Goin’ home….

Here we are in Bozeman waiting for our flight home to NY…we are both stunned at how quickly we were able to dismantle the trip we had painstakingly planned for so long! The re-entry into our “regular” lives will be jarring, especially given the circumstances but there is no way we could continue with Michael’s Mom so sick. Our thoughts, concerns and hearts have already left the road and it’s time to go home.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported us by following our blog. We loved reading your comments and knowing that so many were sharing our experience, keeping us close, and wishing us a safe journey. Love to you all,
Judith

August 26, Bozeman, MT, Complete Change

Since last week when we reached Yellowstone, we’ve been sightseers rather than active cyclists. Now we have a more radical change.
We are shutting down our trip and returning home. My Mom has had an emergency open heart surgery and quadruple bypass procedure. She also has very significant blockage of both carotid arteries that is still going to need attention. The first procedure went well and she’s in good shape right now but it looks like she’s going to be in care for a while. Family comes first, of course and it would be impossible to keep riding while knowing that we should be home with Mom & all the rest of the family.
Thank you to everyone who has been following our trip and our blog. Thanks for your emails, your comments and your support. Thanks to all the great people we met over the last month in Oregon, Idaho, Montana & Wyoming. It has been an amazing experience, beyond description really, and we’ll go back to it sometime in the future when we can.
Michael

Sat. and Sunday, Aug 22 & 23, West Yellowstone & Bozeman

Leah flies back today so we drove her up to Bozeman, part of the drive thru Yellowstone and of course it’s beautiful. We’ve decided to skip ahead somewhat across Wyoming due to the distance between services and the fact that our prime targets of interest are all in eastern Wyoming so we also pick up a rental truck which we can do as a one way and drop off somewhere east of here. We call it our Redneck RV and return to West Yellowstone. On Sunday, we catch up on laundry, do some in town museum things and we’ll head out of town thru the park over the next days. It’s turned quite cold and rainy and it seems today as if Judith is wrestling with a little bug so it’s a good thing we’re off the bikes for a little bit.
Happy trails.

Friday, August 21, Yellowstone Park

Thank god we don’t have to get back on the bikes today. For the first time in this trip my legs are totally gone, just numb and distant.
We got a nice breakfast and headed into the west entrance of the park. Great luck. Within the first 12 miles we see elk at a little distance, bison at a similar distance and then encounter a young elk crossing a road, wandering into a stream and basically posing for our cameras. Great stuff. We also passed a steep mountainside that had just had a huge rock slide, with dust billowing up all over. From there we drive into the fields of geysers which are other-worldly, we do the classic Yellowstone Old Faithful thing and then drive down to Grand Teton National Park which is very high on Judith’s list. The views of the mountains with snow and glaciers are really something. It’s amazing that it’s 80 degrees where we’re standing, the mountains are quite close and yet snow covered. American Alps.
We don’t see any more wildlife of significance but the drive back is beautiful, we had a nice dinner and settled in for the night.

Thursday, August 20, Ennis to West Yellowstone, MT, 75 miles

We got a nice early start, found a bagel shop so we could fuel up and then hit the road. Leaving Ennis we spook two good sized deer with big racks, at least eight points each, but it happens so fast we can’t get pictures. Fairly quick ride the 11 miles to Cameron and sure enough is has everything we would have needed for an overnight stay, but everything I closed up and shuttered. Good thing we caught that before counting on it. For a while the ride is pleasant, nice weather and temperature, etc. We see pronghorn antelopes for the first time on the trip (where the deer and the antelope play). They have a very funny way of running, they almost seem to bounce along from the ankles like a cartoon character. Our elevation map has shown that we’ll gain a 1000 ft over the course of the day but it should be a steady pull with no steep climbs. We’re counting on that (warning, warning). The first 20 miles are pretty easy but also become very boring, very little change of scenery and the horizon doesn’t budge. Sure enough it gets hot and we also pick up a head wind as the ride turns into one of those where we check our mileage every ¼ mile or so. Not good. We ride into some change of scenery at least with the river picking up palisades to our east which our actually quite pretty. But the miles grind on and we are all getting beat too quickly. Our path takes us towards Earthquake Lake (which was formed abruptly in 1959 when a 7.5 richter scale earthquake hit the Yellowstone area, killed a couple dozen people and created rock slides which dammed the Madison River) and we’re targeting the Rangers Visitor Center there as someplace to take a break. When we turn towards the Lake (oh no), the road goes straight up. By the time we get to the visitors center it is time for some serious reconsideration of plans. We’ve ridden 48 miles, most against a headwind and are tired. Judith is totally out of gas. After a break and some discussion we decide that Judith will wait here, we’ll leave all our gear with her so we can ride unencumbered and Leah and I will ride the rest of the way into West Yellowstone, get the car and come back to get her. We have 27 more to go but without the gear it will be easier. The first third is easy, despite a couple of climbs, the middle third just grinds. About 11 miles from our destination I have a little trouble with a soft back tire but pump it up and hope not to have to change it out. The last 8 miles turn into a direct headwind and take forever, but we finally find the motel, call the rental car folks, etc. Stash our bikes in our room and notice that my rear tire is totally flat. Drive back to pick up Judith who has survived her 3 hour wait and bring her into town. Late dinner by the time we get cleaned up and out but finally and fed and crash for the night.
What a day. Tomorrow – Yellowstone Park. Should be fascinating.

