Vacationland, USA

July 31

On July 21st, we each paid $12.00 for a 7 day National Park bicycle pass.  It could be used to get, by bicycle, into Grand Tetons NP and Yellowstone provided you are out before the permit expires.  For the full 7 days of our park passes, we rode or walked around with our mouths gaping and a camera never far from grasp.

In a rare exercise of parsimony, we rolled through the west entrance (in our case, exit) of Yellowstone at 5:30pm on July 30.  We only needed to pedal 40-ish miles to West Yellowstone and we spent the day making our wandering way.  We stopped to see Old Faithful erupt again and also tour the geyser/spring basin there.

Old Faithful Inn...a little heavy handed on the woodwork for my taste.

Then we rode a 1.5 mile "backcountry" bicycle path over to another steamy feature.  We swam twice in the Firehole River (delicious). We were both saturated with visual stimuli and needed a break from the grandeur and beauty...also, we needed to get away from Vacationland.

SQUEE....It's babies!

You actually cross the state line within the Park boundary

Today we pedaled 71 miles over to Ennis, MT which is wildly popular with the fly-fishing crowd.  We followed the Madison River passed an earthen avalanche caused by a quake in the 50's, dodged an electrical storm at the Cameron Post Office and finally rolled into Ennis about 6pm.  Talk about burning the midnight oil...this is late for us. Not quite out of Vacationland, but getting close.

Tetons really are Grand

July 24

Yesterday we left the brown, dusty "icky bits" of Wyoming behind and crossed the Togwotee Pass.  Just at the summit of the climb, we saw a mom bear and two cubs off in the middle distance of a high meadow.  We watched them for a bit but they were too far away and we didn't have field glasses.  If you looked at the Virginia pictures, you may have seen the small binoculars in the original 7lbs of "superfluous" gear.

A few miles further and we made a broad sweep left and the Teton Range jumped into view.  They are breathtaking and I instantly loved them.  Still do.

Today we entered the national park properly.  By that I mean paying  $12 per bike for a 7 day pass, but we'll use it again to get into Yellowstone <squeal>.  After running that gauntlet, we stopped at the Pacific Creek put in outhouse and promptly met some folks from the Penny Road area of Cary...small world.

My mouth is dry from riding all day with it wide open in wonderment.  I wish words could convey just how larger than life and regal these peaks are.  More than a passing acquaintance with the Tetons on the TransAm requires a 35 mile extra credit ride (mostly bike path) to Jackson, WY and it is totally worth it.  We passed beautiful and well appointed campgrounds, lakes, fields, a National Fish Hatchery and an Elk Preserve.

Tonight we are housed in a smallish 1930's log cottage in downtown Jackson at a place called Kudar ,which I want to pronounced Koo-dar but the innkeep insists it is Koodur (like kooter, but softer on the second syllable).

I put more pictures on the flickr page...please take a look and let me know if you can't get to it.

A tale of two religions

June 20

We rode to Jeffrey City, WY today which has 100 or so citizens made entirely, I'm sure, of people who like (even prefer) their alone time.  Oddly, this town has twice the population of Riverside but none of the comforts saving two things:  a cafe/bar with a dog and iced tea in a mason jar (how about that, Tom?) and a First Baptist Church bicycle hostel.  What it has in plentitude is sand, brown landscape and sand.

Jeffrey City is a stop in the middle of a mostly empty stretch from Rawlins to Lander, WY, but what it lacks in people and comforts, it makes up for in history.  About 2/3 way along, we stopped at Muddy Gap.  This meant absolutely zero beyond cold drinks, but is alive with history as it sits in a crossroads between several accesses to a route that served (at various times) as The Pony Express Route, The Oregon Trail, The Mormon Trail (about which later) and The California Trail and now, of course, The Trans Am.  Muddy Gap has a couple of houses and one convenience store which serves as gas station/gift shop/museum/rooms (in the form of a single-wide trailer parked out back).  While we were taking a break and eating our traditional 'on the road' foods, a couple drove up wearing what is referred to as "Period Clothing".  They were part of a cooking committee for a group of trekkers.  They said they would be cooking for 350.  My jaw dropped but, as it turns out, about 80,000 Mormons (yep, you read that right) travel to this area to do a thing they call "trek"(walk a portion of the Mormon Trail) with or without a handcart, with or without load.

