Day Fifteen: July 26th, 2010 (Dubois, WY to Campground, WY)

Day Fifteen: July 26th, 2010 (Dubois, WY to Campground, WY - between Yellowstone and Grand Tetons)

Technical Data (Will download tomorrow)
Distance, miles: 77.54
Ride time: 6:05:08
Average power, watts: 136
Normalized power, watts: 167
Work, kJ: 3034
Average speed, mph: 12.49

Day Summary - 85+ degrees and partly cloudy.

Rolling out of Wind River Gear parking lot I wasn't feeling to hot this morning! I packed everything up as normal and headed on down to the local grocery as I needed a new toothbrush as some how I misplaced mine. Once I had my new brush I brushed my teeth right there in the parking lot. An older gentlemen talked to me for a bit while I was brushing my teeth, he was from Nebraska so we hit it off pretty quick being from Kansas. Was a good little conversation however nothing really enlighten to share. I debated hitting up the donut shoppe before heading out of town as it was a Daylight and I grew up with a Daylight...I debated it for about 3-5 minutes then I decided to head on down the road.

25+ miles or so to the top of the pass and I wasn't feeling good this morning. The legs just didn't have any power and I was really struggling to find motivation. One of those mornings when you look for the Ipod to wake you up on your way to the gym. Spinning down the road, I was thinking just relax today, get over the pass, pick up your nutrition drop at Moran Junction, WY and head north as far as you can before shutting it down for a day of rest.

The ride up to the pass was an easy grade and I was just spinning. I'm writing this right now and I'm "smoked" (military term) - meaning I really don't feel like I have much left in the tank today. Riding up to the pass I couldn't help but get lost in the scenery and stop and take some photos. I can see now why the West has won the hearts of millions! Climbing up the pass I was warned that the road runs out for a 2+ mile stretch and I would have to get sagged across the construction site by a local construction worker. Once to the top of the pass I had to wait 10-15 minutes for his shuttle across the work zone. I really thought I should be riding it, however it wasn't that it wasn't ridable, it was more about safter. Pat - a local to Dubois gave me a ride across the work zone and we just chatted about the area, the fishing, the small town of Dubois, the winters, and how tough it is to make a living up here.

Once over the pass I put on my jacket for the decent, thinking it was going to be a long fast decent however it was very mild so I stopped to strip down. The Tetons were breathtaking!

I'm having trouble concentrating on writing so I'm going to crash - two weeks straight worth of riding and writing, to be honest I'm getting a little exhausted! So to recharge - I'm going to go sit by the river just outside of Yellowstone and relax...

(More to come...)

Once over the pass I headed into Moran Junction to pick up my mail drop. In it, more Sustained energy and more GU then I can possible choked down over the next couple of weeks. Total weight 20 lbs, and some of the best climbing to come so now that I'm strength training its going to be a good trip! I would like to Thank my Brother for drop shipping it out to Moran. I rolled into Moran a little before one o'clock and it was getting hot, so I reorganized BoB so all the nutrional product would fit and headed on my way. Before I got to Moran I stopped for water at this little RV park which had Hostels, I thought about crashing there but moved on. This was a funny moment in my day though, as the bear proof trash cans fooled about 10 people right in front of me. I took some pictures of the can, I was laughing my ass off when I watched this! The instructions were right there but still people walked away, you had to have been there as it was one of the highlights of my day!

Rolling out of Moran the legs were still underneath me so I thought I would continue to cruise until I found a camping spot that looked nice. Camp site after camp site was "full", (note* - don't come to the Tetons and Yellowstone in July!!!) After stopping in at Lizard Creek to see if they had any tent sites, which they didn't I headed to a free site. I was planning on paying tonight because I wanted to grab a shower and do some laundry, however for $37.10 for a place to throw my tent was outragous so I headed out!

I headed over to this lodge to get out of the heat and try and get some recovery in! I decided to celebrate my Kansas crossing today, I hadn't had my Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes yet so I spent a few bucks and bought some and more chocolate milk and had me a good celebration, sitting on the front porch of this lodge in a rocking chair enjoying the day! Watching all the tourist do there thing, the tourist count here has to be out of this world right now...

I changed at the lodge and wrote a little. I was getting tired so I headed to the camp site on a slow leak, I have to say the Contential tires I have are not the best for cross country trips. I love my Specialized Armadillos the best and really would like to have another set on this trip, however I'm making due and my friend Julian is going to drop a few in a couple days to somewhere on the route. Rolling down this gravel road looking for camping was pretty interesting, nothing like riding on road tires on course rocks and then crossing a small creek to find a place to throw a tent.

I found the sites, all full! What do you do when you're on the bike and people just keep saying head up the road 20-30 "miles"...Legs were pretty tired today so I decided to ask if I could share a site and I'm glad I did. The couple that passed me on the way into the sites mentioned we could share too, so we all shared a site that night. It was wide open spaces so I could have camped pretty much anywhere!

Turns out I asked Mark - whom was on a bike tour of WY with his son. The couple that came into the site when I did were from Bozeman, MT and awesome! All the people I have met on this trip have been great...gives you a different out look on people in America! I enjoyed chatting with the couple from Bozeman, I'm having the toughest time remembering names, however I know where he works so I should be able to find them and "Thank" them for the cliff bars - they were great today and it was nice to have a change in food on the ride today!

As for Mark and his son it was great to see him and his son interact, precious moments in time today! Watching a father teach his kid how to cut a tree with a 4 foot saw (note* = look up the name of the saw). After watching them for a little bit I asked if I could help, it would be good to get a little upper body workout in on this trip as I'm loosing all of it! That's a different story all within itself (my weight lose). I fixed the small leak on my rear tire. Mark saw me do this and mentioned his sons bike had a very similiar thing going on, so I offered to fix it as well. Spending the evening with complete strangers can be rewarding! I had dinner with Mark as he offered me some Tea and Spaghetti, what a trade I thought!

It was pretty close to bed time so it was time to put food in the bear storage unit and call it a night. I decided to sleep on the picnic table tonight off the ground so I wouldn't get stepped on by a bear if one were to walk into camp. Today was a refreshing day for recovery, I was still able to get 70-80 miles in and enjoy the day. Met some interesting people and some truly genuine people too...

O' before I went to bed the couple from Bozeman walked me through the route I was planning and gave me the insights on the terrain. I like the unknown, however at this point in the trip I'm going into unknown territory with no idea what lies ahead. I do this because I love the challenge! If I have the maps for the route I would know the elevation profile and that's not what I want. What I love is setting a destination and getting there, no matter how much time it takes or what stands in the way (wind, heat, elevation changes, et cetera). This provides me with the training I'm looking for and the opportunity to talk with complete strangers on asking questions...

Off to bed and hopefully tomorrow will provide me with fresh legs and the needed motivation to continute on!

Other Notes

Talk with Dean and PitBull
Talk with Bozeman Couple (Hostel, Local, Et Cetera)
Ran into two other cyclist
Landscape
Camp Host (Huge smile when she sent me 7 miles down the road - all up hill!) Quote...
Conversation with barkeep at lodge (foreign presence)