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.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
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!
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!
Friday, July 6, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
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...
Monday, July 2, 2007
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.
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.
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