Cross Country Recumbent
Tuesday July 29, 2003. Ennis MT to West Yellowstone MT
Start time
|
8:04 am
|
End time
|
3:30 pm
|
Miles
|
79
|
Time pedaling
|
5:19
|
Average speed
|
14.8
|
| Odometer |
1225
|
Another nice easy day. It was a sleepy sluggish morning. I
heard Jeff getting up early, around 5:30. He was hoping to get to
Jackson MT, 120 miles away. By the time I was packing up the
RVers were getting up. Several of them kept quizing me in loud
voices about where I was going. For some reason they just couldn't
grasp the concept that the other tent might have someone sleeping
in it. Chris and I met up in Cameron to get breakfast, but
it turns out the cafe there doesn't do breakfast. Errrr.
Denying a cyclist his breakfast is not recommended. We ate power
bars and motored up the Madison river valley. A nice tailwind
gave escort, easily offsetting the gradual climb. Many
fly-fisherman were plying the Madison river, which you can see here:
I rode the tailwind all the way to Earthquake Lake. In 1959 a 6.3
magnitude quake caused a massive land slide that blocked the Madison
River and formed the lake. I hung around the Earthquake Lake
visitor center for about 40 minutes while Chris caught up (the
recumbent really shines on the flats). The visitor center is
devoted to the events of the earthquake and the subsequent
rescues. Both the event itself and the efforts of the rescuers
were impressive. The evidence of the quake is still quite
visible. The is the cliff that sloughed off into the Madison.
From there the route winds around Hebgen Lake into West
Yellowstone. I had been wondering all day about the tailwind,
which was blowing from the North. My suspicions were confirmed
when we talked to a local at a cafe: typically the winds are much
stronger and blowing from the South; so we really got lucky!
The day ended about 3 miles out from West Yellowstone, in a nice
campground. We unloaded the bikes and crusised into West
Yellowstone for dinner at this brew pub.
Dinner was a very nice pizza, washed down with the local brew.
The waitress was skeptical that we could actually eat the whole thing,
but 70 miles and meager breakfast will turn anyone into an eating
machine.
Yellowstone tomorrow: Wyoming, Old faithful, and Craig pass (8300')