Day 6 - Where the Wild Things Are.

Well, I spent more time than usual this morning getting out of my room than usual. I'm behind on my blogs and with my sad memory, if I don't get it done, I won't remember any of it, so I took the time to catch up a bit. At the end of the day, the morning seems so long ago it's difficult to remember any of the last 12 hours. I finished my entry for yesterday before packing out so I wouldn't forget it all. :)

I wasn't packed up and ready to go until 9am. Feeling a bit anxious to be on my way, when I asked the clerk where the Ranch was, 'just down the road' was a wonderful thing.

If I'd pulled in to the hotel while it was still light out, I would have seen the sign for the ranch spitting distance from my room. Ok, a distance spitter, but still, it was the next thing down the road. My bike wasn't even warmed up when I pulled into the parking lot.



A ranger lady pulled up behind me while I was taking a picture of the bike in front of the sign and offered to take it for me. So, wow, it's really me on that bike! And the park didn't even open until 9 am, so turns out I'm not behind at all, but right on time. :) Now off to Yellowstone!


My gps announce a turn just as the highway sign declared the exit, but at the end of the ramp they disagreed. I decided that I'd take the gps route rather than the government dictated route to go the road less traveled. As someone says to me at the hotel later: 'you really can't take a bad road.'


Ennis was one of the fun towns on the way to Yellowstone. They will be having a flyfishing event in September and I thought of riding buddy, Denise/Lefty, who is meant to be living in Montana, flyfishing in her spare time, but couldn't make the trip with me. It was a cool day today: 1130am and only 68 degrees!



Earthquake Lake was stunning! The pictures don't do any of what I've seen justice...which is such a shame.


Yellowstone, itself, wasn't far from Deer Lodge, but, wow, once you get there, you better be prepared to spend some time. There are, maybe, 9 'neighborhoods' all about 20 miles apart from each other.


I pulled over to make a phone call to the park to ask about the visitor center locations, but service was sketchy. I changed into my mesh jacket and had some water. I nearly choked to death on the first sip, but eventually recovered and took some photos. While I was heaving on the shoulder I thought how ironic to cross the country on my bike without (almost) incident and die by bottled water. A beautiful final resting place, though, no?




Turns out the first area I went to, *twice*, DID have a stamp, but I never saw the building and moved on to Old Faithful's visitor center. A very helpful employee told me where all the stamps in the park where. I watched a movie on the geysers and planned my route around the park. Riding out of the park later, thinking that I hadn't really enjoyed Yellowstone as much as the other parks, I realized that it was because it was more like the Epcot center with it's 'worlds' and the numbers of people. I can't imagine what Mt. Rushmore will be like on a Saturday. :/ I may have to kill someone.*


It took the second set of haphazardly shoulder-parked cars for me to realize that that would be my sign that a large mammal was near enough for photos. Here's the buffalo I saw right after I got in the park.


And here's the guy who's gonna get mauled by him.


I hit 4 of the different areas to get stamps for the Master Tourer Challenge, but only long enough to stamp my book, look at some things that didn't catch the attention of the massive crowds and move on. Ironically, biker buddy, Charles, happened to call while I was taking this Old Faithful picture asking how the trip was.


I was finally heading out the East entrance to start making my way to Mt. Rushmore. I'd spent waaay longer than expected in Yellowstone and needed to get going.


On the way out, a mass pullover indicated another wildlife spotting. This group of buffalo (or bison, dunno yet, I haven't had time to look it up, but you know what I mean - that enormous mammal with the horns...) was completely unconcerned with us, though 2 of them were steadily moving toward where I was standing and I took that as further incentive to get back on the road.


I was moving quickly through the park, enjoying the scenery, to be sure, but ready to get out of Yellowstone. I'd spent about 4 hours there and really wanted to make some headway to South Dakota before it got dark.


A line of stopped cars in the road made me think 'construction', since that seems to be a theme for me, but when I slowed I saw the bis-alo they were stopping for.


He was the only one around.


But making his presence known.



Amazing!! I stopped one more time for Buf-on before twisting my way out of the park on the East Entrance road toward Cody.


Just after leaving the park and immediately before this sign was one that said 'This is grizzly country. Special rules apply.' Well, thanks so much, all, for letting me know that there were special rules and then not sharing them with me. Appreciate that. :/


Buffalo Bill State Park was on the way to Cody and was just stunning.


I had a craving for Wendy's fries and needed some protein, so a 'number 6, plain, diet soda - no ice' was in order and 65 miles from Yellowstone. I have, on occasion, gone a bit hyper all alone in the helmet, there. The concept of Wendy's fries temporarily took over all my attention and bizarre voices expressed my absolute freakish desire for Wendy's fries. My throat hurt by the time I burned that energy. I was temporarily distracted by a chinese buffet sign, but they were out of business and I hit Wendy's in Cody, Wyoming.


When I stopped I planned out my goal stop and headed out. There were TONS of bikes in Cody and I asked another rider in Wendy's if anything was going on, but apparently it was just a nice day in Wyoming.

I ended the day earlier than I'd hoped, but dusk took with it all the contrast in the landscape and having already seen one mule deer on the shoulder 5 feet from me, I didn't want to push my luck.

I stopped and performed the nightly where-is-the-cheapest-place-to-sleep ritual. After calling 7 or 8 places I chose the PK Bar Hotel. I'd almost not called them because my first thought was bar, like pub - bar, which wasn't what I wanted , but it turns out that it's a Western how-you-describe-the-tattoo-you-burn-on-your-cattle PK Bar. A horrible gravel parking lot and an offer of a wooden board from a guy sitting in the dark turned into a great hour or so conversation. I broke all the rules, Ma - talked to a stranger, after dark, of the male persuasion, sexual inuendo everywhere and I even took food from him. I even went to his *room* AND I gave him my number. UGH! Have I learned nothing? :) Brian is part owner of the hotel and makes spice rubs. He just set up his website: bigjerkbbq.com and that would make him a big jerk, but in a good way.


