restaurant in the morning, piling our plates with heaps of food, perhaps out of fear that we wouldn't have other food opportunites down the road.

We continued north out of Teton park going up and down a winding road, thick forrest all around us. A few miles before the Yellowstone park entrance I took on a large decsent into this spectacularly huge open valley. Nothing but open undisturbed woods surrounded me and the consideration that this land has been kept largely the same since it's formation 600,000 years ago held a powerful grip on my imagination.

I met up with Ryan near Flagg Ranch. He suggested we visit a camp he was told about by a women in Lander so we headed down a dirt road, across a low creek and into a camp where we met Jim, a horse wrangler with long whispy hair and a bushy mustache. He was kind to talk to us as he shod one of his horses, telling us about how his father started the camp after WWII. His love for his horses is subsidized by hauling trees off the mountain in the fall and being a "snow farmer", someon who lays snow making equipment on a ski mountain, in the winter. "Its gorgeous here, but you can't eat the scenery" he told us.

After entering yellowstone park we rode up to Grant Village and decided to camp their for the night. We new we would be slowing down our pace to enjoy the park and 40 miles on the day seemed pretty good. After setting up my tent I decided to ride up the road 2 miles to west thumb to check out the thermal pools. All of the where spread out alon the shore of Yellowstone lake, some with deep red stone and rich blue water. A strong smell of sulfer wafted through the air. As I came down the wooden walkway a large Elk walked across my path to reach a small shrub which she began to nibble at. I ended the day with a mile hike up a hillside to gain a full view of Yellowstone lake and the mountains beyond, well worth the effort.




I returned to camp to have a wonderful meal at the restaurant right on the shore of yellowstone lake at sunset.

Day 52 - Grand Teton Park, WY

I was beaming with energy at the start of the day from all the extra rest and the prospect of reaching Grand Teton park by the afternoon. Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks loomed in the back of my imagination for most of the trip and were the main reason for turning north at Colorado instead of continuing west.

We had about 50 miles along route 287 taking us over Togwotee pass, a 9658 foot peak which we began to ascend shortly after leaving town.

My legs happily began to spin up the climb in the cool dry mountain air. Timber lined ridges with stone outcroppings surrounded the view. My excitement grew as I approached the top.

The road flattened and i noticed 4 cars waiting in front a construction worker holding a stop sign. The young guy holding the sign waved me over and explained that the road was being worked on and that the pilot truck leading cars back and forth would be have to take me and my bike down the road.

I paniced that i would be robbed of one of the most dramatic stretches of road on the trip. Luckily the free ride was only a couple miles. "Watch out for the Griz" Jack the driver told me. "We see 8 or 9 a week in broad daylight up here". I thought about the 3 pb&j sandwiches I had packed in my bag.




Back on my bike I began the long decsent down the pass cruising along at 33 mph. In a moment the tree line cleared on my left side and I saw the majestic Teton mountain range off in the distant. Large dark stone mountains with snowy creases jutted up into the air. The Grand Teton with it's pyramidal top extended high into the sky with small clouds danced around it's peak.

We continued on along the flat road into Teton park and into the dense forrest it preserves, the teton mountian range and ever present backdrop. We stopped in Jackson lake lodge, an architechtual mastepiece with it's grand 3 story high hall with its towering windows framing the Tetons an had lunch.

We continued into Colter Bay Village, another full service lodge and campsite right on Jackson Lake. John Colter was a fur trapper on the Lewis and Clark expidition and the first westerner to see this part of the country. We pitched out tents at camp and and carefully separated all our food and toilletries into separate bags to be stored in large metal bear boxes.




I headed back to the lake to enjoy it's beauty at sunset. The Forrest was thick and quiet and provided the best night of camping thus far despite falling asleep with the mild worry that I missed some candybar or bag of peanuts hiding in the clothes i use as a pillow and that a bear, smelling it's sweet sent would rip my head off to get at it.

