July 6, 2018 Buffalo to Gillette.

Ed and I rolled out of camp this morning and were headed down the road by 6:55 Am.   It was already 73F with the promise of hot and hotter. 

The normal route to Gillette had construction on it so we were rerouted on this other road.  This had the effect of increasing the millage to 102 miles and giving us 3557 feet of climb .  The only redeeming part of this was the road was very quiet and had a very nice surface.

The route had three legs the first was about 35 miles in the NE direction and had a very slight downhill trend, the second was about 30 miles in the east direction and was quite rolling and the last was about 37 miles in the SE Direction with a lot of rollers each one taller than the previous one.

Down the first section Ed and I were just smoked it making 20+ mph.  We passed several riders and picked up Greg B and the three of us took turns pulling.  It was quite a bit of fun rolling along.  By the time we turned the corner on to the second section our speed dropped considerably as we were now climbing a lot of rollers.  The wind had now started to blow from the SE at about 5-10 mph.  It wasn’t really a factor but was now a quartering head wind.  We reached picnic at the 50 mile mark. It was in a gas transmission station yard as there were absolutely no facilities along the way.  No shade and the temperature was well into the high 80’s.  Ed had been having problems with his bike throwing the chain so he had one of the mechanics have a look at it while at we were at picnic. The mechanic took one look and told Ed his rear derailleur hanger was cracked.    This ended Ed’s ride. 

I felt pretty good and as it was only 10:30 I was pumped.  So I set off towards Gillette.  The wind has now picked up and the road has gotten steeper. By time I got to the 65 mile mark and turned SE the wind has picked up to around 15-20 mph and is straight into my face.  The rollers are now 250- 300 feet.  I can ride down the hill at around 15 mph and grind up the hills at 6 mph.  It is going to be a long grind into town. 

As I grind along at about the 75 mile mark I notice that I am getting a heat induced headache.   By the time I get to the 80 mile mark I am having trouble focusing.  At the 90 mile mark the van comes by and I jump in.  I would have liked to finish the century today but it wasn’t to be.  Auzzie Bob’s bike computer which has a temperature gauge showed that it was 110F on the highway.

Tomorrow is officially 68 miles into Devils Tower, however I am going to take a short cut and shave 5 miles off the route. 

Terry

July 5 2018 Worland to Buffalo – Powder River Pass

Today is typically the hardest day on the tour. The ride was scheduled for 92.8 miles and 8900 feet of climb.  The ride takes us over the highest pass on the tour at 9666 feet.  However as I am on the comfort tour I took the van to picnic at 48.0 miles.  I was accompanied by Ken T who is nursing his ankle tendonitis, Ron the other Canadian who is concerned that one knee may be bothering him and Auzzie Bob who four years ago wrote in his riding journal that this was the worst day of his riding career and never ever again will he do this ride.  My excuse is I am just too lazy to do it having ridden it twice.  The four of us lay about at breakfast drinking coffee and nibbling the remains of the breakfast buffet until Greg was ready to go. 

On the road we had a firsthand view of how the ride is managed with the vans coordinating where the riders are and how everyone on the ride is accounted for.   It is an excellent system and really comforting to know that Greg is totally on top of where everyone is. 

I was in the passenger seat up front so I got a great view of the first part of the ride and how there is 36 miles of increasingly deep hills and valleys before you enter the canyon which takes you up to the Powder River Pass.   I was more and more glad that I had sagged as I saw how deep the valleys were and how steep the road up the canyon was. 

At picnic bikes were unloaded and we set off.  It would have been nice to have feasted on the delicacies laid out but the mosquitos were so ferocious we had to get out of there fast.  Picnic was about half way up the major climb of the day so we still had some serious climbing to do. Luckily it was only about 10:00 am so it was still cool.  This was a bit of a trade off as the mosquitos were out in force and they could fly faster than I could ride.  I was being eaten.   At one point I wiped my hand across the back of one leg to brush off the mosquitos and came away with 6 of them and everyone was bloody.  I think I must have had 20-30 bites across my shoulders.  It was just tingling. 

Bob, Ron and I got to the summit, and grabbed a couple of pictures and hurried on.  After the summit there were a series of 7 climbs and 7 descents before the big decent into Buffalo.  The climbs were all in the 1-2 mile range with the descents in the 7-9% range.   Ron was right behind me and a deer ran out and crossed the road right behind me but I never saw it.   The final decent into Buffalo is about 12 miles long and very very scary. It is 7-12%, very winding, narrow and the shoulder which is nice enough was covered in sand.  A cattle van had passed just in front of us and sprayed the road with manure which added to the “is it slippery?” and the scary quotient.  At one point I had three trucks with trailers behind me before I could find a place to get off the road.  Glad it was over would not cover it.

