Day 61: 82 Miles

Grand Teton National Park, WY to Yellowstone National Park, WY

Today was the first day back on the bike after a long stretch of rest days. I was a little worried it would take a few days to get back into the routine, but I felt great riding today. I left Adam’s house around 7:00 AM. Adam drove me back to a point in Grand Teton National Park that I had passed through on my way to Jackson. I wanted to keep my continuous tracks on the trail, so I made sure I started today slightly behind where I had left off 5 days ago. We stopped by Jackson Lake Dam where I unpacked my things from the car and said goodbye to Adam and Greg.

The first 25 miles of the day went through Grand Teton National Park towards Yellowstone and included some good climbs. After the first mile of riding I could tell my bike felt different. I was cruising at good speed with little effort. Whatever they did with the tuneup at the bike store definitely worked. The new tires also felt great to ride on. I had been riding on 700 x 32 tires and didn’t notice that the new tires were 700 x 35. I wouldn’t have expected the wider tires to be faster, but my bike hasn’t felt this good to ride since I got it.

As I got close to Yellowstone I started to notice a lot of traffic. I was still over a mile from the park entrance and rode past a huge line of cars. Being on a bicycle has its perks and I snuck into the entrance line behind the fourth car in line. I was concerned about the amount of cars because I’ve heard Yellowstone can be awful to ride in with all of the traffic. There aren’t great shoulders and the huge RVs take up a ton of space on the road. Luckily I didn’t really have any issues with that today.

There isn’t much to see in the 22 mile stretch from the entrance of Yellowstone to the first stop by Grant Village. There was some more climbing to do, but I continued to cruise along. By mile 47 I was finally at a place in the park where I could stop and take a rest. There aren’t many places to stop for food in Yellowstone so I ate a brownie I had stored in my bag to refuel and took a short rest.

The next 15 miles were tough, but I knew after that I’d have a quick mostly downhill ride to the campsite. Over the 15 mile stretch I crossed over the Continental Divide a couple of times. I was starting to feel like I needed a rest when all of a sudden another cyclist came up next to me. I’d gotten used to riding with people over the last few weeks and thought the only real downside of my time off was leaving a group of people I knew. I thought it would take some time to find someone new to ride with, but 55 miles into my first day back, Noah from Tennessee showed up and was riding the same route as me.

We rode together until we arrived at Old Faithful, which was the only place to get food for the rest of the day. I ordered a sandwich for lunch and then picked up some food to take with me for dinner. Noah and I spent some time eating and getting to know each other, then we were off again to finish up the day. After 82 miles we arrived at Madison Campground. The campground was full, but they have gauranteed spots for hiker/biker so we were allowed to set up camp. At $8.64 I didn’t expect much from the campground, but there were bathrooms with water which was great. There were no showers, but there was a river close by that people were swimming in. I took a quick dip in the river to wash up and then changed into some clean clothes.

Back at the hiker/biker camping area, Noah and I met a couple from Australia who were also on bicycles. The four of us spent the night enjoying some interesting conversation. As the sun was going down our conversation was stopped short by a storm that seemed to be getting close. We all hurried to get our gear under cover and then got in our tents to try and stay dry. Tomorrow I’m planning to do another 80+ mile day with Noah. We’ll see if my body holds up to 2 long days after all of the time off.