Wednesday, June 12, 2013
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...
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