Jackson Hole to Tetons to Yellowstone

We left Jackson Hole behind as we looked north for Amerca's great Yellowstone Nat'l Park. You are not long out of Jackson before you get your first view of the Grand Tetons. These mountains are stunning no matter what time of year you see them. Jaggedly majestic. Snow and granite. And on bicycle, you just get to pedal and contemplate them for hours on end. As we entered Teton Nat'l Park, they have a nice new bicycle pathway that is 8 miles long with we gladly took to get of the main road. If only this path extended the length of the two parks we were about to see that would be the bomb, maybe some day.
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We bicycled to two miles shy of Yellowstone and ended at Flagg Ranch Lodge. We immediately found their comfy couches to lounge on and take little naps. The plan was to stealth camp somewhere nearby after sundown but a girl approached us and asked if we were on bicycle. Soon we had 3 new friends, Kaitlyn, Eleanor and Dolly, three super-women cycling across the entire USA to Oregon. We all decided to go in on the rather expensive Nat'l Park Campground ($26.50, "That includes toilets" Natl Park Employee).

------>>> Gary showing off his 4th of July bugwear as Dolly and Eleanor look on

As I'm checking in, 2 more cyclist come in, and I send them to our campsite, so now we have 7 cyclists. Now we're talking economy of scale! It was truly fun to be in a posse again. The cyclist, Albert, even carried a full-sized tire pump! How's that for bragging rights. We chatted much of the evening about our respective trips and the funny things that have happened along the way.

We're lucky, because the 3 girls are heading our way for the next 60 miles, so we all decided to stay together to the next campsite, Madison, in Yellowstone. We start out the morning with me boldly proclaiming that "today we are going to see a bear". And seriously, withing a mile of starting, there was a Grizzly on the side of the road. While I was excited to see one, I admit, I felt a bit vulnerable on my bicycle as we passed it. But ol'Grizzly wasn't into tough and chewy biker legs that morning thank goodness and we passed without incident.
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Yellowstone has no shoulder on the side of the road to speak of which is a bummer. So as it was 4th of July weekend, we jolstled for position with all the RV's and Trailers. The weather was the full gamit today and at one point, all 5 of us were huddled under an boardwalk to escape the rain. We pulled into Madison CG only to see the "Full" sign proudly displayed. Hmmmmm. We definitely had to put our best man on this job. We sent Kiki out to scope out the possiblities. Before long she bagged us a site with a friendly family of 4 who didn't mind sharing their site with 5 sweaty bicyclist. This family was truly an example of kindness, with the Mom offering us lots of food they needed to get rid of (which we gladly accepted!). And even after offering to pay them for our share of the campsite, they refused! Man! I need to take some notes on being nice.

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Oh, yea, prior to arriving at Madison, Kiki's front tire when flat. We repaired it under a hail of enemy fire (mosquitoes) and proceeded onward. It only lasted 12 miles before it went flat again. We repaired it again and that got us to the campground. All seemed well on the high pressure in the tire front. Alas, no. Woke to the same tire being flat. Oh, man, this was getting old. I checked and rechecked the suspect tire (a new tire by-the-way) but could never find any cause for the flats. I put a new tube in and we went on. 10 miles down the road we get another flat (that's 4 if you're counting). I'm like, OK, let's put on the spare tire and see if that doesn't fix things. As I'm doing that, Kiki inspects her suspect tire and finds an embedded piece of glass in a thick part of the tread that comes all the way thru the tire. Bingo! Problem solved (but not before some major frustration!). Lesson learned though, if I ever get flat after recently repairing a flat, I'll inspect the tire CLOSELY!

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Of the three superwomen, Dolly has an interesting story. Her mom bicycled across the USA in 1976 with the Bike-cenntenial thing that went on that year. Dolly is following her mom's exact route and even has the same cookpot that her mom used. How cool is that. (Her blog here),

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We say goodbye to our short-lived peloton of bicycle tourists as we head east and they head west. We've seen a number of animals in Yellowstone; moose, bear, elk, bison. It is so great to be on the bicycle when these sitings take place because the traffic jams can really back up for miles. On the bike, we can just cycle up, take a gander and cycle on, never once having to slow down our progress. (Some people actually honk!) Even though it's 4th of July weekend in Yellowstone, really, a recipe for a major head gasket conniption, we remain chronically unstressed. All of course thanks to our simple mode of travel.

-------------------->> That's a baby moose and mama moose

We exit Yellowstone thru the east entrance and into Buffalo Bill country. On our way to Cody, WY (where there is a rodeo every night all summer long!). We make it about 4 miles out of the park before we start looking for camping. The available campgrounds don't allow soft-sided camping (tents and pop-ups) because of the grizzlies. Low on options, we have to stealth camp in a picnic area by a river that, lucky for us, has bear boxes. We have a very peaceful night literally 10 feet from the raging river (music to my ears as I sleep). I love having these "to-die-for" views from my tent window while the rest of the world is slaving away their whole lives so that they can create the same view on their own 35-acre fenced-in plot. I much prefer enjoying the view and then giving it back. Life is so ephemeral anyway, why worry so much about owning part of the earth?

We make it to Wapiti (Pronunciation: Hippity, hoppity there goes the wapiti), WY and the restaurant by the Post Office is shut down. Damn! Where to get coffee? We were just about to resign to the fact that there'd be no coffee this morning when appears a hotel/restaurant in the distance. And get this, we're talking breakfast buffet for $6.99. Oh, man, there is no better time for a breakfast buffet as after bicycling 30 miles and hoping for coffee the last 20 of them! Sometime the road really treats us well. I hurt myself after a completely uncalled for 2nd helping at the buffet (you should have seen my first helping!). I believe tomorrow I might be able to coin the term "Buffalo Dump" in honor of our location but we'll have to see.

We now rest in Cody which happens to have the biggest library that I've ever seen for a town of only 9,000 cowpokes. We're already saying stuff like "4 more days and we'll be in Buffalo enjoying music!" Yep it's time for the BBT to hit another bluegrass festival!! We've had a great 18 days cycling the "long way" to Buffalo, WY, but I'm now ready for some good ol' bluegrass festivating.