Biking Uphill, Both Ways!

Thursday, July 3rd. It had rained during the night. We could hear the thunder a bit off in the distance but I slept well. We awoke to dozens of mosquitoes trying to make it through the mesh of my tank but thankfully we were safe inside. We got up and ate breakfast and broke camp. I likely have about 60 dead mosquitoes in my tent fly but what can you do?

It was a beautiful day and it was early enough to be cool (although I didn't expect much heat at these altitudes). I was on the side of the road stretching when Josh realized he had misplaced his biking gloves. We went back and checked camp two or three times but simply couldn't find them. Josh was pretty pissed. Not that they were the best pair of gloves ever but I wouldn't be very comfortable biking without them. Josh was more pissed about the financial loss. Funny how the two of us see things differently. On top of that Josh's head was really starting to hurt. He thought his bald scalp was starting to get a bit burnt causing a headache and we didn't have anything to remedy it. Poor Josh is having a tough morning! On a separate note- check out my awesome tan lines!

We continued uphill. I was impressed how non-stop this mountain was. Most hills have some breaks, ya know some briefs flats or downhills in them. Not the Big Horns. Literally one long uphill. We made it another 5ish miles before the grade decreased which was absolutely wonderful! As we approached the peak you could see large piles of snow. Pretty damn cool seeing snow in July.

Only a few hours after beginning our day we reached the summit with what I'll call "pessimistic joy." I was obviously thrilled to be at the top but pretty pissed I had to go up the thing in the first place.

There were a fair number of people at the top. They had a little information station informing you the elevation was 9,666 feet. We had started at 4200 feet down at Ten Sleep. So we had gone approximately 5400 feet in about a day. Let me put that in layman's terms for you. Go out side for a moment. See that cloud up there? That cloud is probably 10,000 feet in elevation. Now go get on a bike and pedal your ass up there. Look like fun to you?





That's the equivalent of 4.3 Empire state buildings!

... or 16,000 apples.

So finally 16000 apples later we were there. We stayed a bit, ate, drank, took in the sights. There was a large pile of rocks at the summit as well, and I was kind of in the mood to go climb on them. No real reason. I just felt like monkeying around. Josh was a bit worried about time but when I put it in the perspective of "when will you ever be here again. Lets go check out the view" he was okay with it.


We started walking up towards the pile. From the road it didn't seem too far away or too high but the closer you got the more you realized this was not a quick 15 minute hike. We soldiered on though. I was still wearing my biking cleats which were rather slick. So I too my good time. These rocks were sharp and one wrong move and we could really hurt ourselves. Not to mention there were icky spiders all over the place. This photo should give you a little perspective on the height of this rock pile.

After what must had been an hour we reached the summit. I presumed it must had been another 300ish feet up this rock wall which would put us at near 10,000 feet. Short of taking our plane flight this would be by far the highest point of our bike trip.

The view from the top!

In fact, sitting there that moment, looking over the huge horizon I couldn't help but feel so accomplished. We had come so far, overcome so much! I mean we had cross the Rockies and biked hundred and hundreds of miles. Perched up there Josh and I felt like kings. We celebrated by eating pistachios and spitting their shells all over the mountain we had conquered.

Before we left I gave Josh the camera and he took a whole bunch of photos. Notice anything wrong with this one?



Our conquest was brief though and we climbed from our lofty throne. We had both been a bit worried leaving our bikes on the side of the road when we first went to climb the rock pile. We jokingly hoped our bikes were gone so we could give up with dignity and go home. Lucky us though, no one stole the bikes laden with dozens of pounds in gear. Shucks. In typical fashion I gave the mountain the finger and we began biking down the Eastern slope.

Screw you Big Horns. I won.

It was easy riding. We flew down the hill hitting upwards of 40mph without even pedaling. We were going so fast I even stopped to put on some extra clothes/my helmet just in case I fell (again). Josh and I were quite pleased to finally have some downhills. I mean, I had just faced 26 miles of continuous uphill. I DESERVE easy riding. On another good note we soon hit our 1200th mile!

Milestone 12 of 35ish!

We were joking and having fun, it was quite pleasant really. The two of us had a unhealthy obsession with trying to hit 50mph's on a bike. Here's my first attempt..

Shortly after my first try at 50mph we came across a hill. A little annoying but sometimes there are slight uphills on the downhill side. We pedaled up the inconvenience and continued our quest for 50!

We were about to start going downhill again when a truck drove past us and beeped suddenly as it crossed Josh. Josh was noticeably startled (although things like this happen all the time). When I caught up to him Josh went on about how the guy was a prick and bitched about what the guys problem was. Honestly it takes a lot to piss Josh off and I was a bit shocked to see him like this. It really got to him.

