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Day 28: Canyon City to West Yellowstone MT

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Norris Geyser Basin 40.8 miles, 1282 ft ascent/ 2573 ft descent, 3:24 saddle time, elevations, min 6675 / max 8260. I am no longer going to include max grade because I have come to realize that RideWithGPS values are vary inaccurate.  Suffice it to say that on some of the uphills I am in my lowest gears and barely moving 5 mph.   It was cold again this morning, so we went across the street from the campground for breakfast and to warm up before breaking camp.  Out objective today was to ride across the middle of the figure-8 and out of the park to West Yellowstone, which is a town just outside the park boundary.  We had to ride up and over the rim of the huge caldera that sits within the park(30 x 45 mile oval).  It is the remains of a volcanic eruption many, many years ago.  After getting up and over that, it was mostly downhill from there, which would have been great except for a strong wind from the west :(. On the other side of the rim we stoppped at th...
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Day 27: Bay Bridge to Canyon City, WY

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Looking East over Jackson Lake 20 miles, 1014 ft ascent, 1:49 saddle time, min elevation 7690, max 7970 ft We broke camp today at 0630 with the temperatures in the 30’s.  As usual, my fingers were frozen, which made it difficult to pack up my bike.  We rode to the Lake Hotel (2 miles) for breakfast.  This is a very fancy hotel ($500/night), we kind of stood out in our biking clothes as we plugged in all our devices and proceeded to eat a massive amount of food at an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.  Yellowstone is not particularly biker friendly with narrow or no shoulders, so we planned to go around the east side of the lower loop (of the figure-8) and across the middle to the West entrance and out of the park (about 60 miles).  The east side of the lower loop travels through Hayden Valley, which is an area that is full of Bison, Elk and Wolves.   Bison in Hayden Valley I took this photo in an area where cars could not pull over :).  The valley is im...
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Day 26: Colter Bay to Bay Bridge, WY

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61.3 miles, 3348 ft ascent, 5:04 saddle time, max elevation 7970 ft, starting elevation 6794, final 7800 ft The temperature dropped down to the 30’s last night, so by the time I had broken camp and loaded up my bike, I was very cold.  As usual, the coldest part was my fingers and toes, which were numb.  We had breakfast at the restaurant in Colter Bay, which gave me a chance to warm up.  Note to those considering camping in Grand Teton or Yellowstone Nat’l Parks, there is no cell service, and the only internet is in restaurants annd the shower/laundry bldg.  There is also no place to plug in electronics at the campsites.  Brian annd I took all our charging gear to the restaurant and requested a table near an outlet so that we could charge while we were eating.   That is why my blog posts have been apearing the next morning.  We finished up a long breakfast (about 2 hours, some things take a long time to charge) and then departed at about 10:00.   ...
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Day 25: Layover day in Grand Teton Nat’l Park

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55 miles,  Sun setting on the Tetons Today was a planned layover day in the Colter Bay campground.  After having breakfast at the campground restaurant we rode (without panniers) south to a town called Moose, which is about 5 miles north of Jackson Hole.   Probably the closest I will get to a moose The ride was mostly flat as it followed the Teton Valley.  It is hard to describe how beautiful this area is with the lakes and the Tetons jutting abruptly up from the valley floor.   I want to share with you a little about my riding companion and friend, Brian.  He has a PhD in Political Sciencd and has spent his career in Global Affairs (now retired).  He has worked as an aid to a senator, a college professor at Northwestern, a lobbyist, and on boards of non-profit organizations .  This has given him a wealth of experience, but also a special talent to connect with people.  It is uncanny how quickly he can connect with people, establish some comm...
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Day 24: Dubois to Colter Bay WY

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Grand Tetons from Oxbow Bend 66.6 miles, 3585 ft ascent, 9% max grade (most grades were 6% or less), 6:01 saddle time, elevations: max 9591, min 6745 Today was SPECTACULAR, but let me begin at the beginning.  We started by going to the Cowboy Cafe for breakfast.  This is an iconic cafe that was highly recommended for their pies.  I had a delicious breakfast of eggs, hash browns and avacado toast with salmon, and ordered a piece of pie to go.  At about 0900 we continued our journey.  The route started out rolling before the ascent to Togwotee pass.   Leaving Dubois Lava Mountain The pass is to the left of the mtn on the right.  It was cold (38 deg at 0700), but we had a tailwind of about 10 mph.  The first miles flew by.  The ride up to the pass was not too hard because the grades were about 4% with the steepest at 6%.   There was a picnic area at the summit where we stopped to eat our “summit pie”.   View from the picnic area As we ...
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Day 23: Lander to Dubois, WY

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Today we packed up early and hit the road at 0530 in an effort to get a many miles in as possible before the wind picked up.  I had prepared breakfast sandwiches yesterday, so we rode for about an hour before we stopped to eat.  The wind did pick up around 0730, so we put about 26 miles behind us before the west wind started to pick up.  It would steadily increase all day, but never got as bad as the day I was riding into Lander and needed to get picked up.  The scenery is getting more varied and awesome as we go farther northwest in WY. The painted rocks and Wind River Wyoming’s Mt. Rushmore Flowers along the road Red Rocks area and the Wind River Brian and I took turns pulling, which made it much easier.  There were gusts, but not like before.  The wind speed picked up to a steady 15 mph with gusts of about 30 mph and was generally a headwind.  When wind is gusting I prefer a headwind because it is less exhausting than leaning in to a crosswind and t...
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Day 22: Second rest day in Lander, WY

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Brian’s wheel was not in yet, so I decided to take a second rest day in Lander.  The Gannet Peak sports shop assured us it would be in today, and they were right.  Brian has his bike back!  As for me, my continuing saga of finding the right bike seat continued.  After riding the Specialized saddle I bought yesterday, and doing some research on-line, I was not confident that I had found the right fit yet.  In a moment of uncertainty, I went back to Gannet Peak and asked to test ride the Brooks Cambria C15 (they did not have a C17, which is wider).  This is the model made of  rubber, instead of the traditional leather.  They did not have the traditional Brooks leather saddle that is the gold standard for touring cyclists.  That is probably just as well because it takes a few hundred miles to break in the Brooks leather.  The Cambria still did not fit right.  I kept questioning and second-guessing myself.  Finally I asked if they ...
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