Days 36-38: Earth, Wind, and Absaroka
Day 36
We packed up and got ready to leave Grand Teton National Park, but as we were packing, one of my bike's shifter cable housings got tweaked, which threw the shifting on the rear side out of whack... poor Buttercup... (Buttercup is the name of my bike). I threw on some good ol' electrical tape and then took the opportunity while I was adjusting stuff anyway to finally install the shiny new derailleur hanger I had picked up at the West Yellowstone bike store. It was great! My bike shifted like new again!
After our late start, we rode out of the park east along U.S. 26 then turned off onto Buffalo Valley Road. On the way, we picked up some more HEET at a gas station to power our alcohol stove. We still had some iso-HEET (red container), which we had nicknamed "atomic HEET" because of the large fiery ball and copious soot it creates when you cook your food over it, but we were growing tired of cooking over a fireball, so we wanted to switch back to the yellow kind.
On the Buffalo Valley Road we stopped off at the Buffalo Valley Cafe, which had been recommended to us earlier by our excellent Man Cave host Travis.
The bison burger and grilled cheese were excellent, but the home-made huckleberry milkshake was the best part. It was so good, it was gone too fast to take a picture of.
That night we camped at Turpin Meadows campground, which used to be closed to tent camping because of aggressive grizzly bears... but now it's not! We also met a cool couple touring the Divide with B.O.B. trailers (like us) and DaBrim helmet visits (also like us).
We also met a retired foursome comprised of two sisters and their husbands whom we would see a lot of the next several days along the route.
Day 37
In the morning we climbed a big hill away from the Buffalo River and had some beautiful riding through forests, meadows, and past beaver ponds (we saw another beaver!), always on the lookout for moose and grizzly bears. We did not see any, though.
We crossed the continental divide again at Togwotee Pass
then stopped for lunch beside Wind River Lake, the headwaters of Wyoming's Wind River.
We passed the B.O.B. couple and the foursome whom we had camped with several times during the day. We also climbed "Lava Mountain 2.0," the second geographic feature named Lava Mountain on this trip (the first was a little ways south of Helena, MT). The name kept reminding me of one of the courses in Mario Kart: Double Dash, a course whose centerpiece is a volcano with angry eyebrows that spews lava throughout the race, which also happens to be one of the DiGioia siblings' favorite courses to race each other on (David, do I still have the time trial record on that course and on Rainbow Road, or did you ever manage to exceed me?). However, I realized that the Mario Kart course I was thinking of is actually called "DK Mountain," not "Lava Mountain," despite the lava. Alas. However this Lava Mountain that we climbed was strewn with actual lava rocks, which was pretty cool.
The weather kept looking like it was about to rain all the way up. It even sprinkled on us a bit. We were hoping and praying that it would at least hold off until we set up camp, because it was getting chilly, and thankful it did hold off until after we were asleep. After crossing Lava Mountain, we camped in a scenic open area near the Green Creek. And it had a bear box and vault toilet!
Day 38
The day's ride started out with some ups and downs along forested gravel roads, then before long we came to the big, long climb up to Union Pass. Three mountain ranges come together in the vicinity of Union Pass: the Gros Ventre range (which shares a name with a Native American tribe which called themselves the "white clay people" but whose name was mis-translated into French as "Gros Ventre" or "big belly"), the Wind River range, and the Absaroka range. There is also a triple divide nearby where water may flow to the Mississippi River, Columbia River, or Colorado River.
When we got up to Union Pass, it was cool and windy, and the scenery took a turn for the alpine. The we rode through the high county for a long time, gradually descending. It was beautiful.
Throughout the day, we passed back and forth with the foursome we had been tracking along with over the last few days. Near the end of the day, we rode down into the Green River valley and stayed in a very cool, very cute cabin built by a man named John and made available free of charge to cyclists by him and his wife Lucy. We enjoyed getting to know them and were so thankful for their generosity in hosting us.
*****
Update:
We are still catching up on blog posting but making progress! Last night we stayed in Steamboat Springs, CO.