About another mile up the road we came to yet another hill. Hmm, well that's annoying. Josh was still pissed and he powered up the hill in a fury. I took my time- I already biked up a mountain yesterday. Today's supposed to be my easy day. I earned it.

Josh takes advantage of the slope and goes FLYING down the next hill! He actually managed to hit 49.9 mph and because of that we deduced the speedometer probably maxes out there. Good work Josh ol' boy. We continued another mile. Another hill. This was starting to get to me. I mean the majority of the distance we were traveling was downhill but it's taking me 5 times longer to go up this mini mountains. I was starting to get pissed.

Josh was starting to get a bit reckless, he was clearly still upset from that truck driver and his horn and started drafting cars and trucks on the downhill in a quest for speed. Definitely dangerous but I was getting so pissed about biking UPHILL the downhill face of the mountain I didn't give a shit.

After about 3 or 4 more hills I'd had enough. I got off my bike, picked it up and THREW it on the side of the road. When it landed a reflector broke off my back wheel and Josh picked it up, handing it to me. I took it and launched it as hard as I could into the woods. Josh burst into laughter over my childish behavior.

"Fuck this Josh! I'm not spending all day biking up both sides of this mountain! This is so fucking gay! We didn't get a break on the opposite side! It's just not fair!"

I sat down with my laptop and looked up the topography of the mountain vowing to walk up any more uphills I faced. Josh was laughing, knowing I was just super pissed. Somehow knowing I was even more upset than him put him in a good mood. He threatened to tell everyone I didn't actually "bike" the whole way if I walked up any hills. I got super pissed and didn't talk to Josh again for about 45 minutes.

At about that time we came across a sign saying "cautious 7-8% grade hills for next 5 miles" meaning there were no more uphills. I thanked God Almighty and flew down the hill. I literally spent 2/3rd of the day biking back up the mountain today. I'd had enough of it.

Once we left the mountains we reached the town of Buffalo. No fucking around tonight. It was already evening and I was hungry and grumpy. We went to a pizza shop and each ordered a large cheese pizza. That's right. Each of us dammit. I literally ate the whole damn thing. It was more to prove I could because after about 5 of 8 slices I wasn't that hungry. Josh had a slice or two left over and opted to bring it with him. What a pussy. Some day I'll teach that boy how to eat.

We went and found a suitable campsite for the night. We did some laundry, wrote in our journals and blogs and enjoyed some relaxation. We decided to go for a little walk through town before the night ended. We ended up just buying 5 kit kats each. Josh's head was still hurting a bit and when he went to inspect it he noticed his right temple was severely swollen. Inspect this photo again and see if you can notice (hard not to now that I mentioned it). We didn't exactly know what was up, but we decided if it didn't get better soon we'd have to do something about it...

Little swollen Joshyboy?

When we were going to bed I informed Josh I planned on sleeping in tomorrow because today sucked so much. Josh pointed out though that tomorrow was the 4th of July and he didn't want to be on the road late at night due to the likelihood of drunk drivers. It's times like now that I'm glad he's here. I would had never thought of that. Thanks Josh, take care of your melon-head, will you?


Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 49.7
Total mileage- 1236.5

One Mile Marathon

Wednesday, July 2nd. We definitely slept in today. Yesterday was a long day though, so I say we earned it. When we awoke the Schwede's children were outside our camper playing. They asked a million questions and it was funny how interested they were in us. It was refreshing in a way. We could see the Rocky Mountains in the distance and knew we had a hellish day in store. It was best to get started. We said goodbye to Mrs. Schwede and got on our way.

I tried not to think about how horrible today was going to be. You all know how much I hate hills, let alone mountains. I had looked at all the routes and considered all my options. There was no way around it I was going over the Rocky Mountains. today The only consolation I had was the rumor the Rockies weren't steep, just high. God I was hoping that's true!

First things first though, we had to get to the mountains and they were 30 miles away. The ride was really pretty. There were all these red hills off in the distance. The photos (like most) do them little justice. It was fairly flat and a real nice day and we were making great time.

Oh, and Josh upgraded his head piece. He's now rocking the "Arabian Prince" look.

We arrived at the foot of the mountain to find a cute town called Ten Sleep. I had been seeing the name on my maps for days and it piqued my interest. We were both real curious where the name came from but there were more pressing matters. Were starving and it was time for lunch. The mountain slope was right here and I need to fuel up! We had a yummy meal and stopped at a convenience store to get some supplies.

