FLASK June 12-18

June 12:
14 miles to West Yellowstone. Rain. Mel & John left early to do a 2-day, "let's see more of the park before we go" loop through Mammoth & Canyon. Jealous but I think I have a package in West Yellowstone then I should get moving toward Glacier to see Hogan on the 19th (yes!). Aaron & Erin (who's not feeling well) left for West Yellowstone after breakfast but not before telling me that they saw a black bear stalked then chased by a wolf! I haven't seen either & they get exotic behavior with both?! I'm just sayin' ... Shout out, by the way, to the Madison CG staff. Tarps up over hiker-biker tables? Free coffee or hot water in the morning? Encouragement? Seriously awesome! I meditated, packed in the rain - somehow managing to turn my dry tent & tarp into wet, dirty messes. As I slowly left the park I saw bison wandering marshes, elk grazing hillsides, bald eagles perched in lodgepoles, ... wildlife was abundant & it was an easy downhill 14 miles so the rain went largely unnoticed. Visitor center, cheap hotel, a hot bath, laundry, NBA Finals (unbelievable, Mavs in 6) with Aaron & Erin, DQ, comfy bed, zzzz ...
June 13:

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80 miles to Ennis, MT. Repacked, had breakfast at Old Town Cafe, checked at the Post Office but no package (would've stayed in the park & rode out Mammoth ... oh, well), & finally stopped by the pharmacy for antibiotic & band-aids to try to get a supporating quarter-size wound on my scrotum to heal. Beautifil ride along Hedgen Lake, Earthquake Lake, & the Madison River, where I saw a herd of 10-12 bighorn sheep - several with curls! Also an osprey nest with young, fluffy chick heads poking out! Steve & John were heading to DC from Spokane. Older fellas celebrating getting on Social Security by riding cross country! Haha! Steve said when he was a kid he was in a hotel with his folks at a hotel in the area, on their way to Yellowstone, when the August 1959 quake hit! I stopped at a lodge for a burger, beer, & coffee & chatted with Patty (quite an attractive, curvy young woman studying Sociology & Criminology at Bozeman) about the unnatural human cultural institutions like monogamy, family obligations, & goofy shit like that. A roaring tailwind pushed me 25 mph down Madison Valley, right into a dark thunderstorm, but I had rain only 10 of the last 15 miles & pulled into the library wet but satisfied with a wildly scenic & fairly easy ride. Clayton pulled in on an old Bianchi. He's a 21 year-old touring with a gal, Julie, 36, from Portland to Virginia on the TransAm route. She'd got a hotel but he wanted to camp & we found a $19 site at an RV park 1 1/2 miles north of town. Warm shower, tent, stretch, then an easy ride back into town for dinner & beers at the Gravel Bar, where we sat at the bar with Ad & Marie from Holland. It rained while we ate, cleared for the ride to camp, them rained through the night. But my system for setting up the tent & stashing is finely tuned & the tent dried quickly in the cold morning sun.

Aaron and Erin

June 14:
77 miles to Dillon, MT. Breakfast was a nice gathering as Clayton & I were joined by Julie (nice gal), Aaron, & Erin. Erin was throwing up yesterday morning so they were an hour behind me all day yesterday & had camped at the muddy, $12 fisherman's access camp just before town. She's one tough cookie & Aaron is really attentive with her. They're both truly friendly, easygoing people & I've really enjoyed their company. An osprey was hauling branches to her nest with young, and the not-too-distant peaks had new snow for a stunning backdrop to the valley as we left town. A stiff 10 mile 7% climb was a real leg-churner, what with the cold headwind & two false summits. The descent was freezing & impeded by the wind & soup & coffee in Virginia City didn't warm me up. I kept seeing Garnett signs as we rolled into Ruby Valley so stopped at a rock shop to find something for Rae since that's her birthstone. Dave opened his still-closed-for-the-season shop & his gal, Sue, climbed down from painting the roof dormer to help him find something I'd like. Post office across the street - done. Easy headwind through the valley with slowly increasing temperatures & sunshine - in fact, I broke out sunscreen for the 1st time in weeks! Ice cream in Sheridan - yummy. After an easy 10 miles on in-progress chip seal we came to an excellent Bike Camp in Twin Bridges. Right on a swollen creek, it had a small, screened-in sitting/eating area stocked with books, magazines, & miscellaneous bike stuff (lube, slime, tools), plus an outdoor grill & bikestand, & a nice, flat, grassy tent area. Norm does the maintenance &, because the city council has to approve funding above any donations, he asked that we write a note in the logbook even though we weren't staying the night - glad to oblige. We basked in the sun in the grass for a bit but it was getting late due to that tough, long morning climb so we got back on for a final slightly uphill, mild headwind, 28 mile push to Dillon. Great scenery of distant snow-covered peaks glazing in bright sunshine, sheep (Muir's locust) grazing in green pastures, & a long hilly valley. We each did 7 mile pulls, though it wasn't easy to accommodate the last rider because of the panniers, crosswind component, & very narrow shoulder on Hwy 41. It was late when we made town so we ate at a pizza joint where I caught up with Rae (she's so awesome!), then rolled a few easy blocks through a lovely downtown to the KOA. A fat, white, full moon rose over snowy peaks while the sun slowly set & I stretched while the kids did laundry & showered. No rain! Wow!
June 15:
50 miles to Jackson, MT. It was nice when I awoke - sun, nice temperature, creek running. Meditated, made hot cereal & tea, repacked, then chatted with Rob, who owns the KOA. He gave a 20% discount for the site since we're biking & said he had 427 bikers through last year! Wow! This CG is highly recommended, friends. We rolled back into town to get stuff at a roadside fruit & veggie stand (Dan, who ran it, had done an Olympic Peninsula tour years ago & gave us a lot of free fruit), then to Safeway for poptarts & other supplies. The 1st 10 miles were an easy, scenic roll out of town & onto Hwy 278. The wind really picked up as we started a long, gradual summit climb & grew quickly to a sustained 25 mph, cold headwind for the remainder of the day. The downhill off the 1st summit was a welcome relief despite being wind-impeded. We all thought a right turn at a split in the valley would create a tailwind for us ... Nope. Already tired, we formed a crude draft line & struggled through a repeating cycle of three 1 mile pulls, rest, ... The 2nd summit seemed harder but Erin pulled us to the top (she's one tough cookie), the downhill was much faster &, again, a little wind trickery in the valley below led us to think we'd get a break ... Nope. With just 8 miles to go, we did pulls & rests & marvelled over the wild, open, majestic scene all around us. The peaks here are more dramatic & jagged & just buried in snow. I will gladly say that it was easier to withstand a constant headwind with some company - my headspace stayed much better than when I suffered alone in southern Wyoming. The locals at the very nice Jackson Lodge told us they hadn't seen wind like this for 2-3 years ... uh-huh, heard that before. I had a cheeseburger, soup, & Mirror Pond (shout out to Deschutes Brewing (sponsor!)), & I finally got to see Erin eat a full meal. She's still sniffling but no longer queasy - yea! Jess gave us a break on the tent site price, which included a dip in the hot mineral springs. Man, was that nice! It's a beatiful old stone pool, 7 feet deep at one end, 25 feet long, & filled with wonderfully soothing hot water, in which we rollicked & recovered for an hour. Chilly & windy, you had to keep submerged but it was beautiful with mist pulled by the wind off the pool into exotic patterns through the lights. Quinn called to let me know my passport is in the van ... as my grandson, Ohin, would say, "Dangit, Noni!" I stretched briefly then crawled into the tent with my core temperature back up & my muscles relaxed thinking of Rae ... I should sleep well.