So, now, still fighting with the internet to get the blog done, it's after 1am and I need to be up at 7 to meet some bikers Brian's going to introduce me to. He's also certain that a detour to Devil's Tower on the way to Mt. Rushmore will only add 7 miles to my trip. So, some directions are also in order over iced tea in the morning.

Kinda hard to beat a day like that.


...but I'm gonna try. :)


*For legal purposes, I want to make it clear that when I say 'kill someone' I am using it as a literary device, hyperbole, it is simply an expression. I have no intentions of killing anyone, not even the folks who won't pull out into the intersection when making a left.

Day 5 - Idaho and Montana and...Construction.

I returned to Whitman Mission first thing in the morning. I'd seen the grounds a bit the night before and enjoyed a stunning sunset and the moon and stars in the night sky, but this morning was clear and bright and I got to watch their short film. Very interesting, as usual.

Then I was off to Idaho! But, the construction theme continues. We sat long enough that the trucker got out to do some stuff to his truck.

I fell in with 2 bikers for about half an hour. Kinda nice to have company. Never been behind 2 male bikers who so diligently did the speed limit. :)

It was hot early.

Rt. 12 for hours and hours today. It even goes through some towns. The Lewis and Clark trail was lovely, though, so it was a good ride.

The terrain changes so often and so quickly, sometimes without apparent reason. It's been interesting to watch the transitions, sometimes gradual and sometimes incredibly abrupt.

Some of this has been hard on the bike, but Lewis and Clark did it in worse conditions than this, right? I'm awed by the number of bicyclists who are riding some of these same areas. I don't know how far they're going or what kind of support they might have, but my hat's off to 'em!

Stopped at Nez Perce visitor center and watched, again, an interesting film. I like when from park to park the information overlaps and connects. It makes a big picture rather than a bunch of isolated experiences. I spoke with Ranger Kevin for a while about bikes and Nez Perce. I also soaked my stuff before getting on the road. It's haaaaahht!

They had a nice display room with some amazing work.

I got back on the road after some more chatting with Ranger Kevin at the bike. Even though I'd just soaked down, it was unbelievably hot.

I watched the water on my right, which was just gorgeous, and started to think about pulling over, but only if I could get to the it. If I can't get to the water, then I might as well watch it from here and make time. Did I mention it was HOT?


SCORE! I got to have my banana and drink some water here. I soaked down again and tried to get dressed, without trapping any of the gazzillion bees that were around, under any of my layers. It was nice, but almost too hot to enjoy it. I wish I could have gotten in, but I had to get back on the road.

Spent a lot of time crossing a mountain. Again, construction stopped us at 5 or 6 different places which really dragged the time out. Hours and hours in the mountain, which, for a while, was a help with the heat, but then the sun started going down and I was freeeezing! I know, I'm just never happy. I finally had to stop to take the vest off and put my heavy jacket on. I'd meant to put my helmet cam on, too, but forgot.

So, riding through the woods and with the sun going down I moved animals up on the priority list to watch for, but I also needed to keep my speed up to get out of there before it got darker and colder. Neither of those things were going to be good for me. The speed limit was 55 -70 with twisties marked where some engineer decided it was needed. It was pushing my limits.


In the picture below you can see the line of cars waiting at another stop.


And, after the slinky game of construction where all of 7 cars, bikes and trucks/vans would meet and wait and then run off to meet up at the next stop sign, after the last one, I'd never seen cars move so fast! There were no slackers in the group and we'd all had it with the stop and go, I guess. It wasn't 3 minutes before I couldn't see a sign of anyone again. It was all me, all alone, all the time, again.



So, here's the moose that I saw. Happily, he was far enough in front of me when I saw him that it wasn't a danger issue, but he trotted off into the woods quickly. Don't be fooled by his size compared to the trees. The trees are enormous. He easily took up half the road. He appeared young, but was big and lanky. :) The land became Montana not too long after this, so said a sign while I was coming down the mountain.

Then, suddenly, the road flattens out for a mile or 5, and then you're out of the mountain. It was rather abrupt! On my way out on this flat road I felt a now familiar *chug*. Oh, yes, again. For the first time in hours I looked at my odo: 199. 199! I hadn't gotten more than 165 for the last week. Does that mean I already used the spare gas? Find place on shoulder to pull over. Am I out of gas or is the can still full? Grab clutch, hit break. No, I filled it and haven't pulled over yet, I still have gas. Put kickstand down, get off bike. How long have I been stuck in there? Grab can off bike, notice weight of can, smile. Daggone, that was a long ride with no warning. Empty can into tank, repack, jump on and go. 3 miles later pull into gas station. Refill everything.

Another 2 or so would get me to Deer Lodge Montana near the next Park. Idaho was beautiful! I'd never been before, but would go back. Montana is stunning as well. I rode the last leg with the sun setting in my mirrors and the moon over my right shoulder. There were some wild temperature swings for that last 100 miles!

Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site and Yellowstone tomorrow. My stamp book is filling out! I lost an hour today crossing another time zone line. Things are getting tighter and there's rain again in the forecast. I have yet to find a rain suit, though I did stop at 2 stores today while I was passing thru a town. I still have my less-than-satisfactory jacket and pants, but would really like to be drier than that when the rain starts again. At least the forecast for tomorrow only has 'green' rain in the area. I'd like to avoid the yellows, reds and purples, as I've seen quite enough of them this trip, thank you very much. :)