We started chatting with the locals and they asked what we were doing. We told them we were biking over the Big Horns to which they replied.. "Really? I have a hard time driving over them! I can't even imagine biking it!" Cause that's what you want to hear. before doing this. We asked how far it is from the base of the mountain to the top. Turns out its TWENTY SIX straight uphill miles to the top, totaling a MILE increase in elevation. A mile high marathon indeed. Simply sounds horrendous. Seeing as there was no camp until the other side of the mountain we loaded up on food and water. As we biked out of Ten Sleep we came across a sign that satisfied my curiosity. I think we should describe everything in "sleeps!"

The hills really weren't so bad at first. A "pleasant" slope. Perhaps the rumors about the Rockies being gradual was true? For about 8 miles we continued up the slopes without too much trouble. I mean, I was still going slow and Josh was clearly making easier work of this than myself but I wasn't stopping. At mile 9 it all changed. The slopes began increasing, becoming more and more brutal. It was pretty though, have a look-see.

We kept moving, although very slow. We were averaging 3-4 mph. When moving that slow you just can't help but feel a bit disheartened. I mean you've been biking for HOURS and you're barely moving. You can't help thinking with each pedal...

"What if I hadn't brought these items? How much lighter would my gear be?"

"Okay, I've gone X miles. I'm going approximately 3.5mph. That means I just have Y more hours to the top."

And let me tell you, when Y is 5+ hours you just can't help but think shit this sucks. The grade of the mountain had to be as steep as Steven's Pass if not steeper. My body was obviously in better shape to handle the mountains but still- I was struggling. At the beginning of the mountain I'd go 3/4 miles or more without a break, but toward the end of the day I was dying. I'd go a quarter mile or so if I was lucky without needing a breather. I'm just not cut out for these hills!

The day was growing late and I was getting tired. In an interesting turn of events Josh was very adamant on stopping before myself. It was about 8:30 and we were about 8 miles from the summit. We approximated our elevation to be about 8000 feet and it was starting to get fairly cool. Being a fan of cold weather I thought we should trek on and just make it to the summit while it was colder out. I figured Josh owed me after dragging me out of Yellowstone at midnight. But he was pretty serious- he really was worried he'd be too cold during the night at the summit and I really didn't want to bike any further.

We found a nice clearing about 50 feet off the road and made camp. I gotta say Josh was pretty nice about things today. Not that it's easy for him to handle these hills but if I wasn't there slowing him down he definitely would had made it to the summit if not further. He was a real sport though, he complimented me on my ability to "keep up" with him today, which I appreciated. We just laid there in the tent for hours and talked. We discussed everything from God to how our bikes were handling. We discussed how we shifted and what we found most efficient and how we powered through the tough parts. We sounded like old cycling masters at this point in the trip. It was a really nice talk I must admit. About 11 o'clock we decided it was time to sleep.

As I laid there I couldn't help but think of those girls from the night before. There was no sight of the family at all today. Had the 9 year old girl made it over the Rocky Mountains in one day where I could not? Man, I'm such a pussy.


Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 51.76
Total mileage- 1186.8

Iowa Sucks

Tuesday, July 1st. We awoke promptly at 8am. We showered, shaved, and got ready to hit the road. We again went to Bubba's, this time only gorging ourselves on the well-priced blueberry pancakes. We had a long day of riding ahead and knew there would be few if any stop from here to the next closest town. Josh thought it might be a good idea to load up, so we stopped and purchased a gallon jug of yellow Gatorade. Would it be piss warm by the time we drank it? Yes. Would we stay hydrated in the Summer heat? Well, I hope so.

We left Cody heading East on the main highway. We knew that about 100 miles ahead we were going to face some of the Rocky Mountains at what were called the "Big Horn Mountain Range." I obviously was not looking forward to this and was considering my options. There was a Northern path (along highway 14) and a southern pass (along highway 16). I decided to ponder the decision while on the road since no matter what we had to head East to Greybull. The road was pretty easy. A couple rolling hills but for the most part it was flat, dry, and rather pretty. Josh had decided to purchase a bandanna to cover his bald head. It was a good idea I thought, I didn't think sunscreen alone was going to be enough to protect his ghastly scalp. Sadly though, Josh was still learning how to tie a bandanna.

Seriously, he's not joining the KKK..

