7/5/11:
I woke up the morning of the 5th in Lander WY to a small town reeling from the previous day of hedonistic debauchery. Firework confetti and empty alcohol containers blanketed the streets. I never thought in a land with so much of an over reach of authority would a celebration like the day before be permitted. I walked outside after I woke up and started to contribute to the clean up effort with the rest of the neighborhood. I decided I was going to take a day off in Lander and run some errands, work on my bike and rest my legs. After the fourth Lander regressed into small town mode and went back to business as usual. Outside of the events the day before Lander was very charming. I got to bed early that night. My day was to start at six the next morning.
7/6/11: Lander WY- Duboise WY.
This was first day of my tour that I had woken up early. It felt great to feel like I was getting a jump on the day rather than playing catch up. I ate a big breakfast and said my goodbyes to the Primroses. I kept my goodbyes short knowing I had 80+ miles ahead of me. The wind was down and the sun was low when I started peddling. It felt great. I was about 20 miles outside Lander when I noticed a familiar vehicle pull into the bike lane ahead of me. It was Paul, my host for the last two days, carrying my shoes that I had forgotten underneath his coffee table. After a good laugh and more good byes I was on my way. I reached the Wind River Indian Reservation shortly after receiving my shoes. Paul had informed me the day before that the Wind River reservation is one of the most depressed reservations in the country. And it showed. It was quite surreal to be taking part in festivities celebrating the fourth just the day before, to now riding my bicycle through-one of the most depressed reservations in the United States. To be celebrating the birth of one nation while simultaneously celebrating the death and extermination of another. Making my way out of the reservation I meet back up with Kyle, the other cyclist heading to Oregon. We finished riding to Dillon WY together. We rolled into Dillon around four and found out our best camping situation would be twelve miles outside of town. The camp spot was right off the road but very rural. We set up camp and spent the rest of the evening guessing what those strange growling noises from behind the ridge could be.. Before we went to bed we hung our food in the trees, hopefully out of reach for bears. We woke up the next morning to a beautiful sun rise in one of the most gorgeous camp spots I have ever been to.
11/7/11: Dillon WY-Colter Bay WY.
Me and kyle woke up pretty early knowing we had a massive climb ahead of us. The Tejon Pass. The elevation gain being over nine thousand feet. It took kyle and I about three hours to summit the pass, but the view of the Teton mountain range was worth it. We broke for lunch at the top and made some pb&j sandwiches. Before we made the decent Kyle asked if I wanted a hit of acid for the ride down. I declined and encouraged him to do the same. His mind was made up and licked a spot of LSD off of his hand. He tried to explain that he would be fine and it was weak acid. His riding on the decent exemplified differently. He was all over the place swerving into the on coming lanes and then back again hooting and hollering. All I could do was laugh, keep my distance and just hope he didn’t crash. We were a few miles into the decent when we were stopped by construction workers who had the whole two lane highway under construction. They insisted we put our bikes in the back of the pilot truck, that was guiding cars down the mountain. The ride lasted all of three miles. We got out of the truck at the bottom of the mountain and made our way to the Grad Teton National Park. Upon reaching the park me and Kyle split ways. We said our good byes and vowed to meet back up in Portland. At the entrance to the Grand Teton National Park I was greeted with a sign that stated that admission to the park was 12 dollars if entering by bicycle. I did not quite agree with that so I just rode through, passing up the long line of cars waiting to pay their tolls. No one said anything and I didn’t get chased. The park itself was stunning. Maybe even more beautiful than Yellowstone. The Tetons in general were very impressive. The park was kind of outrageous though with all the people rubbernecking in their vehicles as well as stopping to approach wild animals with their cameras. By far the most dangerous animals in the park were the humans. I made it to the Colter Bay campground around mid afternoon, set up camp, put all my food in bear boxes and passed out.
