Marion, KY

Illinois!

Those horns aren't fake.


A free slice of pie to all bikers


The ferry that took us across the Ohio River to Kentucky.


Hello from Kentucky!

July 30th - Murphysboro, IL to Golconda, IL - 80 miles

Yesterday I rode all day with Adam Campbell, who is also headed to Harrisonburg to live with his girlfriend. Nice guy, good to ride with. I rode with him this morning so far up to today too, but I'll probably go ahead because I'm trying to do a bit more miles per day than he is.

The ride yesterday was pretty scenic, with the TransAm Trail taking us through back roads almost the entire time. There wasnt much traffic at all, and I got to meet with good people when I stopped. My legs are feeling pretty good, as I've had two days in a row only around 80 miles.

Highlights--
1. Free slice of pie at Dulaneys Restaurant in Goreville, IL. They have a tradition of giving away a free dessert to all cyclists, so that was excellent. Homemade apple pie.

2. Seeing some huge lognhorn cattle -- these horns were as thick as my leg, and probably 3' long on each side...

Carbondale, IL

Hello from Illinois!

July 29th - Farmington, MO to Murphysboro, IL - 80 miles

Yesterday I crossed the Mississippi into Illinois. The rest day I took helped plently, my legs feel much better. I met up with a guy in Chester, IL and we rode the rest of the day together, and will probably ride together for a while today. I'm averaging a bit more mileage, so I dont know how long we'll stay together.

Today's goal -- get to the Ohio River, into Kentucky! I probably wont make it, its about 110 miles away, but I'll get close. Definitely going to get into Kentucky tomorrow.

Anyway, all is well. I should be able to make it to Ocean City by at least the 15th.

Farmington, MO

Some truck drivers are better than others.



This is what the Ozarks look like! Probably the best view that I got, the rest of the time I was down in the valleys and between hills.

Lots of roads in Missouri had water gauges to measure flooding.

Hello from Farmington! Today is going to be a rest day for me.

July 26th - Fair Grove, MO to Alley Spring, MO - 117 miles

So... this was the day I met a bunch of cool people. I met:

A bus driver that stopped just to have a chat with me.
A cyclist heading westward to go start grad school at CU-Boulder
The machinist and his crew
Pony Boy and his wife, owners of the Houston Motel
Family at a campsite that was willing to share their site with me.

I ended up rolling into Alley Spring fairly close to dark, and was met with a typical park campsite, along with its $14/night fee. Instead of paying this, I rolled around and found a family that looked friendly, and asked if I could share their site with them. They said that it was ok, and I had the best hot shower that night. It was great. I didn't get the best night sleep because of another rowdy group that rolled in, but thats how it goes.

July 27th - Alley Spring, MO to Farmington, MO - ~100 miles?

This was probably one of the toughest days yet, because of the horribly steep hills. The only thing about it was that once I was out of the hills, even gentle rises seemed flat. Also, somehow I expected them to be worse than they were, even though this could not be true. I was nearly in my easiest gear, a 22x30 or 22x32 gearing. This means I was probably going ~2mph at some points, but I never had to get off and walk! I also never stopped before getting to the top, which was pretty cool.

Last night I watched a "Kiddie League" (college kids) baseball game after I rolled into town. It was pretty relaxing, in a nice small ballpark, right next to a town park. I talked to some good people, and one lady gave me a gift certificate to the Long John Silvers restaurant in town. Apparently the son of the owners races for the Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team out in California. I'll try to get lunch there today, maybe. After the game, I slept in the park. Also, it rained most of the night!!! This was the first real rain I'd seen all trip, but I was under the pavilion so I was covered.

July 28th - Rest Day - Farmington, MO
This morning I got a package from Alia! She mailed it ahead to the post office here. Inside it were... a letter, a much needed new pair of socks with the California flag on it (represent!), and some homemade fudge. I haven't tried the fudge yet, but it looks delicious. This is possibly one of the best things yet this trip.

For the rest of the day I'm going to.. go to the bike shop, eat some lunch. I'll also try to find a cheap motel somewhere too.

Houston, MO

These roads are way steeper than it looks in the picture.


This turtle was crossing the road, but I saved it from being smashed by a car. I've seen wayyyy too many dead turtles, and oddly enough, armadillos recently. I wish I could see a live armadillo. They look cool, but not dead.

The machinist is on the far right, and the guy on the far left really reminded me of Tom Hanks's Forrest Gump. Talked almost exactly the same way.

This is their little convenience store.

Hello from Houston!

Right now I'm at the Horse Creek Inn, one of the most amazing places that I've come across so far. A beer (Blue Moon) and pretzels right when I walked in the door, and I'm not even staying the night here. I'm using their laptop too.

