Colorado Bound

Well I awoke yesterday feeling much better than expected and to make things better, the wind had died down.  Make no mistake it was still windy but, it was a fraction of what it was on previous days ride.  The really surprising thing was how good I felt on the bike, I mean after a 7 hour grind fest the day before I wasn’t really hurrying to jump back in the saddle. 

The ride from Rawlins to Laramie is mostly up hill, small rollers dominate the landscape, and for some strange reason I ride really well on rollers.  I plowed through the miles and rode the 111 miles to Laramie in a hair over six hours. 

An amazing thing happened on the ride, about twenty-five miles outside of town I noticed a truck pulled over on the side of the road, nothing unusual here as it is currently hunting season.  As I approached a man and woman stepped out so I slowed down.  They had seen me earlier in the day and asked where I had started and what we were doing.  Here is the amazing part, they proceeded to offer us a place to stay in Laramie.  Carl just sold his bike shop at the beginning of the summer, so he also offered to take a look at my bikes and fix them up.  As I have previously stated a guy my size is pretty hard on the old hardware. 

Seeing as Azure and I haven’t had a day out of the van since Seattle, we gladly agreed.  What we didn’t expect was for them to have steak and potatoes for dinner along with breakfast the following morning.  Really unbelievable.  A thank you doesn’t really seem sufficient for two strangers, now friends, that stopped to wait for us and then welcomed us into their home.  However, its all I can offer at this point, so Carl and Carrie, thank you, you guys rock.

The following morning after a great breakfast I headed out for what was supposed to be an easy ride into Denver. Once you climb out of Laramie, it is pretty much all down hill from there, literally.  One problem, the wind was back and blowing hard.  I found myself pedaling as hard as I could and topping out at about 15mph on grades that I should have been coasting down at 20+.  After about 4 hours of fighting the wind and the sun beating down on me, I called it.  Day after day fighting the wind and being way too sun burnt for my own good (it’s nearly impossible to keep sunscreen on my face for any extended period of time), the temptation to wrap it up and head to see friends in Denver was too overwhelming.  Brennan and Haley welcomed us into their home even though we were a day early, surprise!  I am going to take today off and Brennan and I are going to head back to Fort Collins where I left off tomorrow and finish off the ride.  I am really looking forward to a few days of rest and someone to ride with.

9-25

111.01 miles

18.2 mph average

35.9 mph max

6:04:42 ride time

9-26

64.5 miles

16.1 mph average

45.2 mph max

3:58.54 ride time



Wyoming = Windy

 Today was one of the toughest days I have had on the bike since the Dalton Highway.  The Wyoming winds proved to be as punishing as anything I have seen yet.  Normally not that big of a deal, just plug what miles you can and call it a day.  However, Wyoming also provides beautiful wide-open spaces.  The problem, with wide-open spaces comes large distances between places.  I had stopped just outside of Lander yesterday, about 30 miles short of where I had intended to be, but with winds pounding me and a nice campground the temptation to stop for the day won out. 

So I woke up looking at a little over a hundred miles to Rawlins, with the full knowledge that there was nothing in between.  The cross for a majority of the morning, not great but better than a head wind, later on however, the road turned south towards Rawlins and the wind began to pound me.  Forty five miles from Muddy Gap Junction to Rawlins, it wasn’t a direct headwind but enough that it felt like riding in glue, not a lot of fun.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot I also crossed the Continental Divide twice more (9 & 10), I guess I should have looked at the map a little closer.   

I have decided that I would rather climb than deal with wind.  At least with a mountain you know that the end is somewhere up there, wind on the other hand, never stops.  It just beats on you all day.  Going to try to make it to Laramie in the morning, but if its windy again it may be a short day.

9-23

81.76 miles

19.4 mph average

44.8 mph max

4:11:58 ride time

9-24

108.7 miles

15.8 mph average

39.7 mph max

6:50:35 ride time

Do you have to make reservations to picnic with a Buffalo?