Ron, Bob and I got into Buffalo about 1:30 pm and rolled into a local cantina to have some beer and nachos.  After which we headed up to the school, only to find that the hot water was not turned on.  Greg quickly organized a van shuttle to the local YMCA where I had a very nice shower with lots of hot water. In the meantime the school maintenance man showed up and got the hot water on.   Great work on the showers! 

Unfortunately I forgot to pack my camera to day and although I took some picture with my phone I have no idea on how to transfer them to my lap top.  If I figure it out I will post them later.  __ Sorry

Terry

July 4, 2018 Riverton to Worland

Ed and I rolled down to the Trailhead restaurant for breakfast and feasted on pancakes and sausages before hitting the road at 6:50 Am.  It was a good early start on a 92.5 mile day with 1950 feet of climb.

As forecast the wind was straight out of the north and as we were headed due north it was straight into our face.  However instead of the forecast 5 mph it was closer to 15 mph and was gusting to probably close to 25 mph.  To say it was a slog would be an understatement.  Ed and I were taking one mile turns doing the pulling.  Working about as hard as we could we could do about 12 mph.  This translates to an eight hour day plus lunch and breaks, we are going to be lucky to get in by 5:00 pm. 

We  drag out to first water stop which is at the 19 mile mark when the van pulls up. We jump in the van! Hey this is the comfort tour and I am not going kill myself.  We drive up to a service station and I grab a giant French Vanilla Cappuccino from the machine. When the van gets to the second water stop at mile 35 we are entering the Boysen State Park.  The road has turned the corner and we are protected from the wind and there is no wind all the way through the Wind River Canyon.  It is about 16 miles to picnic so Ed and I jump out of the van and ride the canyon.  The Wind River Canyon is the most beautiful section of the ride and it is downhill.

The canyon is a huge cut in the side of the hills with the rail road and the highway stuck alongside. The road has three tunnels.  In 2014 they were paving through the tunnels and it was a busy and scary section.  However as today is the 4^th of July there was no traffic and we just sailed through.

We fly down the canyon and into lunch.  On this side of the canyon there is hardly any wind so Ed and I check the weather report at a couple of places and the wind is out of the north but only 5 mph.  So we jump back on the bikes and ride on.  I cannot help but think what a brilliant move getting in the van was. We skipped 17 miles of grinding (or about 1.5 hours of hard grinding) into a horrid head wind through boring burned out sage brush country.

After lunch we took turns pulling but not in any real organized way just kind of riding along.  When we came to the last water the route turned down a side road but we could see the main highway in to Worland was straight ahead and so Ed and I took the main road and saved a further 3 miles.  The main road was along an irrigation canal so it was dead flat and had a huge row of cotton woods along one side which protected us from the wind so it was an easy pedal into camp.   

Ed and I made some smart moves and turned a tremendously tough day into a pretty nice ride. 

Terry hot biker

July 3, 2018 Dubois to Riverton

Today Ed W and I rolled out together as Ed was not working.  We got a good start as we were on the road by 6:45 and with the route being mostly downhill and with a slight tail wind we were averaging close to 25 mph. However it was too good to last and at the 18 mile mark Ed got a flat.  Ed tried to blame me as he hit a bit of trash I failed to point out until I was right beside it. However it looked like a seam failure as the hole was right on the gusset where the stem is jointed to the tube and the flat was several miles later.

After the course went from downhill to somewhat rolling and the slight tail wind shifted around and turned into a head wind.  This dropped the rolling average quite considerably and we took turns pulling into the wind. 

Picnic came up at the 42 mile mark. It was at a very nice rest area with a great view of the rolling hills and valley.  Shuli’s tomato soup was a real winner and after a couple of bowls of soup and a big sandwich we rolled on. 

I was feeling pretty strong and was pulling into the wind which had picked up considerably.  Ed and I caught and passed several riders. Finally I caught Ron and Graeme on a hill and as they are really good in a pace line Ed and I formed up with them.  The four of us were able to average close to 16 mph into the wind which was far better than we could do on our own.  The four of us cruised from about the 48 mile mark all the way to 69 mile mark were we turned off the main highway and went down a back road. 

We could see huge thunder clouds and big rain storms in the hills to south and west.  The wind was now very strong and by the time we got into town the wind was whipping so hard I could hardly steer my bike.  I was forced to make a left turn and thought I was going to be blown over.  As we had only a couple of miles to go we made it into camp with that vicious wind storm which precedes a thunder storm.

I had a heck of a struggle putting up my tent in the wind.  It took a lot of peg pounding and resetting but I did get it up.  The storm seems to have blown over but the wind is still howling.