August 19, Sheridan to Ennis, Mt, 37 miles

We got a very nice breakfast in Sheridan before getting a good early start. We’re planning to ride from Sheridan to Cameron on Rt 287, splitting up out total remaining distance to West Yellowstone nicely and putting us in position to get to Yellowstone right on schedule. We have a motel and rental car lined up in West Yellowstone for end of day Thursday so Leah can see a little of Yellowstone on Friday before her return to Albany.
We saw a fully loaded solo rider zip by our motel just as we were loading up but he didn’t stop or even notice us.
A very pleasant morning, great weather and the ride to Laurin and then to Alder is relatively flat and easy going. Very shortly into the ride, I snap the cable to my front derailleur and we stop so I can replace it. We’re at a historic marker that explains the history of bandits, robbers who regularly struck stage coaches in this area and the subsequent rise of vigilante groups. Cool history. Around Alder we also see markers explain big time prior mining and the extent that it tore up the countryside. Soon we come across current small time mining doing the same and making all sorts of noise and dust, etc. Pretty messy and wild. About this time we are passed by a solo rider, who just waves going by until I notice he is riding a Rivendell (our bikes) and I call out to him. He turns out to be a young guy in his 20s from northern CA, near the Rivendell shop and quite talkative. He says maybe he saw us earlier and is the rider who went by our motel room. Says he had been “stealth camping down the road” (hates to pay to sleep) but had missed a sprinkler system when he set up so had gotten an early wake up call. Exchanged some horror stories about traffic and drivers then restarted. We offered that he was welcome to ride with us if was willing to go slow, he said thanks but I have to get to Yellowstone tonight, (our destination for tomorrow) says he’s doing pretty big daily rides, did 107 miles the day before and needed to keep booking. Then he disappeared into the distance.
We reached Nevada City and took a short break. This is an old time western town, assembled from historic buildings from all over MT, diverted and reassembled here, used for film set purposes and as a working village with hotel, saloon, bakery etc. Pretty cool. While hanging out here I happened to talk to one of the workers and when she heard we were targeting Cameron for the night, she said, geez, I don’t think there’s anything there anymore. Oh, oh. Need to check into that later today.
Leaving Nevada City we then went thru Virginia City which is a similar deal and then attacked another big climb. This is a pass that reaches 6400 ft but doesn’t even have a name. The indignity. We worked pretty hard getting up this one and at the top christened it “Cookie Pass”, celebrating with cookies. The descent from here extends about 6 miles and is very fast and even scary and takes us into Ennis. Ennis is a good sized tourist town with lots of fly fishing guides, shops, etc. We got a nice little lunch and I tried to find out more about Cameron, about 12 miles further and our planned destination. According to ouir waitress there is nothing there anymore and nothing for about 40 miles. I double check across the street at the Chamber of Commerce. Oh, yeah, there used to be a store, a campgrounds, a café and a convenience store. He gave us, everything is closed. That will not work for us, in terms of time of day, etc and so we decide to stay in Ennis but that means we’ll have a +70 mile day into West Yellowstone tomorrow.
We find a pretty nice little RV campgrounds with great facilities and a restaurant right next door so we’re good for today.
Two notes – during the night I am outside the tent for a while (nature calls) and the sky is absolutely stunning. We’re a long ways from any city of any size so there is no light pollution and it is so clear it’s like going to a planetarium. The milky way is awesome.
In the morning, Judith reports that we must have set up out tent over a gopher or mole because she has had something poking up at her through the bottom of the tent during the night! Too funny.

August 18, Wisdom to Dillon, Dillon to Sheridan, MT 38 miles

Oh my god! It’s 27 degrees when we wake up. We’ve been up most of the night listening to coyotes howl and the sheep in the field next to us being nervous. No way to get started. We head back to the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant and hook up again with the woman who owns and runs the place. As we order breakfast and talk with her about the problem of getting started she ends up hooking us up with a local from Dillon who has just come over to Wisdom to deliver some salt to a rancher and is headed back to Dillon in his pickup. After a little talk he’s glad to haul us to Dillon and we’re glad to take him up on it. We break camp quickly, load up his pickup while he has breakfast and then skip ahead 65 miles and 30 degrees of temp with him. Another blessing. (Also while getting breakfast I talk with a young guy riding west on the transam route, he has been averaging 90 miles a day!)
After he drops us off in Dillon and we regroup with snacks we decide to head off to Twin Bridges on Rt 41 and have a ripping good ride for about 25 miles. We had a nice little lunch in Twin Bridges’ lost most of the truck traffic which is going or coming to/from ID and then grind out the final miles to get to Sheridan, MT where we find a cheap but very nice motel room at the Moriah Motel. A decent dinner and we’re good for the night. Tomorrow we have to do one more climb to get to Yellowstone. In Sheridan we’re at about 5100 ft and have to get over a 6900 ft pass just beyond Virginia City and will then descend into Ennis. We have two days to get to West Yellowstone and have a shot if we can make the climb and then put in a long softly uphill day. We’ve had a chance to do laundry, dry out the tents, etc and will get an early start in the morning.
This is an awesome experience.