The ride was going nicely. I felt a lot better knowing the 55 mile trek wouldn't be much of an issue with our extra gallon of fluids. After stopping for a break I took a look at the maps and noticed there were some small towns slightly south off the main highway. If we were going to take the southern Teir of the Bighorns it'd actually save us time to shortcut down highway 30. So, that became the plan! Not too long after (about 30 miles outside of Cody) we were biking down a nice slope when we saw a man by himself pushing a bicycle up the hill. We of course stopped to see if he needed some mechanical assistance and to see what was up.

When we met him we discovered he too was a transcontinental cyclist! He was a Japanese student who was studying in the US and had decided to see America. This kid (his name was Toshi I believe) was insane. He had started in New York and was headed to the West Coast. He literally went to a Walmart, bought a 200 dollar mountain bike and hit the road. No special seats. No bike shorts. No special packs. Just an old rugged backpack and a tent. I felt like a total pussy after meeting this kid. We shared stories and he had this piece of advice for us....

If you're having a hard time understanding, he's saying "Iowa.. Iowa sucks. Sorry Iowa."

We had a lot of laughs and he told us all about his adventures. Getting caught by the police camping in parks in Chicago, biking through the shitty corn fields of Iowa, he really was an awesome guy. It turned out he was running low on water and was walking up the hills to conserve fluids. We promptly took our gallon of Gatorade (we hadn't drank much) and gave it to him. No way we were letting an awesome dude like this go another inch without all the Gatorade he could drink! Either way, now that I had changed routes it wouldn't be much further before we were at a town to fill up, and we had more than enough. Seriously though, this guy rocked.

We took our detour down route 30 and we came across another cute town called Burlington. Made me think of my buddy Matt who went to school in Burlington VT! This one's for you buddy. On the way out of town we hit our 1100th mile!

Milestone 11 of 35ish

We filled up our bottles and kept moving. We were making great time and for the first time in a long time I had taken the lead over Josh. I'm not positive if he just let me or I was actually in the zone but either way we were flying!

We got to Basin (the junction of route 30 and route 16) and grabbed a few burgers. They were just too cheap not to pass up. Nothing too heavy though, we still wanted to make it further today. Ultimately our hope was to get to the foot of the Bighorn mountains today. That'd leave us fresh and ready to take on the uphills the day after!

We made our way South getting to Manderson, a nice little community. We stopped at a local diner where people were curious what the hell we were doing. We ate and told everyone about our trip. A local family (the Schwedes- pronounced Sweetys) said they lived a couple miles down the road, and if we made it to their house by night we could stop and fill up our water bottles. We were quite appreciative and said we'd certainly try to make it there by nightfall. It was getting late however.

We were full. Uncomfortably full. But thought it'd be best to do a few more miles since we were still 40 miles from the base of the mountains. We had decided if we got the Schwedes and they offered us a place to stay we'd definitely take it. It was late, the wind was blowing hard against us, it had been a long day and I was tired.

It was about 20 miles further to the Schwedes house. We were about 10 miles down the road when we started to notice some figures on the side of the road. When we got closer we discovered four figures with bicycles! How odd to two run into two sets of cyclist in a day. We had been hearing about these people for a couple days actually. They were a family of four who had started on the West coast (California I believe?) and were working East. Apparently we had finally caught up to them. The troop consisted of a mother/father (early 50's I'd guess) and their two daughters ages NINE AND ELEVEN! How crazy is that? These kids were spending their Summer vacation biking cross country with their parents. I personally would had never stood for it at that age. I didn't even like biking to the next town (5 miles each way) when I was a kid. I'll give those kids some props. While talking we started to notice lightning off in the distance and figured it'd be best to get moving and find some shelter.

About a half hour later we rode up on the Schwede's residence. When we got they filled our bottles and offered us a few brews. The father told us he had a travel camper and we were welcome to stay in it. Of course we gratefully accepted! It was a really nice and large interior. We tarped our tents (preparing for the impending storm) and slept like rocks. Good day!

Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 78.13
Total mileage- 1135.04

Fifteen Hundred Guns

Monday June 30th. We awoke in the campgrounds and got an early move on. We of course were not going to pass up a shower, but right after we got a move on. We had been eying this diner across the road called "Bubba's." We figured it just sounded like a delicious establishment. We went across and order a boatload of food. It came to like 9 dollars each.

Try and keep up Mr. Phelps.

After eating what could only be described as a "retarded gluttonous" amount of food we went over to Walmart. We had decided to make CD's of our photos and mail them back to our families. They were going to take a while, so we decided to go to the local museum the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Now I'm not really a big museum man. But I gotta say I had fun! They had a sections about the Plain's Indians, the local wildlife and even Buffalo Bill himself. It was interesting. There was also a section about firearms. Literally hundreds and hundreds of them. Josh thought his father would be interested in them. God I hope he is because Josh took photos of literally 1500 guns to show the man. If you like guns let me know, I'll mail ya a CD. You'll cream your pants.