7/8/11: Colter Bay WY-Old Faithful WY:
I woke up the next morning packed up, ate and left around ten. That night I did not have any bear trouble but a squirrel did get into some of my food and compromise a bag of trail mix and a loaf of bread. So I threw them away filled up my water bottles and was on my way to Yellowstone. The riding again this day was gorgeous with the thick green trees and bright blue sky enclosed around me. Upon reaching the entrance to Yellowstone I was again greeted with another sign stating bicycles pay 12 dollars for admittance. Bogus! So I took my lesson from my last experience and applied it to my then current circumstance. Riding through Yellowstone was an absolute treat. The ride its self wasn’t even very hard but incredibly scenic. One major problem though was there was no bike path. After a couple hours of hugging the narrow strip of asphalt between the cars and the edge of the road, I decided cars be damned im taking a lane. No one really seemed to mind my decision. Everyone just politely went around me without honking, it was great. I felt safer and had plenty of more room. I arrived in Grant Village, 20 miles from my projected destination around two. I was feeling great and ahead of schedule. So I decided to take an extended lunch break, make some phone calls and answer some emails. This decision proved to not be wise. Upon my exit from Grant Village I was shocked at how the sky had transformed from clear bright blue to thick black clouds. It looked bad, so I hustled all my things together and raced back to the road in hopes of beating whatever was about to come down on me. It didn’t work. I rode right into this massive storm. And it was bad. Heavy rain, hail, and lightning strikes descended upon me like a curse from the heavens. I was soaked and all my exposed skin had turned bright red from the striking hail. After about 15 miles of this I managed to find a little shelter and hunkered down until the storm passed. After waiting about a half an hour I continued my descent into old faithful where I went straight away to a bathroom and changed out of my freezing drenched clothes. I later made my way to my host’s house, dropped of my things and proceeded to stroll around the gyzers in Yellowstone until the sun went down. That night I had no trouble getting to sleep.
7/9/11: Old Faithful WY-Ennis MT.
That morning I packed my things and headed outside to cook oatmeal around 7:30. I needed to start my day early, I had 90 miles ahead of me. So I start up my stove to heat oatmeal and my whole stove apparatus catches on fire. The stoves fuel line had sprung a leak and there was fire and melted residue everywhere. I put out the fire and inspected the stove closer and came to the conclusion it was trashed. Great, no stove, no oatmeal, no hot food. I then spend the next two hours making phone calls and doing research on my phone. I came to the conclusion that I was going to have to wait, and forgo hot food, until I get to Missoula to purchase a new stove. I don’t end up leaving Old Faithful until around 10:30. As soon as i started riding, i wasn’t even 15 miles into my ride and spoke breaks on my rear wheel. This was a bummer but not a compromising tragedy. I brought with me all the tools and parts needed to solve this problem but again I am still eating up a bunch of time not riding. I replace the spoke, true up the wheel and once again I am on the road. I finally reach the Montana border and rejoice. I made it to Ennis later that day on a fantastic tail wind just as the sun was setting. I promptly spoke to some of the local bar flys about free camping in the area and they suggested that I just sleep for free at the private campground down the street just as long as I am up early enough to dodge the permit check in the morning. So I made my way to the campground and just put down my sleeping bag and matte so I could have a quick get away in the morning. I woke up the next morning around five and got out of there with out hassle. I was then on my way to Dillon MT.
7/10/11 Ennis MT- Dillon MT.
I got out of the campground quite early and made my oatmeal just outside of a gas station where I had been using their facilities to change and clean up. I was then on the road by around seven. The ride in the morning was very nice with the sun low, sky’s clear and wind low. By the afternoon the weather had changed to dark clouds and a formidable head wind. It also didn’t help that the last 30 miles of the day were all slightly uphill. This was the worst, going slightly uphill into a head wind. In those last miles each peddle stroke was struggle I finally made it to Dillon right before the sky could really open up and drench me. I then treated my self to some lemon sorbet and bagel chips from the safeway. For some reason that’s all I could think about was lemon sorbet and bagel chips all day. While snacking I called my host Eve for the evening and she directed me to her house where I took a nice long shower. Eve made me a nice vegan dinner that night, maybe the best meal I have had on the trip besides the vegan curry in Lander(Thank you sooooo much ladies!). We stayed up till around eleven chatting then went to bed. I woke up the next morning to Eve once again making me oatmeal and coffee. She was so nice. I was on the road at around seven that morning and the clouds were ominous and waiting for me.
7/11/11: Dillon MT-Wisdom MT.