July 25th - St Paul, KS to Fair Grove, MO - 131 miles!!!!!!!!

So.. yesterday was a long day. I did 131 miles, the most I've ever done. I pretty much need to get to Farmington, MO by tomorrow night, so I have started to pile on the miles. Nothing too spectacular happened, except that I rode a lot. Also, the hills have officially started, and are MASSIVE and steep. The only good thing about them is that they only last for a minute or two, then I'm at the top and back down the other side. I just rode all day, stopping every so often for more food. I was pretty tired by the time I rolled into Fair Grove, but I bought some food, made it, and then went to bed. I didn't sleep well... but so be it. Maybe soon I'll stop in a motel or a nice park or something, and try to shower. I haven't showered since Colorado Springs.

Today has been really good. I got a relatively early start, chatted with a guy headed to Boulder for a while, then kept riding. I came across a sweet group of folks in a little town, where two of the men were machinists. One looked like he was really good, his favorite material is 4140 steel. See the picture.

Kansas photos

Golden City, MO

Hello from Missouri!

July 24th - Rosalia, KS to St. Paul, KS ~100 miles

The riding yesterday wasn't the best. Just more of the same-- slowly rolling hills and high humidity. Last night I went to bed sweating just lying there in my tent. This morning I woke up soaked in sweat. I definitely try to drink extra water, because I've no clue how much I've lost during the night.

I guess the only good part about the day was the food. I had a small breakfast, but then twenty miles down the road I came across a breakfast buffet, all-you-can-eat style. I had two full plates of eggs, potatoes, and bacon, a plate of fruit, and some fresh cinnamon rolls. Definitely worth it. The only problem with this is that I felt really stuffed for the next hour or two on the bike, which is pretty uncomfortable. It's a lot easier to lie on a sofa and watch TV after a big meal, but I don't have that luxury. I wasn't even really hungry until lunch which I got in the late afternoon. A plate of breadsticks and an awesome philly cheese steak sandwich.

The worst part about these meals was that I spent $18 on food for the day, before dinner. Yikes. Dinner ended up being the usual pasta and such.

Today, I've had one banana, one cinnamon roll, half a bag of yogurt pretzels, some wheat thins, three slices of cake (from a grocery store, but they weren't too good)...and a lot of water.

Thanks to Jeff and Alean for helping me find my way.

Chanute, KS

Hello from Chanute!

July 23 - Hutchinson, KS to Rosalia, KS - 85 miles

So yesterday I rode 85 miles, but that was because I had a late start, around 11:30am. The first 30 miles to Newton were along busy US freeways, so it was pretty busy and boring. However, I found an old Kansas license plate on the side of the road, which will probably be my only souvenir for the trip.

On the bad side, Alia left for Ireland for two weeks, so don't be suprised if you get a random call from me when I'm bored.

I was able to stop at this great whole foods store, the only one of its kind I had seen in Kansas. I stocked up on pasta, yogurt covered pretzels, and other goodies, and had an amazing lunch (this place was in Newton).

The ride out to Rosalia was pretty nice--very little traffic and short, gently rolling hills, with some somewhat steep kickers. Nothing bigger than the Brazil Building hill in Tilden in Berkeley, but that can still be tiring after doing 20 of them. I ate a good dinner of organic spinach whole wheat pasta for dinner--and then tried to map out the next day.

So.... my project of the day was to try to count how many calories I'm eating per day. This is what I ate yesterday:

Item Calories
2 bananas 172/per
2 doughnuts 500/per
1 nature valley honey and oats bar 180
naked juice 300
pasta salad - 1/4 lb? 400 (estimate)
2 roast beef wraps 500/per
1/2 lb spinach whole wheat pasta 500
1/2 lb peanut butter covered pretzels 1200 (estimate)

Grand total: 4924 calories!

Alright.. now I see why I'm losing weight. This is probably an underestimate, but still, I need to try to eat more. I bet that pasta has more calories, but I should eat more. It's tough though. A few websites said that biking you burn roughly 700 calories per hour, at an average of 14 mph. I might not be going that fast, but I'm probably pretty close. Plus I'm pulling 40-50 lbs of weight, so I'm likely burning 30% more than that. So.. I'm burning at least 4000 calories per day.

Ok... time to go eat some food. I guess its hard out here to keep myself busy.. I wish I had some music to listen to. Yelling at cows only goes so far.

Newton, KS

So you're being treated to two updates in one day. Lunchtime! The only reason I went to the library again was to check on the Tour de France (I'm jealous of you that can watch it) and to post some pictures. Too bad this library doesn't allow uploading anything to the computer. So..

Stage 15 - Vinokourov wins it by 51 seconds!