We got the CD's and mailed them out. We had spent a lot of time already today and it was a solid 55 miles to the next town (there was really nothing in between so we had to plan on the full side). We were making our way out of town when we came across a Subway. I think it's fairly obvious at this point we can't resist the allure of a Subway.

While chowing down we noticed it was getting really dark out. Clouds rolled in and the temperature was dropping rapidly. We figured a storm was about to come through.

I'd say that was an accurate assessment.

After the downpour we weren't sure what to do. It had been 97 degrees prior to the storm and it had cooled off significantly which was nice. But the wind was in the wrong direction and it was getting late in the evening. We decided to hold off for the day and catch up on our blogs and journals. We sat at McDonald's a few hours and leeched their wifi.

We went back to the same campsite. The owners were surprised to see us again., they expected us to be well down the road by now. What can I say, sometimes you have to be a tourist. We purchased another nights stay. There was a rodeo going on that evening and I was pretty interested in going. I mean a real wild west rodeo? That'd be cool, right?! But Josh convinced me it'd be a good idea to sleep early. After all, we were definitely going to have to get a move on tomorrow!


Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 11.13 (Day "off", 5th day of rest)
Total mileage- 1056.91

Premature Baldness

Sunday, June 29th. We awoke in the woods sans bear attacks. I was pleased. We had slept a good amount, but not as much as I'd of pleased. At least Josh didn't wake me up at 8. We broke camp and realized we really weren't that far off the main road. We were both a bit surprised no one had noticed us or bothered us considering there was a sign that clearly forbid our presence.

Biking was decent this morning. Nothing too noteworthy but the scenery. This was our first day in Wyoming. Okay Yellowstone was technically in Wyoming also but Yellowstone doesn't count! Why? Cause I say so.

Seriously though, the scenery was quite different here. Everything was very much what you'd expect from Wyoming. Large rock bluffs and cliffs. Montana looked nothing like this. Neither did Yellowstone. It was literally like you crossed a line again and bam! Everything was different. I mean it doesn't get much more "Wyoming" than this, does it?

A dude ranch!

We were following a river, snaking around bends and small mountains. At times the wind would pick up and blast us in the face. A bit annoying but for the most part the wind wasn't much of an issue. Once we escaped the mountains it got pretty flat. Pretty flat and desolate. Realistically it started turning into somewhat desert-like conditions. I mean there was still vegetation (probably because we were next to the river) but it wasn't like previously in the mountains.

We continued along. Toward afternoon we came across a lake the river was feeding. A bit further down the road we noticed a huge concrete structure. Upon further inspection we realized it was a dam! Hey pretty cool. I had never really seen a damn before up close. We parked the biked and checked it out. Turns out it's the "Buffalo Bill Dam." You'd be amazed how much water can blast out of this thing! Take a look...

I just can't believe this thing doesn't run out of water.

Right next to the dam on the main road was a huge tunnel blasted through the mountain. It was nice- once you entered the channel it literally dropped like 5-10 degrees. It was quite noticeable. It was a solid 1/4 mile if not 1/2 to make it through the hole. We both liked it. It was neat! We popped out the other side and went through a couple smaller tunnels that were not nearly as exciting.

So lets see... pedal pedal pedal. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until we came across a decent sized down in the middle of nowhere. I was pleased because of the name of the town. Cody! I immediately got excited and called my good buddy Cody Ture to inform tell him all about it.

Cody was a cute little town (which is not unlike Mr. Ture himself). We found a nice campsite and pitched our house for the night. The town was large enough to have a good sized Walmart (which was literally next door to the campgrounds) so we took a stroll over. We bought a giant like 15'' sub for 5 dollars. I'm pretty sure it was made of only highest quality Wyoming meats and cheeses. Josh also had the strong desire to shave his head. We had talked about this a few times now, but he was serious. He thought it'd help keep him cool and make biking in general easier. So he bought an electric trimmer.

We went back to the site and devoured/showered. We discussed if Josh REALLY wanted to go through with this. He was insistent. I grabbed the clippers and started buzzing...

Say goodbye to those pretty locks Joshyboy.

This was shockingly difficult. I figured I'd buzz his head and bam. End of story. Well, the damn clipper was so shitty it wouldn't even cut his hair! It literally took me a 1/2 hour to cut this much off...I soldiered on though. After about an hour we were getting somewhere.

Josh is a real trend setter. I see this look catching on real soon!