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June 16:
71 miles into a Fisherman's Access CG on the East Fork of the Bitterroot River. I called the passport office but they received the lost/stolen form & so I've lost that $195 fee. Oh, well. I've managed to lose 2 things for real, though - the 50 oz bladder & the water filter. I should be more careful, though I don't feel careless with packing & unpacking. Breakfast was toast, a muffin, & coffee & we started late right into the 1st snow squall of the day. It was, nonetheless, a very easy & scenic 18 miles through Big Hole Valley to Wisdom where we ate lunch (surpisingly, the Gyro was pretty good), though very cold. We ran into Evan, cycling from San Francisco to DC & not noticing much wind (Hello ... tailwind). Many more snow squalls shot snow pellets at us all afternoon as we gradually climbed through a lodgepole pine forest the 26 miles to Chief Joseph Pass (the 6th Continental Divide crossing of the trip, I think). It was wicked cold on the 7 mile 7% descent & a headwind was present on this side until we made about 15 miles - entering the beautifully recovering Bitter Root National Forest. We stopped 5 miles from Darby at a "Closed due to Dangerous Flood Conditions" Fisherman's Access CG. Shared dinner included sweet potatoes from the cool Dillon veggie stand, rice, garlic, peppers, & ginger teriyaki sauce from a bag. Yummy! Stretched (mosquitoes! Grr!), said goodnight, in bed. I'll be sad to be leaving the kids after tomorrow as they've been absolutely wonderful companions. But Hogan arrives in just 3 days & I'm stoked! Plus, seeing Rafael again after 5 years will be a trip! No talks with Rae the last 2 days ... so missing her even a little more right now. Anyway ... What a great trip so far! It feels like a real adventure to me already & there are so many wild fun things on the horizon! Yahoo!
June 17:
74 miles to Missoula, MT. The sheriff was at breakfast in Darby & is famous for (a) giving David Letterman a ticket, (b) managing a standoff with a white supremacy group, & (c) being the subject of a NatGeo Montana law enforcement show. Erin was held conversationally hostage for quite awhile, requiring rescue. Riding today was so easy: mostly downhill, all tailwind, bike path for 20+ miles, no rain, no snow, & scenic. James & Connor from Ireland were cycling from Vancouver, BC, into Colorado then wandering north again. Connor's beard was a flaming orange - pure Irish! We pulled into Missoula & I stopped at the bike shop but they had no camping beta. The parks along the river look ripe for rousting & even 3 miles down the gravel river trail past Montana University it looked too transient for me what with the shopping carts & all. A knock on the door of a house with a porch-full of bikes to see if I could put a tent up got me directions to the homeless shelter! Haha! Stretched then found a biker rally in the adjacent park so I watched the band for awhile (& made a cute video of a 3-year-old boy air guitaring in front of the bandstand), looked at bikes & old women in leather, & watched the swollen river tumble by in a brief bit of sun. Finally decided to go to a hostel in town - same price as KOA & in town. Dave let me set up the tent in the backyard instead so I paid $12 instead of $29 yea! I met Aaron, Erin, & her brother, Nick, & his wife, Kali, for dinner & beers. Very nice, happy couple & they're expecting their firstborn in late November. At just 4000 ft, Missoula feels warm at 51F so the walks through town were pleasant. Mike was at the hostel & on a neat tour from his oldest daughter's in Eugene to his youngest's in Boston, though he really started in Portland after a train ride from his hometown of Chicago. I must be in a good mood since I pet a cat that approached me in the alley behind the hostel. Wierd.