Hutchinson, KS

So... I haven't updated in a while. Apparently Kansas libraries dont like to be open on the weekends, or they have very limited hours. Kansas has been pretty monotonous, but the scenery has been a good change. I finally feel like I'm out of the west--fertile fields line the road instead of dry plains and sagebrush. Maybe two more days and I should be out of Kansas.

Lets see...

July 20th - Eads, CO to Scott City, KS - 90 miles
July 21st - Scott City, KS to Rush Center, KS - 90 miles
July 22nd - Rush Center, KS to Hutchinson, KS - 90 miles

My mileage has been a bit low.. but I should be able to up it soon. Pretty much I needed to be here in Hutchinson this morning (Monday morning) to be able to visit their bike shop. I pretty badly needed a new rear tire, because my old one was worn completely through, with the casing showing under the remaining rubber. So, with two fresh tires and a new chain, I should be good for a long time.

Today I dont know where I'm going to get to, but hopefully it'll be far enough.

Tribune, KS

Hello from Kansas!

more photos here:
http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2195077&l=c9a38&id=1209158

Last night I only made it about 15 more miles east before I just was too tired. I got an early start this morning (at 6:00am) and it took me almost four hours to make it the remaining 44 miles to tribune. The headwinds have been strong too, but slightly better than yesterday. The only good thing is that the road quality is excellent, at least compared to Colorado. Today it has been cloudy too, which has helped keep it cool. Lets hope the clouds stay.

Time to look for some lunch.

Eads, CO

Hi from Eads!

First, let me say a few things. Thanks to both Barry and Jeff for giving me some directions over the past few days when I didnt have a map. Both cases it was really me not going far enough on whatever road I was on, but its good to have friends to be able to call for help. Also, thanks again to Dave and Paula for letting me stay at their place. To clarify any confusion, Dave and my dad used to work together, and thats how I know them.

July 18th - Colorado Springs, CO to Ordway, CO - 120 miles, 7 hours!

Yesterday was definitely the fastest day of my trip. I had a good tailwind all the way from Colorado Springs down to Pueblo. I also lost about 2500' of elevation, which also helped. That ride was pretty enjoyable once I got away from Colorado Springs, because I took some nice back roads. Unfortunately, one of these back roads that I planned on taking was all dirt-- but the tailwind made it bearable.

After lunch, it was soooo hot. It must have been over 100 degrees, especially with the heat of the pavement radiating up at me. I plodded along, stopping multiple times for cold water, cold gatorade, cold ice cream, and more cold water.

It cooled down after a bit, and my legs felt better. They kept feeling better as I rode further, which seemed odd. I decided to push it a bit more, and slowly my speed was creeping up from 15, to 17, to nearly 20mph. This was weird. I realized that tailwind had been building behind me, pushing me along. Along with that wind was a rather large storm off to my right. It was pretty to watch from afar, lightning every now and then, with rain bursting down from the clouds. I kept a good eye on it, and it didnt seem to get any closer, so that was good.

I'll call it.. bike-surfing? Storm surfing?

Here's the better part. A new storm developed even closer, off to the left side of the road. This was a little too close, so I stopped every now and then, but the wind was so strong that it was getting somewhat hard to stand, when it gusted. I decided to get back on the bike and ride it out, letting it push me along at a leisurely 25 mph. The storm pushed me all the way to Ordway, and it was amazing. I've never ridden in such a strong tailwind. It was so strong that I couldnt put up my tent at the end of the day, because I was scared of it breaking a pole. Exciting stuff.

July 19th - Ordway, CO --?? 60 miles completed so far miles, 5 hours!

Now.. today has been a different story. I've had horrible headwinds all day, at times crawling at 8mph on a flat road. The library is closing, I've got to go. Anyway, everyone please hope that the wind changes direction, or I'll never make it.

This is the last town before I get to Kansas....which might be later tonight. That's my goal.

Pueblo, CO

So... today has been good so far. Tailwind all the way from Colorado Springs to Pueblo!

July 16th - Boulder, CO to Colorado Springs, CO - 100 miles, 8.5 hours

My legs felt like absolute mush that day. I started out at about 9:00 from Rob's mom's place, and the ride really sucked until I was south of Castle Rock, CO. It took me a while to get there--which was about 50 miles away from Boulder. It was really hot that day too. The ride south along CO-105 was amazing... it looked a lot like California, and made me miss home. It was rolling hills all the way, which really hurt in the legs, but made it nice and scenic. I saw some bison too!


Except they weren't wild, and were in someone's farm. I still got pretty close. I was welcomed by Dave and Paula Matz in Colorado Springs with a big dinner - Pasta salad with shrimp, two big burgers, and some really good homemade cheesecake.