Ed and I had a good day covering the 81.8 miles in excellent time. The route had a total climb of only 1360 feet but a net down of 1825 feet.

Terry

July 2, 2018 Jackson to Dubois

Ken and I were awake before the alarm this morning and were packed and ready to go in no time.  We talked about him sagging or riding and decided that the safer plan was to sag.  It was a 95 mile day with 4900 feet of climb.  This sounded like a lot on an ankle with tendonitis. 

The ride out of Jackson could not have been more perfect with a nice tail wind blowing us up along the Teton Range and through the Teton National park.  Temperatures were in the low 50’s and the sky a brilliant blue with only the odd little puff of white cloud.  The route took up the same route that we had ridden down when we went through Yellowstone. However seeing it from the opposite direction was great.  Tom and I rolled along together and chatted about doing different bike trips. 

At the end of the bike path we turned east on the highway (287) to Dubois. As we turned east the wind shifted from a south wind to a west wind and it really picked up.  The 47 miles down to picnic just flew by and I was in picnic in no time flat.  

After picnic was the big climb over Togwotee Pass at 9658 feet.  It was 17 miles of 2-6% with most of it at 6%.  The climb just seems to go on forever.  The increasing tail wind sure helped and helped keep things cool.   In fact the tail wind was so strong that at one of the 2% sections I was going at almost 20 mph. 

After the big climb to the pass there was still 35 miles to go. There was a 9 mile decent which was quite tricky as there were a lot of rough patches where the road crews had put down cold roll asphalt and not done a very good job.  Added to this was the wind which was swirling around at different angles in the canyon and it would grab your bike and throw it off.  I was glad to not have deep dish wheels. The narrow rims shed the wind.   After the decent the road was somewhat rolling but I just flew down the road at 20-35 mph without hardly pedaling due to the tail wind which had now turned to 30+ mph. 

Tonight we are in the Dubois convention center which is quite nice however outside camping is a long way from the center so packing bags was a chore. However the major compliant is the showers of which there are none.  Showers were in a laundromat which was about 2 miles away so you had to take a shuttle. Once there big line ups for one of the 3 stalls. I spent over an hour getting a shower.  Yes it was ok once in but in my opinion an hour to get a shower is unacceptable.  This is the fourth bad shower on the trip. So not to complain but the percentage of bad showers is getting out of hand.  However they do have wifi and it looks pretty good.

 Not losing track of why we are here and that it the ride.  And what a great ride we had today.  The wind gods are truly smiling upon me.

Terry    

July 1, 2018 Rest Day Jackson WY --- Happy Canada Day

Today was a well-deserved rest day.  This last week we rode 456 miles and climbed 18,780 feet (official numbers). 

Ken and I slept in and didn’t get over to breakfast until 9:00 am.  By then the restaurant was busy and we had a wait to get in but the full stack of pancakes was worth the wait. 

After breakfast Ken continues to ice his tendonitis. The internet says that it is caused by too much standing while climbing.  More sitting and spinning is what is prescribed. 

I sit down to get caught up on my blog and wind up writing a novel rather than a short description of the last few days events. 

About noon I walk down town from the hotel and wander through the western art galleries and tourist traps selling t-shirts and trinkets. This is a town where they use antlers in all of their decorating. The western art galleries were spectacular.  They had full size bronze castings of everything from cowboys on horses to 10 foot high grizzly bears costing north of $50,000.  I really liked a piece called “The OK Corral” which was the four stylized Earps  on a pedestal.  The large version of the four figures was about 30 inches high and cost $38,000 the 12” version was only $18,000.   There were lots of great animal paintings of everything from antelope to zebras, although bears dominated the pictures. Of course this is a tourist town and a rich tourist town at that.  The Sotheby’s real estate office had pictures of places starting at around $10,000,000. 

Having no need for any more t-shirts or room in my bag for trinkets (or bronze statues), I came home with some bike cleaning supplies and cleaned and oiled Ken’s bike and my bike.

Feeling well rested we are off to the group meeting and official start of week three of this tour which will take us through to Devils Tower.

Terry hot biker   

June 30 2018 Flagg Ranch to Jackson WY

It was nice to sleep late and we didn’t really get rolling until around 7:00 Am.  Packing up and then over to the main lodge for a lazy breakfast. We are on the road at 8:30 am into a bright blue sky with a nice little tail wind.   This morning we had 55 miles to cover and most of it was downhill.   Yes that’s right downhill with a tailwind under blue skies.

The first 20 miles down the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway just flew by as the road was so smooth and we had a good downhill.  The scenery was gorgeous, with Jackson Lake and Grand Teton mountains to the one side and rolling hills and high plateau meadows to the other side. The Tetons were reflected in Jackson Lake and it was stunning.