I started out that morning with a little rain but nothing to get all covered up about. The clouds seemed to be ahead of me and getting farther away. This was a great development considering I had two major passes to get over first thing in the morning. I had reached the trough of the first climb when I meet another tourist who was decked out, bike and all, in American flag gear. He was quite the site, I didn’t get a photo of him but he got one of me. He also informed me that the town I was destined to stay that wanted 30 dollars to pitch a tent. I almost didn’t believe him. I then reached the town of Jackson, my planned destination, a few hours later and found out he wasn’t lying. I don’t even know what to say about that….I did use the post office in Jackson to mail back home my busted stove. I decided that I was going to ride an extra 16 miles to the town of Wisdom where there was confirmed free camping. The whole ride to wisdom was slightly down hill with a tail wind, very pleasant. I mad it to the free campground around five. It felt good sticking it to Jackson. 30 bucks, who knows what they are high on. Anyways, the mosquitoes were pretty bad at the campground but there was a small out building that was screened off and contained two picnic tables. That was to be the place I was to sleep for the night. Mosquito free shelter without having to set up my tent. WINING! I did my usual routine and was about to bed down for the night when a large pick up truck pulled up in front of the building. A man got out of the truck, comes into the space and greets me. He then proceeds to tell me he has a very drunk afghan war veteran in his truck that needed a place to sleep. Hinting that he would be sleeping with me in the out building, he regales me of how nice and non violent he is but just very drunk. This was kind of unsettling but I had no authority to say other wise so I greeted the drunkard, named Jeff, and proceeded to get into bed. All Jeff had was a bag of letters or notes and a day old piece of pizza wrapped in tin foil. Through out the night he would come in and out of consciousness, shuffle through his papers and munch on his pizza. The next morning when he sobered up he told me he was going to hitch to Washington. I gave him some maps and my blessing. He was actually quite nice but, we did meet under very odd circumstances. I didn’t see him on the road later that day so he must have gotten a ride.
7/12/11 Wisdom MT-Hamilton MT.
I left Wisdom bright and early. The sun was out the clouds were clear and the wind was down. Absolutely gorgeous beginning of my day. To make the day even better I had a four mile climb over Chief Joseph pass that then descended 13 miles. I think maybe the longest decent I have ever ridden. It was great fun listing to blistering fast music in my ear phones while flying down the side of this mountain reaching speeds of over 40 mph in some areas. It gives me goosebumps to even recall that feeling. That decent took me into the town of Sula MT where I decided to break for lunch. While eating my pb&j sandwich I was approached by another bicycle tourist who appeared to be teetering on the edge of bicycle vagrant with a touch of mental disability, riding a what looked to be a stolen mountain bike. His name was Jim and his rear shifting cable had snapped and he was in need of a new cable. He asked if I had one to sell him and I said I did but he could just have it. I asked if he knew how to instal the cable I had just given him and he assured me he did and walked away leaving me to finish my lunch. Right before I was to get on my bike and make my way down the rest of the mountain Jim approached me again and started asking inquiring question of how to instal a new cable. It became clear he did not know what he was doing. But I didn’t feel compelled to help him because the sky had turned very dark once again and was looking like it was about to open up. I wanted to get off the mountain before that happened. So I said my goodbye to Jim again and made my way down the hill. Upon descending the hill I was over come with an enormous sense of guilt for not helping this guy out. So I asked my self WWJD, what would Jesus do? I though Jesus would make him repent his sins and proclaim him as his lord and savior. Wow, I thought, that wouldn’t be very nice at all. So I decided that helping Jim replace his cable would be much more helpful. So I turned around, started climbing the hill and b-lined it straight for Jim who was already one tall can deep and just about to start another but thankfully he had not even attempted the repair. The fix took me all of three to five minutes to do. He said the repair would have taken him hours and I believed him seeing as he was getting progressively more inebriated. I said goodbye again and he thanked me and asked I wanted to smoke some weed. I declined and finished my ride into Hamilton where I had a house set up for the evening.
7/13/11: Hamilton MT-Missoula MT.
That night I stayed with Terry and Carl Tignor. They are a couple who just open up their home to touring cyclists out of pure generosity. Its terry’s hope to one day to turn her backyard into an actual hostel. That morning Terry made me vegan pancakes, took my photo and sent me on my way. The ride to Missoula was only forty miles that day but almost all of it was directly into a head wind. I thought I was going to catch a break only riding forty miles. Boy was I wrong. I got into Missoula around three and hung around downtown until my host, Chynna, called me confirming she was off work. I finally made it over to Chynna’s house which turns out to be a double wide pink trailer home. It is beautiful. Although some in the neighborhood consider it an eyesore. The atmosphere of the house really reminds me of my previous home in Ventura. I am very excited to be spending three days here.
P.S. Thank you to all my friends and family who sent me notes and vegan care packages. The gesture really means a lot. The sense of familiarity upon receiving your letters is very comforting. I love you guys! Thank you all so much <3<3<3