July 17th - Colorado Springs, CO, to Colorado Springs, CO - Rest day!

So... I ended up going on a mountain bike ride yesterday. I rode John's (Paula's brother) Santa Cruz Nomad -- a sweet ride. I'd love to get a full suspension bike, except they're pretty expensive. The ride was good, through a bunch of swoopy singletrack. Descending on that bike was amazing.

July 18th - Colorado Springs, CO, to ??
So far, I've ridden about 60 miles in just over three hours, at an average speed of around 17.5 mph. This is amazing. I had a tailwind all the way down here, and I think I lost a few thousand feet of elevation too. Now it's time to find some lunch-- I'm pretty hungry, and then head east! It's pretty much straight east all the way to the Atlantic.


From last post, "Seven" is the number of pounds I've lost over the past three weeks of riding. I hope I don't lose too much more weight--or I won't be able to live up to my fatty mcsprinter name.

Colorado Springs, CO

Hello from Colorado Springs!

Today was my first day flying solo... which was alright. I rode just over 100 miles to get here to Dave Matz's house. I was welcomed with a shower from his dogs, who licked me all over, a shower in a bathroom, and an amazing dinner. It was perhaps the biggest dinner I've eaten the entire trip.

I'm pretty tired, and don't feel like writing much right now, so I'll leave you with a number...

Today's number is.... SEVEN. What does the number mean? Leave me some comments with your best guess. I'll post the answer either tomorrow or later in the week.

Also totally cool--I'm going riding with Dave's brother-in-law tomorrow, mountain biking!!!! I might be able to borrow his Seven.. or a Santa Cruz Blur... or a Nomad... or I dunno what. They're all mountain bikers, and have some sweet rides. I think tomorrow night Dad is flying into Denver on some business, and he'll come down here and meet up for a bit.

But, I'm about to pass out. Hmmmmm... I wonder what seven is...

Boulder, CO #2

So... time to write about yesterday's ride.

July 14th - Timber Creek Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park, to Boulder, CO - 80 miles, 6:45 riding time

On this day I hit a few milestones:

• Reached 2000 miles elapsed
• Rode at above 12000+ of elevation, peak height was 12183 ft.

These are pretty big ones... at least for me. I rode through Rocky Mountain National Park, along Trail Ridge Road. This road blew my mind. Once we got to the top, it was like riding along the top of the world. The few miles at the top actually take you through tundra, which is usually only found in Canada and Russia. We were above the treeline, looking at the peaks of all the other mountains. The computer I'm on won't let me upload pictures yet, but I'll put some up as soon as I can. I wish I could have taken some sort of 360 view photo... it's hard to describe what it was like up there. The air was thin, I felt like I was panting like a dog, trying to get my breath, and it was cold. Quite cold and windy. The visitors center said that the wind gusts up above 150 mph at times. If it had done that while I was on the road, I would have been blown off the cliff never to be seen again.

After going through the park, we descended down to about 8000 ft to the town of Estes Park. It was really touristy there, flooded with people. It was shocking, nearly appalling, how many people there were. I wanted to get out, but was pretty hungry, and ended up waiting about half an hour for a tasty, but small, calzone. From there, we rode to Boulder.

So, Boulder is at around 5300' altitude. Trail Ridge road was above 12000' for a good bit. We descended 7000' in one day. That's like going down Diablo, twice (not that I've ever ridden down Diablo). We descended for maybe 30 miles? It was amazing. There were a few rollers once we got to Lyon, CO, and my legs were totally dead... but Boulder was within sight, so I just kept pedaling.

Michael and I arrived in town around 4:00pm, and just slowly made our way in. We found a Safeway to stock up and buy some more food, because we were both hungry. After that, we split up. It was great riding with him, I certainly got further ahead of schedule by pushing 100 miles/day. Not only that, but he was a great riding partner--waited for me at the top of all the climbs, and was good company all the time. I'm really glad to have had someone to ride with. Especially since of the whole way eastward, I've only passed three others going east? The chance of meeting up with someone and being able to ride 1000 miles with them is incredibly small...

I got to Rob's mom's place around 5:00, and pretty much sat around all evening and read.

July 15th - Boulder CO - Rest Day

Today, I walked around the Pearl Street area of Boulder, visited the city library, and relaxed. I started out the morning with a coffee, muffin, and NY Times. It took me most of the day to read all of of it, but it kept me busy. I searched for some good food, and got a burrito--but it was nowhere close to Gordos. Sometimes I miss Berkeley a lot--Berkeley Bowl, good places to eat, and everyone back home. A lot of the time I see people riding by on mountain bikes or road bikes and that makes me jealous too--I wish I could ditch the BOB and just go on a sweet ride through all these places I've been.