No joke but after about an hour of this we had dulled the blades so much they literally wouldn't cut hair. Josh was left with his half shaved head and looking super hot I gotta say. I was glad he was sleeping with me tonight if you know what I mean, hubba hubba. He was thinking of going back to Walmart, returning the shears and getting a new pair. I mentioned how it MIGHT be obviously they're used considering his head looks like it's been butchered. We got out Josh's Swiss army knife and I literally used the scissor piece to cut his hair off inch by inch. An hour later we were getting close. Enjoy the highly photogenic images of my compatriot.

It took a grand total of 2 hours. For some reason I decided not to take a picture of the final product. But I assure you, I shaved his head bald. I gotta say, he has one pasty white head. Hope you don't regret this Josh!


Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 43.91
Total mileage- 1045.78

Yellowstone Part III- Midnight Riders

Saturday, June 28th. We woke up early after Katie's late night difficulties. We still felt bad that someone who was helping us had so much trouble. Guess my bad luck is contagious, eh? Either way, our days of rest are over. Time to get our asses back on the bikes and pedaling down the road! The plan was to bike clear across Yellowstone park today. From side to side it's 87 miles, not to mention mileage to the park and to where ever we spend the night. We decided to get an early start to maximize our daylight.

8am. We biked to town. We were hoping to do our laundry the night prior but obviously that didn't happen. We got food, did laundry and picked up a few souvenirs. If you can believe it, all of that took until 1pm. We picked up the pace and got a move on.

We arrived at the entrance to Yellowstone! There were a few families there taking photos of loved ones. I thought it'd be a fun new hobby to take photos of unsuspecting tourist. I figured you'd seen enough of my fat ass.

Some random people.

My fat ass since I know you miss it.

So we entered Yellowstone... for the third time. Here's a cool little tid bit- at the entrance of the park there is a bald eagle's nest. Since they don't want people disturbing the rare bird you're not allowed to stop on the road in your car. The benefits of a bicycle my friends! I stopped and snapped a few photos.

It's a bird!

We also entered our fourth state shortly after crossing the Yellowstone border...

State 4 baby!

We had decided to head along the north side of the south loop. This provided us with the shortest route, although there's a lot of hills. As we made our way up the first significant hill we stopped to take some pictures of the waterfalls when we met a mother and her daughter. They were really nice and stopped and talk to us for a few minutes before we made our way.

Cycling was much easier today! We were heading up some serious hills and we were making great time. It wasn't exactly easy, but a few days rest made it much more bearable. I was even keeping up with Josh. The sky was clear and bright. It was a cool 70 degrees. It might had been the perfect day.

As I've mentioned before wildlife was everywhere. And sure it was cool seeing them, but you know what else was interesting? How effing stupid people can be around them. So I turn a bend in the road and see a Buffalo. Again, as I mentioned Buffalo = huge. This one was just about as close as I'd want it to be before I start getting nervous. It was happily grazing on the side of the road and I felt no need to worry or worry the animal by getting closer. Next thing I know I hear a truck coming behind us with a somewhat reckless family. The truck pulls up besides the Buffalo (I'd say about 12 feet away) and a teenage girl leans her entire upper torso out the hatchback window to take a close up shot of the beast. Bad idea if you ask me. THEN the driver puts the car in reverse, teasingly sending the girl even closer to the buffalo! The girl screams and scampers (because screaming is scampering is a good idea) the buffalo looks up like "wtf mate?" and goes back to grazing.

Stupid girl. Nice Buffalo.

We had made it 35 miles or so through the park and came to a gas station/convenience store. We took a break, bought pop tarts and other assorted food, filled water... you know the drill. I called Katie to try to get an update. Turns out we were correct after all! A pebble had gotten stuck between the brake pad and the rotor. A simple fix but c'mon how was I supposed to know what to do? I can barely figure out how to make my bike go forward. While we were stuffing our faces and catching our breath a familiar face popped in. The mother/daughter combo from earlier in the day had caught up with us! They were really impressed we had made it "so far so fast" and were keeping up with them in a car. I mean obviously they were stopping and seeing sights but it feels real good when people are impressed with what were doing. Especially the ladies if ya know what I mean wink wink wink. Time to go impress more high school sophmores, back on the bikes!

Further down the road we came across a large gathering of people. Usual Yellowstone rules, group of people = something to see. We figured it was probably another bear and weren't that interested but after inquiring it turned out to be two elk. Having never seen an Elk before we stopped. Now I have seen an Elk. And so have you.

