Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Day 16 (7/8): Cameron, MT --> Grant Village, WY (115 miles)

Days mileage: 115 miles

(more limited time in library...ready...go...)

We left the back of the post office in Cameron pretty early in the morn and were welcomed by headwinds of great proportions.

We trudged on and on and tried to enjoy the scenery, Madison River, amazing mtns, and low number of cars on the roads seein it was early on a Sunday morning (and we all know where one should be on a Sunday morning, eh?). Anyways,

We were shooting to get as far into Wyoming as we could.

We rolled on through the landscape, stopped at the infamous "Three Dollar Bridge", and rolled on up a quick, step climb that gave us an amazing view of Earthquake Lake. We pulled to an overlook and there...perched on a tree that was halfway swallowed by the lake was a Bald Eagel...just sittin there waiting for Stephen and myself to take some Kodak pictures. Then we saw another one...off...over there...look! in the trees! So...we concluded they had a nest or something over yonder where the first one we saw flew too. Hurrah for nature!

We made a quick descent into a gorge like area where the Madison River flowed through and had a pancake lunch at a pretty quaint little bed and breakfast that was hidden by peaks of mtns that nearly tore open the noonday sun.

By midafternoon we rolled on into the town of West Yellowstone, took pictures of the tourists, ate some more food and then entered the infamous Yellowstone National Park (And crossed on into Wyoming).

Stephen and I were pretty excited by this point in the day....even though we had biked about 62 miles already we could hardly notice seeing the amazing scenery and the wonderful and unforgetful amount of RV traffic and poor driving skills whcih they all seemed to possess.

Yellowstone Park itself was damn amazing and I think everyone who is alive should have the option to go throguh it at least once. I also think that before anyone is allowed to buy an RV they need to take an "I'm Not A Moron...or an Idiot" test....it was horrific how horrible they drive...

We saw: a bison, elk, 20 minute rain storm, and more RV's.

But seriously...

It was gettin late in the day (~8pm) and we still had a solid 20 miles of riding before we'd reach Grant Village. But, alas...we still had two moutnain passes that were both over 8,200 feet in elevation and the option of going to see Old Faithful. Last minute we decided to detour and roll the dice of luck to see if we'd see the good ol' song and dance for which she is so famous for.

We only had to wait 2 minutes before she made an appearance. I was fortuante enough to videotape most of it and get some still photos.

We made haste to make a speedy exit before all the RV's got a chance to pull out in front of us and zoom off forever after.

We climbed the the passes...in the dark...and rolled into Grant Village aroun 10pm and pitched our tents in the hiker-biker campsite.

1 comment:

MC said...

been waiting for this posting -sounds very tough(though I am glad you are not running across) and amazing. mc