Lets see... I have about 2500 miles to go, probably a bit more? I haven't figured out how to get to Ocean City from the Adventure Cycling route, but I'll probably take some ferries or something to get across to the eastern shore. After that, I need to ride back to Columbia, MD....

I miss Alia a lot. I try to call as often as I can, but some things definitely limit how often. The route takes me through a lot of remote areas, where I don't get signal. Also, I only can charge the phone so often. I miss her a lot. Only...five weeks till I get to see her again! My flight back is August 22nd, I'm supposed to get in at 10:35pm. I can't wait to see her.

Boulder, CO

Hello from Boulder!!!

The last few days have been amazing. Boulder is a great town, kinda like Berkeley, but a bit yuppier. Still, I think I'd definitely be able to live here. I've seen so many people out on bikes--all sorts of people, not just racers, etc. They have a great network of bike paths for everyone to ride on, and the city is pretty cool. I'm in the downtown area right now. There's a nice creek running by, lots of shady space, and the Pearl Street Shopping area seems to have a lot of good food, etc. I'm probably going to spend all day here. The only problem is that its somewhat hot outside, but I'll have to deal with that for the rest of the trip. I think I'm out of anywhere where its going to be cool, except maybe Appalachia.

July 13th - State line between Wyoming/Colorado to Timber Creek Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park - 105 miles, 8 hours

I wrote about this day a good bit in my last entry, but I'll write a bit more on the ride from Granby to the campground. We got a decent lunch at this place called Mad Munchies, and then rolled out of town. On the way out we stopped to get some food at this farmers market, then proceeded to get ripped off--- $7 for lb of pasta, $6.50 for a loaf of bread, and $4 for this other bread thing. We headed to Grand Lake, stocked up on some more small groceries from a gas station store, and got into the park. It was a lot less crowded than Yellowstone, so it seemed.

Riding into the park was great. About ten minutes after entering, we saw a big herd/group of what we think were mule deer -- smaller than elk, but not regular looking deer. I tried to get some pictures. This was by far the biggest collection of wildlife at one time... I was about to count 32 total. They were just lounging about everywhere, munching on some delicious grass. My legs felt surprisingly well for that late in the day. Later on up the road, we saw a bull moose (male moose), which was cool. We hadn't seen one before. Sadly, this one didn't have any horns, but it was still huge.

The only disappointment that day was that by the time we got to the campsite, the campground was full. We decided to roll around (it was around 100 sites total), and found an older couple that we decided to ask if we could share the site. They had one of those VW van campers, so there was all the room we needed for us to pitch a tent. They also let us stay there without helping to pay, which otherwise would have cost about $15.

So... it turned out that the pasta/bread and stuff we got was actually amazing. Given our situation, it was definitely worth it. All of the stuff was fresh and organic, grown from around the area, and so it was super delicious. We got to bed relatively early at around 10pm, which was good, because we needed an early start the next day.

I think I'm going to go get some lunch now, I'm getting hungry. I'll write about yesterday's ride later on.

Granby, CO

Hello from Colorado!

Last night Michael and I camped right on the state border with Wyoming. I'm glad to be out of there. Our goal was to get to Walden, CO, but an afternoon thunderstorm delayed us a bit. Pretty much the goal was to be OUT OF WYOMING!!!

Thursday, June 12th - Rawlins WY to Wyoming/Colorado state border - 90 miles
See yesterday's entry. Not much happened, except we fought a headwind most of the afternoon, and it sprinkled on us. We saw one cool storm that got a little too close, and I think it hailed a good bit. Michael got a good picture.
Friday, June 13th - Wyoming/Colorado State border to somewhere in Rocky Mountain National Park - 75 miles completed by 3pm, hopefully doing around 30 more

This morning started off really, really, cold. It must have been below 40 degrees, but not quite freezing--there wasn't frost anywhere. Yet, I wore the following:

two pairs of socks
leg warmers
arm warmers
bib shorts
underlayer shirt
jersey
wind vest
raincoat

I could have worn a fleece, but that would have been too much. The problem with this is that I got really sweaty too fast, and if I took off any layers I would be too cold (because of the sweat). It was about 22 miles to Walden, and we got there at about 9am. After a good breakfast of biscuits and gravy, we headed back down the road, our midday goal being here in Granby. It warmed up a lot, and its really pleasant to ride.

Interesting thing to note today:

Rand, CO has no running water. At least the guy in the one store that was there wouldn't give us any, only giving us the choice to buy some bottled water. We passed, and the post office lady graciously gave us some. They also have a closed down yacht club restaurant, though I'm sure there aren't any lakes for miles around. Go figure.