We were approaching the east side of Yellowstone and the day was growing late. It became clear we weren't going to make it out of the park before the sunset. We were still 30 miles from the east entrance and the majority of those miles were uphill. After 55 miles for the day I was considering whether or not it'd be a wise idea to find a campsite. Throughout the park there are camping areas designated exclusively for biker/hikers/non-motorized tourist. I thought if there was one close enough we'd be set. During the peak of the season there's just no way any motorized campsites would be left. We found a park ranger and asked him if we had any reasonable options. He informed us all the campsites were filled and the closest cycling campsite was 25 miles in the wrong direction (back by the convenience store). That obviously wasn't going to happen and Josh was quite insistent we try to make it out of the park tonight. We didn't have time to argue over it, I figured we still had daylight and I was going to make the best of it.

The last few hours in Yellowstone were great. They also presented me with some of my favorite photos. Take a look.

Not long after we made it to Lake Yellowstone. This was the final stretch of the park. There's a long straight path that follows the lake before you head up into the mountains to reach the East entrance. The sun was getting low and I was a bit tired and hungry. We took a short little downhill which brought us through a swarm of gnats. Being half naked, sweaty, and hairy I was literally covered head to toe is tiny little black bugs. Super gross. The lake was gorgeous though.

There was a small store at the foot of the mountains. We bought protein bars, bread, and other treats to fuel. I was not a fan at all of continuing on. It was already sunset. We still had a minimum of 20 miles to go. Up hill. I hate hills. Let alone in the dark. Let alone in the bear infested woods. Overall it seemed like a horrible idea. Josh didn't seemed to care, he really wanted to make more ground and good time. He figured we were so well rested we should be able to push ourselves. I suppose he was right but damn was I pissed. I begrudgingly got on my bike and pedal up the damn hill.

We had barely begun our ascent when darkness fell. For the first time on the whole trip we donned our reflective vests feeling it might add some level of protect. Or just make us easier to spot for bears. There really wasn't much traffic which was good, but that only added to the creepiness of the whole ordeal. The further up we got in the mountain, the creepier it got. After the first hour of biking in the dark it was pitch black, but your eyes adjusted just enough so you could make out the trees and the road. In the distance you'd see a car coming and think "Fuck! We have to bike all the way up to THERE?! Shoot me now." It just looked so far away. I wasn't really tired, probably because most every noise startled me. I couldn't see shit man! I had little issue in repeatably "joking" about how bad of an idea this was.

Another 1/2 an hour up the mountain and it was 35 degrees and snow was still on the ground. We added layers to keep warm. This was beginning to remind me a bit too much of Steven's Pass although luckily not as steep. Or maybe I'm just that much better at this point. You'd hear a stick crack or some snow crunch.. some water trickling. You'd flash your light and see nothing. It was so quiet, which only helped to make every noise that much louder. Another 1/2 hour up the mountain we finally reach the top. Two hours of uphill blind biking. Remind me to thank you for all this later Joshyboy. We were both pretty ecstatic to be up here, we knew it was a easy downhill on the other side. We stopped and relaxed a few minutes, ate some food and celebrated. You couldn't help looking at the sky, it was so clear, so bright. It seemed closer, but maybe because I had just biked a few hours uphill.

So great! Were at the top. Time to go down. Issue though, we can't see a damn thing! One thing I'm sure of is that I don't want to go flying 30-40 miles down a hill and not be able to see a pothole in the road. I've already been thrown off my bike once, dammit. Not to mention the right side of the road is a cliff. I don't mean a 10 foot fall. I mean a 200 foot cliff. You fall off, you're gone. Josh and I both had flashlights we tried to hold and aim at the ground to see it as we went. My light wasn't strong enough and it just wasn't feasible holding Josh's. We tried sticking the thing in our mouths and holding it, but that was a bit too gay and our jaw got sore fast. What do intrepid bikers turn to whenever they have a problem? Duct tape. We duct taped that mofo right to my handlebar bag. A little bit of adhesive fine tuning and I had a bright light shining about 12 feet in front of me. Just enough to react to a bump or hole. We started downhill.

Riding went a bit too smoothly. Josh and I were giddy like little school girls who were recklessly disregarding their own safety. We laughing, flying downhill and not believing we made it this far! I was in the lead and Josh followed about 25 feet behind me, trusting my path was safe. Or that he could stop before hitting me if I fell. I would scream back to make sure Josh hadn't fallen himself about every 45 seconds. It's weird when you're biking you can't really hear anything behind you, but can easily hear things in front of you. I was holding the break- I didn't want to go too fast. 30 mph seemed fast enough for a midnight ride, don't you think? About half way down the hill I stopped. Guess what?!