When we arrived at Jeffrey City, we went directly to the cafe/bar and had tea in the aforementioned mason jars.  I was told by the proprietor that the church had stopped taking cyclists.  She tutted about a group coming through a week or so ago and getting "smashed here, and then went back to the church".  Apparently, the pastor did not approve.  I decided not to phone him (whom I had just spoken to the day before) as promised, but just show up.  My logic was that if he had decided we were a shiftless, untrustworthy group best avoided, then he would have to turn us away in person.  Secretly, I was relying on the famed girl scout effect to get beyond any challenges.  Access turned out not to be an issue, but this sign was on the door:

There was an air of "anxiously waiting for August 1" so even though we needed a day off and this one would be acceptably affordable at whatever value we chose to give it (these things are donation based) we decided to move on.  The following morning, we passed Sweetwater Station/Sixth Crossing.  Sixth crossing is the approximate location of, ironically enough, the sixth crossing of the Sweetwater River en route to Zion;  here a Mormon party (The Willie party, I believe) got stranded in an early snowstorm and had what you could call a really tough time (though not Donner party tough) until a rescue group from Salt Lake City arrived.  Anyway, you can see the original path that the four routes used zigging the landscape.  At Sweetwater Station, we found a camping area, and a sixth crossing museum/visitor center/missionary work center and saw more trekkers and met a George Bush (the younger) look alike from Boone, NC.

We were hustled inside to sit in the cool, sign the guestbook, view the 7 minute video about the Willie Party and consider the representative 17lbs of personal effects each member of the party was permitted to bring.  I thought about my own personal effects...possibly a little more than 17lbs...if you include the knitting needle/yarn, MP3 player and netbook.  

The Mormons were so friendly and the field by the river so green and lush that we could easily have stayed and tried the carts ourselves; but we were low on provisions and (as noted on the map) no services in Sweetwater.  Besides, I wasn't really dressed for it.

As a consolation, we filled our water bottles.  Ahead lay another 40 miles of brown under cloud cover to Lander, WY and a rest day.  

Wild, Wild West

July 17

Well, we have arrived at another state.  We passed into Wyoming this morning around 11am after a late start to get a few groceries in Walden, CO.  We had been promised
a. roads were (and I do quote) "smooth as silk"
b. with a wide shoulder
c. Wyoming-ans are real nice, and
d. Wyoming cross winds would rival Kansas.

Three out of four isn't bad and thankfully a is the one that's wrong, though I could do with less d as well.  We stopped just inside the border at a crossroads called Riverside which at one time had a population near 5000 but today has just 52.  You might think the town folks would be a little down about that, but they don't seem to be.  I can see why: the town has a commodious campground, surprisingly comprehensive hardware/grocery store and a restaurant (decorated like a log cabin on the inside) known around these parts for good food.  Look up Bear Trap in Riverside, WY on the webs.

How lucky we are!  We took a shady campsite on a lush lawn and ate Wyoming BBQ (slices, not shredded) and Pork Medallions with mushroom gravy.  I had some of both (gravy made with corn starch) and they were great.

I would like to say that it would be just like this to Jackson...but no.  Our days ahead are already written as looonnnggg and spartanly appointed.  We'll even ride a bit on the interstate to get to Rawlins (tomorrow).  It should pretty well stink and is known for giving the gift of flats. Oh well, at the end of it all will be the Tetons and then Yellowstone. <sigh>

I am taking to this western life pretty well.  Its cooler than Kansas and sunny; I like those things. I have taken to wearing a pink and red bandana tied Annie-Oakley style and my pepper spray on my belt loop like a side arm...I hope that's legal.  If not, then I'm already a wild west outlaw.

We can has climbs

July 15

We have elevation! Our first glimpses of the Rockies were not impressive but boy, has Colorado made up for it.  The chilly mornings I've dreamed of, and sustained myself with, in Kansas are here. About 45* worth; and it rains now too.  It is so nice to see actual water flow in the tiny streams.

  A couple of days ago, we had the luxury of waiting for the sun to peek over the mountain before it was warm enough to leave.  Since then, we have just donned most of our clothes and started stripping when the sun finally gets up.

I cannot say enough to convey the large, beautiful, pointiness of it so I will add extra pictures.  You will notice that there is little snow capping this year.  Apparently, it was a dismal year for skiing and the water reservoirs are all quite low.

Today we are in a hamlet called Hot Sulfur Springs and, all going to plan, in two days of riding be crossing into Wyoming.

The Rockies

July 10

Woah…I can’t believe we’ve been on the road two months.   Well, two months and one week but this is totally worth the 2000+ miles of pedaling it takes to get to the Rockies in Colorado.  East Colorado was a drier, dustier, browner and slightly cooler version of Kansas (as has been mentioned in a previous post).  Sam and I were both just run down from it and I knew that merely getting to Colorado would not magically change anything…that we’d still get up at 4 am and wet our jerseys at every chance and spend our afternoon hiding from the heat and sun. And that is exactly what we did for two more days until we finally pulled up, dusty and in need of a laundry, to Pueblo.  Things did not start well.