Colorado's scenery is getting better and better. I think its because we're further away from Wyoming. From here, we're going to head into Rocky Mountain National Park, where we'll ride along Train Ridge Road, which reaches a peak elevation of 12183 feet. It's the highest continuous paved road in the continental US. The only thing that is bad about that is that right now I'm at 8000 feet, and it was cold at night. Tonight we're gonna freeze! And 4000 more feet is a lot of climbing. I don't think I'll get altitude sickness, because I've been acclimated to this fairly high elevation for a while now. The air sure will be thin though.

Tomorrow we get to Boulder, which is about 100 miles from here, with an unknown amount of climbing--but it's probably a lot. Boulder is at around 5000 ft elevation though, so all afternoon will be descending. After that, I'm headed to Colorado Springs, CO where Dad has a friend, hopefully I can crash there. From Colorado Springs, its down to Pueblo, which is about 60 miles away.

Hopefully the next time I'll update I'll be on Boulder! Maybe at Rob's mom's place if all goes well. I plan on taking a rest day there too, after tomorrow.

Saratoga, WY

Hello from Saratoga.

The last two days, from Dubois to Lander, then Lander to Rawlins, have absolutely sucked. Riding through eastern Wyoming sucks. It's sagebrush with slowly rolling hills the entire way. The scenery isnt great at all, and its windy.

So... on the 10th, we just rode about 10 miles further east of Lander. See my last post for a description on it. Believe me, it sucked a lot.

July 11th: Lander to Rawlins, WY -- 120 miles, 9 hours.
This day was perhaps one of the longest and worst days of riding. We did left at 8am, and got to Rawlins at around 7pm, making it one of the shortest start-to-finish days yet. With 9 hours of that riding time, it means we only had two hours of breaktime. Its not that we didnt want to take breaks, just there was absolutely nowhere to stop really.

We passed through this town of Jeffrey City, which had a population of about 50 people. We only saw three, and at the cafe we were in, we were served by an 8-yr old kid. He was about my eye leven when I was sitting down. The place was an absolute ghost-town, and it must be a really boring life there. A sign inside the cafe said there were only 150 people in a 20-mile radius.

I dont know what else to say about the day... but it was bad. Oh, we got to ride through about six miles of construction--and the roads were grooved. Though it feels like nothing in a car, its hell on a bike. Super bumpy. Worse than riding a road bike on a gravel road. A lot worse.

The worst part about the day was that Rawlins was pretty piss-poor too, with not much to see or do. At least we bought a 5-5-5 Dominoes deal, so I got to eat a pizza and a half. I was really hungry, so that was good. There was a nice thunderstorm at night, but we slept under this pavillion in their city park, so we were fine. Sprinklers woke us up again in the early morning. They were loud, but I guess something has to keep the grass green in the middle of the desert.

Today has been better--we found this little Menonite grocery store that had some awesome baked goods, and everything was super cheap. They must be losing money; Michael got Clif Bars for $0.20/each and got free bananas because they were overripe. We rode along I-80 this morning, which was actually a lot better than the majority of roads we've been on. The shoulder was big and smooth, a good change from all the back roads.

Today we're going to get into Colorado!!!

I decided I'm going to go to Boulder with Michael, hopefully stay at Rob Dahl's mom's place for two nights, and then head south to Pueblo. Somewhere in there I guess I'll meet up with Jamie.

Lander, WY

first--photos!!! http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2191403&l=9d624&id=1209158

Hello from Lander, WY. The past few days have been pretty eventful... and I've seen a lot of stuff. Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and lots of Wyoming.

July 8th: Cameron, MT to Grant Village, WY - 115 miles, 9 hours 45 minutes of riding.

The most time I've spent in a day on a bike. Went into Yellowstone National Park, this place was like a zoo. Imagine the San Diego Zoo, but with everyone in cars and RV's, just trying to get a peek of something moving, and stopping and clogging up the roads if they did. It would have been wonderful if there was no traffic, and you took out the people. To get a sense for how many people there were, our campsite, Grant Village (one of maybe seven or eight in the park) had 400 campsites in it. It seemed pretty full, but we rolled in after dark, so I don't know really. The last 45 minutes of riding we did was definitely nearly dark, way too late. I dont want to ride that late again.

The scenery was amazing, picture perfect meadows, streams, awesome mountains.

Wildlife count:
1 bison
2 elk (w/ big elkhorns)
2 bald eagles (one in Yellowstone)
1 coyote

We saw a bunch of geysers too. They were mad cool. Saw Old Faithful, and only had to wait about two minutes for it! That thing blasted pretty high up. It went off for about five minutes, maybe less. It seemed pretty long. Top elevation for the day, 8391 feet.