Sunday morning we headed into town to meet up with Kate and grab some coffee.  As is typical my cell battery died and I had no way to charge it so I had no way of calling Kate to tell her where we were sitting at the coffee shop, lucky for us we managed to work it out, without the use of technology (an amazing feat these days).

We headed to Kate’s home so we would have a little more privacy for our chat.  In keeping with my previous statements after some of the highly personal conversations we have been having with people on this trip, I am not going to divulge what we discussed.  I have invited Kate to write something that I can post so I will leave it to her to tell her story.  I will say that she is a remarkable woman, I think Azure said it best “she carries her grief with grace” that’s an understatement.  Kate started a local movement over a year ago to get mental health services in their community, and now is only working harder on making that happen.  I have no doubt that she is going to create something very positive out of a negative situation. Kate, it was truly a pleasure meeting you. It was a morning that Azure and I won’t soon forget; our hearts go out to you and your family.

We parted ways with Kate got some fuel for the van and headed into the park with plans to drive to the opposite side of Yellowstone and see the sights along the way.  This is an amazing park; the sites and wildlife are amazing.  However, we were a little taken aback by the crowds.  We thought that after Labor Day the park would be pretty empty, that wasn’t the case.  It isn't that people enjoying the park bother me, it's that nearly everyone one we saw was breaking on rule or another.  These are wild animals and they shouldn't be messed with.  One prime example of this stupidity, Azure and I witnessed two people sitting having a picnic directly next to a buffalo, as in, twenty feet away.  There were plenty of other tables and tons of other picnic sites throughout the park yet they choose this one.  I can see the head line now "Tragedy at Yellowstone, Man and Wife killed by crazed Buffalo" the only tragedy would be that they would likely put the animal down after such an incident.  

One really funny moment, shortly after we sat through a several mile back up to look caused by people stopping to see a female elk that was near the road; we pulled over and watched two wolves hunting for rodents.  Pretty ironic, hundreds of people stopping for a run of the mill elk, and only one other car pulled over and watch the wolves with us.  It was an awesome sight. 

We reached the other side of the park only to be turned around due to a wild fire.  So we ended up, I’ll give you one guess, yup, back in West Yellowstone.  It just kept sucking us in; there are worse places in the world to have such a thing happen. Take New Jersey for instance.  Just kidding, I’ve never actually been to Jersey it just seemed like a fitting thing to say, since Jersey is always getting picked on.  Sidebar – I can’t believe that I am missing the new season of Jersey Shore, feel free to send me an email and fill me in.

We did some more sightseeing on Monday.  Four days is not enough time to try and see this place, I’m thinking that a month would be better. 

After several very busy “rest days” I got back on the bike Tuesday and rode out of the parks all together.  I didn’t ride far, but I did cross the Continental Divide for the 8^th and final time.  It was a bruiser; I basically started climbing at the Jackson Lake Lodge junction and rode up for the next 30 or so miles, not an exaggeration.  Yet again though, the scenery was breath taking.

Sorry for the delayed posts but Internet was spotty and I was too tired after running through Yellowstone to sit and write.  I will try to do better.

9-21

66 miles

14.2 mph average

36.4 mph max

4:36:02 ride time

(one of the many hot springs at the park)

(Jackie seriously wanted to play with that Elk...we didn't let her)

(The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone)

(Heading out of Grand Teton)

(almost to the top, for the 8th and final time over the C.D.)

Yellowstone

Well, I have been bad about writing… something new and different.  We left Ennis on the 15^th and have been taking it all in and enjoying the last of the mountains.  While it makes for more difficult rides, you sure can’t beat the scenery.  I am not a person that believes things are fated, but I do think that things happen for a reason, I’ll get to that in a minute.

When we hit the Madison Valley we basically threw out the plan and decided that as long as I hit Denver by the 30^th we would be good to go.  I am giving a speech to about 500 high school kids in the Denver area on the 1^st, so as long as I am there by then it’s all kosher.   I rode two very short days after Ennis about 30 miles each and arrived in West Yellowstone, with enough time and daylight to head into the park.  To be honest I was super psyched about seeing Old Faithful. 

