Day 29: West Yellowstone to Bozeman

Waking up to the sound of lapping water was quite nice. But staying next to the water also meant that it was chilly. A nice fire awaited us, though, so I rolled out of bed and stood next to the fire for a few minutes to warm up. A short time later, we were taking down tents and filling up on oatmeal. Oatmeal, by itself, is one of my least favorite meals, but when I’m camping I’ll eat just about anything. Just throw everything in a big pot and fill up my plate and I’m happy.

There had been some initial hesitation about which road to take. The shorter route (about 100 miles) was supposed to be through a fairly narrow canyon with a small shoulder. The longer route (about 140 miles) was supposed to be safer, but less scenic. I’ve never seen the movie, but one of the locals told us that part of “A River Runs Through It” was filmed in the canyon. This information, plus the much shorter distance swung the team to taking the shorter route and we promised to be careful.

Because the campsite was ten miles in the wrong direction, the first thing we did was bike back into town. It was a nice warm-up ride and I was starving when I came into town. Fortunately there was an Arby’s so I headed over with some of the team to eat a second breakfast. With all this food I would expect myself to be gaining weight, but so far it’s been pretty constant.

While here Brett had a funny experience with the cashier. She was from Russia so she spoke with an accent. Brett first ordered one potato cake, then JJ chimed in and he ordered a second one. The cashier responded with the total: $1.02. But she said it “one o’ two”, which he thought was her asking “one or two”. So he said two. And she responded with the same thing, so he said ‘two’. This went back and forth and Brett seemed to be trying to be patient as he kept answering the same question over and over again. When she finally said that was his total and not a question a big smile went across his face and he looked pretty sheepish. Good times.

I made one more bathroom run after breakfast and when I walked outside Sam was waiting with my bike saying everyone else had already taken off. So I jumped on the bike and took off, warming up at my own pace. With a good tailwind and two good breakfasts under my belt I was speeding along at somewhere around the mid twenties at not much effort. Before long, I had passed some people up and we headed back into the north end of Yellowstone on our way to the canyon. So far the roads had been wonderful and in fact we had a small stream on the right of us that followed the road and bubbled and cascaded along.

I didn’t stay long at the first rest stop and soon I was in the canyon entrance, still biking with a good tailwind and now going mostly downhill. The creek on my right was being fed by smaller creeks. And now the creek was beginning to grow into a stream. I raced along, looking right and left, watching the canyon grow smaller and higher. And soon I came up on the stretch of road that had been described as having a bad shoulder. Technically it was two or three feet wide, but it was loose sand and gravel so we had to travel on the road itself. I have to admit this was a little bit scary in parts due to temperamental drivers who don’t think about the risk they put others in when they try to buzz us, but overall we were safe at the end of the day and there were many more courteous and pleasant drivers than unpleasant.

The whole time I was biking along, the creek kept getting bigger and bigger and by halfway through it had become a river. In fact, a river large enough to support white water rafters and they were out in large numbers. The next couple of hours I raced them through the rapids, seemingly coming across an endless chain of people wearing a myriad of colored life vests. During this time, it rained sporadically, but it wasn’t too bad and all it took was a short stop to put the rain jacket on or off.

I started tiring at the end of the day and it seemed the road kept stretching on. The wind had turned to a cross wind with a slight head wind, and the road started going slightly uphill. We had come out of the canyon and were now in another high plain valley. Thie highlight of the area was that creek I had followed had now turned into a formidable river and I thought it poignant or symbolic on some level.

After struggling somewhat for the last ten miles, I rolled into the church in town, which wasn’t too far from downtown. I sat down for a little bit to hydrate and then took a great shower. I wanted to work on the journals for a little bit, but Sam took his laptop which holds the file. So I took off with Stephen to track him down. He wasn’t at the first internet cafe, but it was what Stephen was looking for so we split there. I walked all over downtown looking for him, but no luck. So I stopped at a Hardee’s and filled up on food and ice cream there before walking around town casually looking at things while eating my ice cream. It’s my opinion that downtown Bozeman was quite quaint and I think I would enjoy visiting the area again when I had more time.

When I finally made it back to the church I found that Sam and most of the other poeple still weren’t back. So I picked up my stuff and scouted a good place to sleep where I wouldn’t be disturbed when everyone came in. Found that the upstairs nursery was padded and also had it’s own bathroom so I set up camp there. Having ridden over 100 miles, I fell asleep almost immediately.