Cross Country Recumbent
Wednesday July 30, 2003. West Yellowstone MT to Grant Village WY
Start time
|
8:44 am
|
End time
|
6:15 pm
|
Miles
|
60.8
|
Time pedaling
|
4:30
|
Average speed
|
13.5
|
| Odometer |
1285
|
This was my first trip to Yellowstone, but I don't think it will be my
last. As you can see by the start time, the morning was
lazy. I didn't
actually enter the park till nearly 9:30, after having breakfast in
West Yellowstone. Entering the park was pretty comical; as I and
my bike waited in line along with the monster RVs pulling the family
SUV. Even the bicycles are charged 10 dollars to get in.
The route goes mostly through Southern part of the park. The plan
for the day was to ride to Old Faithful, hang out, and then conquer the
pass in the evening. That's pretty much how it worked out.
Somewhere during the early part of the day I entered Wyoming, but there
wasn't any sign, so no picture.
The park suffered a severe wildfire in 1988, and the scars are still
dramatically visible. The forest is basically full of four feet
trees punctuated by the occasional 50 foot dead tree. But for all
that it is still beautiful. A shot of the Madison only a few
miles into the park:
It turns out that the Madison river is warmed by all the thermal
activity in the park. This is what makes it such a good trout
fishing river (the town motto for Ennis is "10,000,000 trout, 1,000
people: good odds"). Of course no visit to Yellowstone is
complete without a picture of Old Faithful in full swing:
Interestingly, the period at which old faithful erupts has been growing
longer. Each time the Earth moves (as it does here often) the
period gets longer. I guess this means the resevoir that feeds
the spout is getting bigger with each earthquake. Even more
impressive than Old Faithful is the number of people that come to see
it. I estimate there were at least 5,000 people in the vicinity,
most of them lined around the geyser waiting for it to go.
Chris met up with me at the Old Faithful lodge and we hung around until
about 4:00 before tackling Craig pass and the continental divide.
The pass (actually there are two passes separated by about 500' of
valley) was not as hard as expected. The only challenging part
is the air. At 8300' you can really tell the air is
thinner. Each time I took a drink of water I wouldn't breath for
maybe 3 seconds. Inevitably 5 to 10 seconds later I could feel
the lactic acid burn in my legs for a few seconds. I guess that
means it takes 10 odd seconds for each breath of air to dissolve into
the bloodstream and get carried around to where it is needed.
I began to visualize myself as this engine: my lungs were the intake
manifold and supercharger, the heart the fuel pump, and the legs were
the pistons and combustion
chamber. My brain was the ECU that managed the whole thing,
keeping the engine running at peak performance. It is an
interesting analogy because the human body really is similar to a heat
engine, with all of the myriad problems associated with such a
device. This pass, although not that dificult, is thus far the
highest of the trip. In fact I think this may be the highest I've
ever been not counting airplanes. I'll soon top this though, with
Togwotee pass at 9000+ and Hoosier at 11000+.
The day ended with an easy descent into Grant campground; which was
full if you are in a car (on a Wednesday!). However they have a
few hike/biker sites so all is well. I'm not yet sure about
tomorrow. One possibility is to ride down the Teton spur of the
route to Jackson, or maybe I'll hole up in Colter Bay with Chris.
Either way I'll end up in Teton national park tomorrow. When I
come back to Yellowstone I'll have to explore the Northern part of the
park.