Sunday, June 9, 2013
Yellowstone Lower Loop
Today I visited Yellowstone National Park, the lower loop. I left West Yellowstone early after a poor night of basically no sleep. I took a tour for a change to get a feel for the park before I bike around in it. Glad I did. The lower loop alone would have been about 75 miles of hard riding over large rolling hills with a few climbs up to 8400' and that alone would have hurt my old body but coupled with all the walking required to see things it would have put me in the hospital for sure. I enjoyed the tour. The guide was new but tried her best to give us whatever we wanted. I liked her spirit. The first thing we encountered after getting into the park was a bison traffic jam. There was a small herd of about 50 animals slowly moving along a narrow stretch between the river and some high cliffs. We were all going the same way but the bison just go slower is all. Eventually when the backup got too long the rangers came in with sirens blaring and lights flashing to speed up the pokey bison so the traffic could get moving. Nobody was complaining about the jam and lots of people were out taking pics of the shaggy beasts. Once we were through the jam we headed to some hot springs, old faithful geyser, the waterfalls, Yellowstone lake and all the other goodies. In between stops we saw more bison, bald eagles, elk, a black bear, lots of birds like blue heron, various ducks, pelicans, ravens, hawks, and lots more. I enjoyed the day but it hurt me because almost everything required some walking and walking absolutely kills me. I know it sounds weird that I can ride a bike all day but can't walk, but that is the way it is for me. I tried to get permission to ride my bike in the prohibited areas but never was able to get an official to step up for ADA compliance. I will pay a big price tonight for the limited walking that I had to do today. I hope I am able to ride by morning but I may have to take another day off to recover. I won't know until morning. If I can I will start the upper loop tomorrow. Until then enjoy life I know I am trying to do that but it isn't always easy.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Ride Day 102
Today was just a short hop from Kirkwood to West Yellowstone of 22 miles and 500' of climbing in cool sunny weather. The ride was quick and easy with signs all along it to look out for bison but I did not see any today. I will see them in the park later and today they would have been a pain because I can't just bike through a herd of bison like people in cars can. When I got to the park I got myself a pass and a bunch of reading material from the visitor center and am spending the day reading it all and resting before hitting the lower loop of the park tomorrow. Each loop is about 65 miles so I can only do one loop a day and today I got too late of a start to go for it. I will do laundry and other things like museums today. The weather if perfect and the kids have not arrived here yet so my park visit should be good. a few pics...
Friday, June 7, 2013
Ride Day 101
Today I rode from Ennis to Kirkwood 54 miles and 2700' of climbing in cloudy, windy conditions changing to sunny and hot later in the day. I started at 4800' of elevation and ended up at 6800' as I climbed through rolling hills surrounded by mountains. Last night I camped in the RV park in Ennis so I could get a shower after three days of riding as well as charge up my electronics. After showering and eating a ton of food I met a friendly couple that was just completing the purchase of a house here in Ennis after moving from Eau Claire Wisconsin. They offered me a beer and some strawberries and ice cream so how could I refuse the offer? We sat around chatting for a while and had our beer and ice cream while I played with their two black labs. The labs were all over me wanting love so I gave them a bunch of attention. We talked about biking, Wisconsin, life in general and the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile which he worked with. It was a fun pleasant evening. I went to bed early after yesterday's hard ride. Today's ride was going to be 72 miles but I burned out at 54 as I was passing a campground so I called it a day and got a site. I had a nasty headwind all morning that kept my speed down to around 8 mph and sometimes less when a gust hit me. I had expected to be doing around 15 or 16 mph for the day. The ride was a long slow rolling upgrade that gained a couple thousand feet without ever really having any big hills. It tired me out because I could not coast at all today. If I stopped pedaling I immediately stopped moving. I am used to coasting every few minutes to conserve my pace. At one point the headwind was so strong that I could only muster 11 mph going down a long grade. I was working hard and sweating up a storm. I did run into five other bikers today which surprised me. One had started in Nevada but all the others had started on the East Coast. We talked about riding in Yellowstone and they all agreed that it was a great place to ride so I am looking forward to riding in it. They also like riding around in Grand Tetons. They did say that both places were kind of hard riding with lots of rolling hills. Such is life. I did pass Earthquake Lake today which was formed in 1959 when an earthquake triggered a huge slide off one of the mountains that came crashing down killing 28 people and blocking off the flow of Ruby Creek forming the lake. Nature can be brutal sometimes and does not always work slowly. As soon as this thunderstorm that is threatening me here in the campground blows off, I will set up my camp and get a shower in. 
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