July 9th: Grant Village, WY, to Dubois, WY - 104 miles, 8 hours

I was pretty eager to get out of Yellowstone-- even though it was pretty, the traffic was horiffic. The Grand Tetons are probably the most impressive and pretty mountains I've ever seen. They seem to rise out of the middle of the ground to up over 10,000+ feet.

Wildlife count:
2 bears!!!!! both brown bears
I forget what else, the bears were the coolest.

We climbed up and over Togwotee Pass, Elevation 9658. A new personal record. It felt like it was 6% grade for 11 miles, which really sucks on a loaded bike. The total climb was 20-something miles long. On the way up though, we passed this Swede that was RUNNING ACROSS THE COUNTRY. This is his website. http://www.suneson.se Check it out. We descended into this cool town of Dubois, but we had a little help. They were doing construction on the back side of the mountain, so instead of enjoying out 3000' descent, we had to hitch-hike down most of it. At least those miles went by pretty fast, and I dont think it was cheating at all, more like punishment.

In general, I feel like I'm hungry a lot of the time. Normal sized meals dont fill me up, I need to eat half a box of Wheat Thins afterward to come close to being full.

July 10th: Dubois, WY through Lander, WY, to somewhere on the road - right now, at 75 miles, but going to ride more later

Today's cool story: On the road in this random tiny gas station/general store, this older couple said hi to Michael, because he was wearing his JMU jersey. Turns out they live in Oakland Mills, which is in Columbia MD, about a 10 minute drive from Dad's place. What a small world.

Today's not-so-cool story: 50 miles of headwind in the morning.

Anyway, my 30 minutes at the library is up, its someone else's turn now. Lander is pretty cool, I guess, but I'm hungry. Check out my photos at the top.

Hopefully I'll pass through Rawlins, WY sometime tomorrow.

West Yellowstone, MT

Hello from West Yellowstone. A recap of the last few days:

July 6th: Chief Joseph's pass to Twin Bridges, MT (120 miles, a personal record)
July 7th: Twin Bridges, MT to Cameron, MT-- 55 miles-- a big thunderstorm in the afternoon ended our day
July 8th: Cameron, MT to somewhere in Yellowstone National Park, WYOMING

I'm sitting here about 3 miles from the Yellowstone Park/Wyoming border, pretty excited to get into my fourth state. I'm also really hungry.

Highs:
1. Awesome bakery in Hamilton, MT called "A Place to Ponder" It was really, really, really incredibly good.
2. Passing the Continental Divide for the first time.
3. Personal record for miles ridden in a day. 120!
4. Seeing a MOOSE
5. Seeing a BALD EAGLE this morning. It was pretty awesome. Someone had some binoculars, and we got a really good view.
6. Seeing an awesome thunderstorm yesterday, the lightning was super close (though this made it only a 55 mile day yesterday)
7. Yellowstone!

Lows:
1. Broken camera, its still taking pictures, yet it lost ALL of my pictures up to Missoula. Thats Oregon, Idaho, and the first day in Montana. Sad day.
2. Hot temperatures--100 degrees in the shade in Sula.
3. The knee is still bugging me a little, but only for about half an hour every morning, then its totally fine.

I think I might buy a new camera.. at least see if I can. I dont want to lose any more photos.

Hungry!

Dillon, MT

Hello from Dillon!

I'm really pleased with what small towns are like, especially in the 3000-4000 population range. It seems to be a good size--large enough to have everything you need, but still small enough to get to know a lot of people. Standing in line today to get some postcard stamps at least three people knew each other and started talking. Cool.

Big news: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE. We saw one off of the side of the road today. It was pretty big, but also far away. They look so goofy. This one didn't have the big antlers, so it was probably female? I'm not a moose-ologist...

A recap of the past few days:

July 5: Missoula, MT to Lost Trail Pass, MT (right on the state line of Idaho and MT) 100 miles.

We got a really early start, and put in about 50 miles before noon. It felt great to have a lot miles in early. Missoula was seriously disappointing, I think. Too big and spread out. Especially compared to this town, Hamilton, MT. It had the best bakery, called A Place to Ponder, which had AMAZING food. They had these raspberry bars, delicious, moist, and perfect scones--I can't describe how good it was.

It was getting hot for the day, so we went about 30 more miles until we got to this little town of Sula. It was pretty much a general store/RV park/campground all together. We wanted to get out of the heat, as it was 100 degrees in the shade. Soo hot. I sat around, drank a lot of water, and read my book, while Michael used his fishing rod for the first time, and caught three trout. He was pretty stoked.