We packed up and got ready to leave Grand Teton National Park, but as we were packing, one of my bike's shifter cable housings got tweaked, which threw the shifting on the rear side out of whack... poor Buttercup... (Buttercup is the name of my bike). I threw on some good ol' electrical tape and then took the opportunity while I was adjusting stuff anyway to finally install the shiny new derailleur hanger I had picked up at the West Yellowstone bike store. It was great! My bike shifted like new again!
After our late start, we rode out of the park east along U.S. 26 then turned off onto Buffalo Valley Road. On the way, we picked up some more HEET at a gas station to power our alcohol stove. We still had some iso-HEET (red container), which we had nicknamed "atomic HEET" because of the large fiery ball and copious soot it creates when you cook your food over it, but we were growing tired of cooking over a fireball, so we wanted to switch back to the yellow kind.
On the Buffalo Valley Road we stopped off at the Buffalo Valley Cafe, which had been recommended to us earlier by our excellent Man Cave host Travis.
The bison burger and grilled cheese were excellent, but the home-made huckleberry milkshake was the best part. It was so good, it was gone too fast to take a picture of.
That night we camped at Turpin Meadows campground, which used to be closed to tent camping because of aggressive grizzly bears... but now it's not! We also met a cool couple touring the Divide with B.O.B. trailers (like us) and DaBrim helmet visits (also like us).
We also met a retired foursome comprised of two sisters and their husbands whom we would see a lot of the next several days along the route.
Day 37
In the morning we climbed a big hill away from the Buffalo River and had some beautiful riding through forests, meadows, and past beaver ponds (we saw another beaver!), always on the lookout for moose and grizzly bears. We did not see any, though.
We crossed the continental divide again at Togwotee Pass
then stopped for lunch beside Wind River Lake, the headwaters of Wyoming's Wind River.
We passed the B.O.B. couple and the foursome whom we had camped with several times during the day. We also climbed "Lava Mountain 2.0," the second geographic feature named Lava Mountain on this trip (the first was a little ways south of Helena, MT). The name kept reminding me of one of the courses in Mario Kart: Double Dash, a course whose centerpiece is a volcano with angry eyebrows that spews lava throughout the race, which also happens to be one of the DiGioia siblings' favorite courses to race each other on (David, do I still have the time trial record on that course and on Rainbow Road, or did you ever manage to exceed me?). However, I realized that the Mario Kart course I was thinking of is actually called "DK Mountain," not "Lava Mountain," despite the lava. Alas. However this Lava Mountain that we climbed was strewn with actual lava rocks, which was pretty cool.
The weather kept looking like it was about to rain all the way up. It even sprinkled on us a bit. We were hoping and praying that it would at least hold off until we set up camp, because it was getting chilly, and thankful it did hold off until after we were asleep. After crossing Lava Mountain, we camped in a scenic open area near the Green Creek. And it had a bear box and vault toilet!
Day 38
The day's ride started out with some ups and downs along forested gravel roads, then before long we came to the big, long climb up to Union Pass. Three mountain ranges come together in the vicinity of Union Pass: the Gros Ventre range (which shares a name with a Native American tribe which called themselves the "white clay people" but whose name was mis-translated into French as "Gros Ventre" or "big belly"), the Wind River range, and the Absaroka range. There is also a triple divide nearby where water may flow to the Mississippi River, Columbia River, or Colorado River.
When we got up to Union Pass, it was cool and windy, and the scenery took a turn for the alpine. The we rode through the high county for a long time, gradually descending. It was beautiful.
Throughout the day, we passed back and forth with the foursome we had been tracking along with over the last few days. Near the end of the day, we rode down into the Green River valley and stayed in a very cool, very cute cabin built by a man named John and made available free of charge to cyclists by him and his wife Lucy. We enjoyed getting to know them and were so thankful for their generosity in hosting us.
*****
Update:
We are still catching up on blog posting but making progress! Last night we stayed in Steamboat Springs, CO.
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