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Day 51 - Rest Day in Dubois

Ryan needed a rest day to heal a pulled muscle in his calf which I took as an opportunity to catch up on mail laundry and rest myself.

After a day of errands in town I moved over to the cowboy bar (real name) for a beer and met Dean who works for the power company driving around the mountains each day. He told me how to get a pickup across a river, how he's lost a truck off the side of a snowy mountain road and that the loaded pistol he carries in his glove compartment is his bear spray.

Into the bar came 4 men all in white cowboy hats, worn blue jeans and crisply pressed wrangler shirts. They all looked differet but each had strong jaws, distinguished laugh lines along their cheeks and big chins. Two of them had spurs off he back of their boots. I thought to myself: damn all of these guys look like Marlboro men. Dean piped up: "they're Marlboro men. They come every summer to shot commercials out here". I laughed at the coincidence.

"But they're dudes. They ain't no cowboys, that's for sure. Lucky if they could ride a horse". He continued. "Dudes don't know how to do anything except look pretty"

Day 50 - Dubois, WY

We had a 75 mile day planned along 287 to Dubois (pronounced doo-boys). We gained more than a thousand feet of altittude, but I barely noticed with the road rolling over climbs and decsents all day.

Lush green grass and brush ran along the red stone cliffs, some reaching over 200 feet high. Every so often a ranch would sit tucked in by the hillside and i wondered what life must be like in such a beautiful yet remote area.




About 2 or 3 miles before the junction if route 26 I encountered a steep downhill, the road twisting through the most alien terrain I have seen. Red and biege bolder with green tint spilled along the hillside and into a canyon below. The road slightly elevated, snaked through the boulder beds almost appearing to hover. I raced down road with a quick feeling of disconnect, as though I could have been travling on a different planet.

The hills became more subtle as I reached Dubois, another small town with a look left over from the frontier days, timber framed stores, wooden sidewalks and old neon marquees. A man in a vest and sleeves sat at an upright piano outside one store playing rags. Men eating at a local estaurant donned long moustache reaching down to their jowls.

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Day 49 - Rest Day in Lander, WY

Ryan's friend Lilly came for a visit in Lander so we spent an extra day in town, which I was happy to have after having a tough ride. After sleeping 10 hours I drifted around town stopping in some shops and replenishing my PB&J supplies. There is good great bike shop and outfitter on main with friendly folks.

I had a killer burger at the Gannet grill and along with a couple local Lander beers (Stout was aces) and chatted up some locals for a while.




In the evening we drove 15 miles north in Lilly's car into the wind river reservation to check out the Eastern Shoshone Indian Days, a pow wow taking place over the weekend. Cars jammed the parking lot indicating a big gathering. The festivities took place around a large grass circle with bench seating underneath a roof along the outer ring. Outside the ring vendors sold Navajo tacos, burgers, smoked turkey legs and other food as well as handcrafts and clothes.




Families walked around the grounds, some kids in dress waiting to take the field to dance.
Teenagers stood in packs wearing baggy jeans, basketball jerseys and dark shades, their long back hair pulled back tight in pony tails.


"Are you ready to pow wow" an announcer with a booming voice called. Just were I was standing 5 men seated around a large animal skin drum each holding long drumsticks with cloth heads began to sound a beat and chant in their native tongue. Turns were taken to lead the song. The chanter would press his finger to his ear, perhaps trying to hear his own voice over the drum. Every so often one man would come over the top of the driving rhtythym with heavy strikes on the drum. Old men with portable tape recorders held them up, their crooked thumbs simultaneously holding down the play and record buttons. Some held there cell phones toward the circle and I joined taking small sound recordings of music I had never heard before.

In the center of the field men, women and children danced in a circle. Some had elaborate feathered headresses and beaded costumes, some in simple street clothes. They would take all their weight lunging on one leg, step back and lunge on the other leg.

The announcer sounded again calling out a different nation and the drum and song passed from one circle to another until it had made it's way all te way around the ring.