We ended the day climbing about 3000ft up to the top of the Lost Trail Pass, which put us up above 7000' elevation. It was a good, steady climb, and rose that much in about 8 miles. It was close to 10pm by the time we got to the top, so we decided to call it a night at the Rest Stop at the top. The mosquitoes were horrible, which was weird, because there weren't any further down on the hill. I ended up wearing long pants, my raincoat with hood up and cinched tight, and socks, all in an effort to keep them off of me. It must have looked like it was 40 degrees out, but really it was quite pleasant.

Over that night, the sprinklers at the rest stop went on, and woke us up at about 2:00am to a really alarming noise--just it hitting the rain fly, but it sounded bad. The worst part about that was that it only hit the tent every five seconds, so it was hard to fall back to sleep.

Today (July 6): Lost Trail Pass to Twin Rivers, MT (120 miles?)
We got another early start, which was great. Saw the moose in the morning, which was spectacular. Today we rode across the Big Hole Valley, named that way because it was surrounded by mountains. We did two more passes, one around 7400 ft, another at about 6800 ft, but both were relatively short, only 3-4 miles with 1000ft gain. Somewhat like Wildcat Road back in Berkeley. The best part of both of these were the descents, where we cruised around 30-40mph for about seven miles down the other side of both of them.

It was really hot during the day again--we took a lunch break in Jackson, MT (pop. 38), then kept pedaling on. We really wanted to get to Dillon before the library closed, and made it here by about 4:30. The library closes at 7:00, we're in luck.

Tonight the goal is to get to Twin Bridges, which is about 30 miles away. It looked like it was going to rain when we went into the library. If it does, it'll be the first time that it has rained so far. Maybe it'll just pass through, and we'll keep riding after its done.

Tomorrow's goal is to get to West Yellowstone, MT. It's probably about 110-120 miles away from Twin Bridges. I'm excited to see Yellowstone, which we'll ride through Sunday.

Missoula, MT #2

Hey all,

Recap of the past few days:
July 3rd: 90 miles into Missoula, along the same monotonous river we'd been riding along forever. It was a 77 mile stretch along the same river, with every bend looking the same. We got into Missoula in the late afternoon, and headed straight for the Adventure Cycling Association office. They had free ice cream (a welcome treat) and took our pictures, we signed the guestbook, and then got a tour of the office. In the office they had pictures of the original BikeCentennial in 1976, and lots of old historical bikes. Cool stuff. At the office there I also tried ELK for the first time, because they were holding a bbq for a large group that was riding in that afternoon.

We passed this group at the top of Lolo Pass, it's called the JettRide. We had seen their sag-wagon pass us on the way up, but then their follow car was handing out Gatorade and water halfway up. We stopped to chat for a bit to find out a bit more. They are a group of around 25 14-18yr teenagers that are riding across the country to raise awareness for Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. You can visit their website at www.10thGear.com.

One of the adult leaders in the group told us if we hung around the ACA office and waited for the group to roll through, we might have had a chance to stay at a Marriott (one of their sponsors). We did, and they were good enough to take us in for the next few days. We ended up getting two good nights sleep in the Marriott, two free breakfasts, and a free shirt too! Check out their website.

July 4th:
We didn't do too much, just rested and relaxed all day. Briefly headed "downtown" to get a lunch, ended up with a milkshake because I was still full from breakfast. The rest of the day was uneventful, mostly eating/sleeping/reading.

This morning we're headed out early, because the end of the day has a 3000-4000' climb that will bring us up above 7000' elevation! After this climb, we hardly dip down below a 6000' elevation until we get out of Colorado.

Chief Joseph's Pass, here we come.

Missoula, MT

Hello from Missoula, MT! Michael and I made it here yesterday afternoon. We're taking a rest day today. I'll try to leave a longer update with everything that has happened. I'll leave a teaser, we're staying in a Marriott for free...

Kooskia, ID

Hello from Kooskia.

Yesterday we made it from near New Meadows, ID to Grangeville, ID. It was definitely the hottest day so far. Probably flirting with 100, mostly up in the high 90's. We rode along the Salmon River most of the day, a big enough river for whitewater rafting to be popular. I was wishing I could have been swimming instead of biking. I went to a quick dip (waist-deep) and it felt great. Too bad the legs haven't felt good at all lately.

Highs:
-showered this morning
-did laundry this morning
-ate a big dinner last night

Lows:
-legs are nearly fried, I'm really ready for a rest day
-broke a spoke yesterday afternoon, but then did a 2.5 hour climb after with it missing. That meant spinning in a really small gear
-Michael got a flat (not his fault, of course), but that meant sitting around in the baking sun.

I can't wait until tomorrow, when we go up and over the Lolo Pass, then get to see the Lolo Hot Springs! Also then we should be making it into Missoula by the late afternoon. My legs are soo toast. A massage would be nice. So would a day off the bike.