It didn’t disappoint, there were tons of people around, so lucky for me I had previously been introduced to the “silent cheer” by Schwabie, and I put it to good use.  After seeing the amount of people there on a Thursday night, we decided that it would be best if I rode through the park in the morning and return the following day to do the obligatory sightseeing throughout the weekend.  This is where the “things happen for a reason” statement comes into play.  Friday was a great day for a ride and I made it from West Yellowstone to Jackson Lake in Grand Teton in about 5 hours.  The ride was beautiful, and really surreal, geysers aren’t something you see every day, especially while riding your bike.  

(the locals were quick to greet me)

(one of the three crossing on the day)

I crossed the Continental Divide three times, for crossing 5, 6, and 7 on the trip.  We put a stake in the ground and loaded up the bike to head to the campground, one problem.  The campground we were planning on staying at was closed for the season; a little research on my part probably would have helped.  So seeing as we were planning on heading back to Yellowstone the following day, we figured we would head into the park and find a site.  Only to find all the campgrounds full.  We called the RV park we had stayed at the night before in West Yellowstone and managed to get a spot. So, we drove the 80 miles back to the origination spot.  This wasn’t as big of a deal as it sounds, we were planning on heading back through the park anyway just not all in one day.  The following morning we were running Jackie in a local park before heading off to breakfast and to explore the park.  After eating, we found a business card on the van the back of it read, “Please call, I am interested in your case. We have a big community movement for mental health services” so I called the number on the front.  It turns out that she spotted our van as we were leaving the park.  It also turns out her best friend’s husband just committed suicide four weeks ago.  She asked if it would be ok if she passed our contact information along to her, I obviously agreed.  I didn’t expect her friend to call, having lost her husband so recently. 

So we left for to start our day and headed out to Quake Lake. Where in 1959 a 7.5 earthquake hit.  28 people were killed when half of a mountain broke away creating a dam and a new lake. The resulting debris contains enough rock to pave a 2 lane highway 3 feet deep from this spot in Montana to New York City.  The shock of the earthquake was felt over a 600,000 square mile area as far away as Nevada and British Columbia.  It is a pretty remarkable reminder of the power of Mother Nature.

When we returned to town I had a voicemail from Kate the woman who just lost her husband.  I was stunned, but quickly returned her call, while we still had cell coverage.  We made plans to meet for coffee the following morning.

After speaking with Kate we headed into the park to check out some of the sites.  But to be honest my mind was elsewhere.  I mind was racing about meeting with this woman the following morning.  I am in no way shape or form qualified to speak to a grieving widow, what would I say?  There’s nothing to say. “I’m sorry for your loss” doesn’t really cut the mustard in these types of situations.  After tooling around the park for a while we headed to find a campsite for the night, although I didn’t get much sleep.

9-16

37.2 miles

14.2 mph average

39 mph max

2:36:10 ride time

9-17

79.5 miles

15.4 mph average

45.8 mph max

5:06:40 ride time

Montana’s Madison Valley

The last few days have been awesome.  Montana has treated us well, the weather has been perfect with mid day temps in the 60’s with it getting down into the 30’s at night, and plenty of sunshine. 

Originally after leaving Dillon, I had intended to ride past Ennis and into Yellowstone the following day.  However, when I reached the top of the last pass heading into the valley, I had a change of heart.  We decided that it was too beautiful to pass up.  If I had to guess and it would be just that, a guess, I would say that the Madison Valley is at least 130 miles long by 20 miles wide. Surrounded by mountains.  It is an impressive sight.  So much so that we have spent three extra days here.  I’m heading into Yellowstone today and we are planning on spend a few days there as well.  This part of the country is too amazing to blast through.  I have a ton of time after the mountains to pound the pedals, for now we’re just taking it in.

9-12

76.22 miles

15.7 mph average

49.3 mph max

4:50:31 ride time

9-15

33.5 miles

13.7 mph average

28.4 mph max

2:25:58 ride time