At Jenny Lake we picked up the bike path which runs all the way into Jackson.  The majesty of the Teton Mountains awe inspiring.  The pathway is in incredibly good shape with almost zero root bulges and zero cracks.  To say I didn’t pedal would be an exaggeration but not by much.  Sailing along at 15-18 mph with the tail wind was so effortless.  Stopping now and again to grab a photo. 

We cruised into Jackson and immediately went to the Snake River Brew Pub for lunch.  I feasted on the ham and egg sandwich washed down with their craft beer. 

I don’t know when the last time I had such a great day on my bike.  What a grand adventure this was.  We missed the terrible slog up the Jackson Pass from Ashton, and the scary decent, ate a couple really great meals, and have a remarkable tale to tell. I am so lucky to have been included in this adventure.

We arrive in Jackson and get to the motel.  There I find my friend Ken with tendonitis in his right leg.  I sure hope he can get over this as we have a long way to go yet.

And so ends the second week with a rest day in Jackson Wyoming.

Terry hot biker

June 29 2018 West Yellowstone to Flagg Ranch

Tom R had phoned me back in March to ask me if I would consider riding through Yellowstone with him instead of riding with the tour through Ashton.  This would give me two days of rides which I have not done as I have always stayed with the tour and ridden from West Yellowstone to Ashton and then on to Jackson.  This route would take us through Yellowstone and then on to Jackson with an overnight at Flagg Ranch.  I immediately accepted as this would give me two days of rides I had not done and it has been a long time since I had been through Yellowstone. 

Tom had also invited a couple of other riders along as he had booked a very large room and there were roll-away beds available.  Auzzie Bob had booked a room at Grant Village and he had another rider with him so this made six of us who were taking a detour through the park.   Tom had sat down and prepared cue sheets for us so the six of us headed off to breakfast and a quick rider meeting. 

The weather forecast looked grim whether we were going through the park or staying with the tour so it looked like we were in for a soaking no matter which way we went.  As we were headed out Ed pulled up with a full van full of roof riders (people who were taking van rather than riding their bike, so called as the bike is on the roof).   It wasn’t raining right now so how bad could it be?

Tom’s directions worked perfectly and we were at the West Yellowstone Gate in a couple of minutes.  A ranger waved the bikes around the lineup and we paid our fees and were down the road.  We are not 3 miles down the road and it starts to hail.  There are a couple of claps of thunder and then it really started to pour so we pulled in to a pullout and pulled on the heavy duty rain gear.    A mile or so later we spotted three bison nursing their calves in a meadow.   We hurray on as it is pouring rain and we have over 70 miles to cover. 

A mile or so later Bob goes down with only a minor scrap over the bridge of his nose where his glasses hit him.    Tom, Mike and I are in front of the crash and we press on to Old Faithful geyser.   We don’t see any other animals all the way into the Old Faithful lodge which is at the 33 mile mark.  We get hot chocolate and warm up and dry off a bit in the lodge while we wait for the rest to show up.  Finally they show up to our great relief.  There is a brief pause in the down pour and a couple of rays of sun and Tom hustles us back on the road. 

We still have three summits to climb and 43 miles to cover.   We are not down the road a mile when a huge clap of thunder hits and the hail starts anew.  A few minutes later hammering rain follows the hail.  As we start the first climb my front derailleur hangs up and will not shift and I am stuck in the largest front ring of my triplex.  After several frustrating minutes on the side of the road in a very narrow, steep, and busy section, I get the bike in the low gear and start the grind up the hill.  I am miles behind by now and every passing car motorhome, bus and truck is a 10 gal pail of ice water thrown on my back.   After what seems like forever I reach the first summit of 8262 feet where the rest of riders are waiting.  Having my bike stuck in the smallest front ring and only the rear derailleur working I am limited to about 18 mph  so I am soon lost by the rest of the riders on the decent following the first summit. On the climb to the second summit it is another huge grind but not quite as large although it is at 8391 ft. 

We pass a large road cut and round a bend there is suddenly blue sky. The rain lets up and we have the sun warming us.  We are now at Grant Village and have only 20 mile to cover.  The last summit is at 7988 ft so not much of a grind.   I have figured out that I can shift my front derailleur if the chain is in the center of the rear cassette. 

The last 15 miles from the third summit is all a huge decent into Flagg Ranch and with my bike back in gear I cruise at 30+ mph into Flagg Ranch.  

Supper in the Flagg Ranch is marvelous. I feast on a huge cut of Elk and Bison meat loaf. 

What an adventure!   A total 76 miles and 5600 feet of climb.  Tom, you really out did yourself.  Thank you.

Terry.