The approach to Pueblo (population 100,000 or so) spits you off a quiet, back water section of hwy 96 onto a 4 lane divided highway with a wide shoulder (thankfully).  We’d been using hwy 96 to ride due west for at least a week and would follow it for half a days ride out of Pueblo.  The last quarter mile of this quiet section of 96 is where  I got the first finger….that I saw….of this trip.  A white SUV was required, unthinkingly by me, to slow and wait the twenty seconds necessary for an old couple in a Saturn station wagon to clear the way for passing.  I’m glad the driver didn’t just plow on through; they seem willing to do so in colorful Colorado.

Nonetheless, we arrived safe, if tired and a little dirty, in downtown Pueblo on Friday afternoon and checked into a motel that

a.       Had a pool

b.      Was close to the route and only 2 blocks from the only bike shop

c.       Offered a buy two nights and get the third free

Perfect!  Except it was on the edge of what was described to be a zone of interracial friction between the white and Latino community.  We were warned "Be in your room by dark" (too tired to burn the midnight oil anyway) and  “Don’t cross that bridge”…this would be the bridge we used to get to downtown AND the one we used Sunday morning to get to and from the health food market via a lovely riverside greenway (“Don’t ever use those greenways”). Perfect.  Luckily, we didn't have many aspirations for the weekend.

And after a weekend of not being harassed, threatened nor harmed, we left Pueblo at 7am under heavy skies.  The last time it had rained on us was in Illinois, so this was unusual.  But, I had looked at NOAA and knew it would come to nothing.  The clouds hung on the mountains until about 2p.  Now that I can see the peaks, I keep saying, "I can't believe we're here."

Tomorrow we will turn North to avoid the desert and approach Hoosier Pass.  Other cyclists are using the Western Express route to San Francisco and will suffer more heat, dry and blah....but not us, we will have climbs.  

Kansorado

 July 6

We passed into Colorado in the early morning sun on July 3.  I was, of course, excited to arrive.  I had looked over the google maps very carefully using the search term "feed" because little stinks worse or creates more roadway dischord than a loaded feedlot truck.  We had ridden through Scott County, Kansas whose main busy-ness appears to be feedlotting; to the tune of 197,000 head capacity in the vicinity of the county seat, Scott City, so I knew how bad it could get.  Anyway, there were only 2 or 3 so my fortunes were looking up.

When I expressed my pleasure at the idea, Sam reminded me that the Oglalla aquifer is what allows all that agri-business to flourish in what is otherwise a 'grass desert'.  The aquifer does not extend very far into Colorado and the feedlots don't want to be too far from the corn for economic reasons. So when the aquifer is gone, so is the corn, so is the feedlot, so is the stench.

Miles passed and the grain towers slowly faded behind us.  We moved into a very lovely, and dry, scrubby, sandy blank that I call Kansorado.  It is a super flat, sandy soiled expanse with no agriculture.  It is populated by very short shrubby plants, hares, antelope, the occasional mule deer and a very, very few hearty humans.  There was no running or standing water...anywhere. Obviously, we did not camp here either.

Today we arrived in Pueblo, population 100,000+ and it is a bit of a culture shock.  This is the largest town we've passed through by double (Newton, KS and Charlottesville, VA at 40,000).  The approach was long, but our arrival was not unnoted.  Just outside Pueblo, on the side of hwy 96 resides a Prairie dog town and we raised the curiosity of several juveniles.  Unfortunately, they would not stand for being photographed so there is no record.

We are several days off here for rest and bike work and to take time to sample the cuisine.  Early in the evening, rain moved in.  The last time either of us can recall rain was Golconda, Illinois (alot of miles ago) so it was worthy of note for us.

 In two riding days we'll be struggling up and over Hoosier Pass.  How delightful and chilly.

Looking ahead

July 2
Happy Birthday Travis!

Tomorrow is our last full riding day in Kansas and I am, as always, excited to move into a new state.  Colorado is special however for two reasons:
1. I am looking for my first glimpse of the Rockies, which will be in Colorado.
2. The back of the map says the following: "The Prairie Horizon Trail is a 140 mile section of the Transam whose nearby residents have taken it upon themselves to provide " expanded highway shoulders, shelters and other amenities for the purpose of providing a friendly welcoming, safe and memorable experience for cyclists traveling through this charming prairie environment." Sounds good to me.

http://pathlesspedaled.com/2011/08/economics-of-bike-touring/

http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/09/transamerica-and-prairie-horizons.html