Milestone 10 of 35ish baby! Grand Milestone #1.

Mile 1000. Beautiful, isn't it?

Another few miles down the road and we reached the east gate. There were some lamp posts and a picnic table there so we decided to take a break. We sat, ate sandwiches and chomped on candy. We discussed the trip, and how it was hard to believe we had made it 1000 miles. It was thrilling and at the same time depressing. We were barely 30% of the way there. But we lived up the momentary accomplishment.

The park closes each day at sunset. No traffic is supposed to come into the park because there are no rangers stationed at the entrances. In other words- if you come late at night you can sneak into Yellowstone for free. And I must say I'm amazed how many people do this! We sat at that picnic table for about a half hour and 5 or so cars must had come by. They'd drive up, see Josh and myself there and stop. They'd roll down there windows and look at us, usually nervously. These poor saps thought we were park employees! We'd wave them on and laugh. After a few cars we'd go out to the road and stop people, look at their license plates, then wave them in. In hindsight we should have just charged admission coulda made some money...

It was late though and we needed a place to camp. We had been told there were numerous campsites right off the road when you leave Yellowstone, so we figured not much longer till were resting. We left the park. It's silly how you feel safer when you leave. Not that is particularly dangerous in it, but you feel like it's a zoo of sorts- the animals don't leave the park. Obviously this isn't true. We were really no safer out of Yellowstone than inside. But you felt safer, and that was good.

We biked about 5 miles down the road, a bit surprised to have not seen any campsites yet. We came across a business (which was obviously closed) but it did still have one vehicle left in the parking lot. It was a truck of sorts it reminded me of an ice cream truck actually. There was a large window or door on the side. And oddly enough a man was outside the truck leaning in through this opening. We bike about 30 feet from him thinking we could ask if he knew of any campsites. Josh started with a "Hello Sir!" to see if we could get his attention. No response. His body just stayed in the window, moving around. We moved a bit closer and again Josh goes "Excuse me, Sir". Again. No answer. The man is doing something, what exactly we don't know. It sounds to me like he's shoveling dirt or ice with a small hand shovel. Josh and myself exchange concerned glances. I speak up, yelling rather loudly "Hey! Excuse me! Can you help us?!" Still doesn't move an inch. Thoroughly creeped out we decide we need to get the fuck out of here.

We continued biking, talking about the weird experience. We postulated a thousand different scenarios why the man wouldn't answer us. Maybe he was hard of hearing or deaf? Maybe he was on drugs? Or maybe he had just KILLED SOMEONE and was burying the evidence in an ice cream truck. I vote for option 3. We had biked another 5 miles. We had definitely missed some camp sites by now and were getting concerned. Another mile or two down the road and we came to one, finally. As we turned off the road we saw a sign "Hard sided campers only. No tents allowed." Well shit. There were woods right across the road and it was 1AM. I was not in the mood to keep looking. Josh thought we should go a bit further to the next site down the road. But god only knows how far that would be.

A few people were driving and we flagged one down and asked if he saw any campsites further up the road. He was a bit of a blunt and rough man. He was more or less like "Hey, what the hell is wrong with you two. Get off the road, it's 1AM. All this land is national forest and since you're a tax paying citizen you're allowed to use any national forest as you so pleased. Go walk in the woods and pitch your tent." So we walked into the woods and looked for a place to pitch our tent.

We found a suitable tree and hung our food bag from it, hoping to evade bears as best we could. We moved about 50 feet over (knowing we should camp much further away from the food) and started pitching camp. We were just too tired and it was just too late.

I heard a sudden snap! I spun around and flashed the light into the woods. Josh got a bit disgruntled, he needed the light to assemble the tent. I told him to shut up and look.. about 150 feet off in the woods there were two eyes, glowing from being spotted by my flashlight. We froze. The animal froze. What the fuck was it? It started walking.. slowly.. circling around, coming no closer, going no further. It's eyes moving up and down as it's head bobbed. I kept my eyes on the animal while Josh finished the last preparations on the tent. No rain fly tonight. We just wanted to be in the tent and "safe"!

I laid in bed, gripped tight to a mag light in case I needed to bludgeon a bear or puma off us in the middle of the night. Today was the longest day of our trip, and our most productive. We had biked a century, which is a cyclist term for 100 miles or more. We had seen a ton of sights and face numerous obstacles. Only 2 or 3 life or death situations arose. All in all our time in Yellowstone was exciting, unique and really interesting! But I'm very happy to be moving on down the road.


Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 100.29
Total mileage- 1001.87