Sept 21st to 23rd Drive from Livingston to Montreal

The car was fixed and we were on our way by 11am. We kept an eye on the temperature gauge as we drove through Montana, North Dakota (Tuesday night in Bismarck), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (Wednesday night in Marquette), Sault Ste Marie, Ontario and arrived home at midnight Thursday. So, that’s it, 2653km and 21596m of hill climbing in fantastic countryside. Thank you all for following us and we hope you enjoyed the ride. We will produce a book of the blog and use more of the pictures we have and all being well you should get a chance to see it some time in the next few months. Until the next tour………. TG & TB

Sept 20th: Mammoth Hot Springs to Livingston 96km 251m

Gardiner, Montana

Today is our last day.  With just a coffee and a granola bar for breakfast we were on the road by 7:15.  We exited Yellowstone Park after 5 km and passed through Gardiner, a real western looking town.  Our route followed the Yellowstone River to Livingston, so it was downhill all the way.  With the wind at our backs we flew down the highway at an average speed of 30kph.  It was 55km before we stopped for breakfast.  After breakfast we continued non-stop to Livingston and back to our car.   We arrived in Livingston shortly after noon.

We disassembled the bikes, packed them into the car and headed back to Montreal.  Within 15 miles we had a broken-down car and we flagged down some locals.  The local tow truck recommended Larry’s Foreign Car Service and there we went.  Larry looked at our car and diagnosed a seized alternator.  The parts had to be shipped overnight, so his wife Cornice arranged a ride to a hotel and we over-nighted in Livingston.  

Delivery to Larry's Foreign Auto Service

Sept. 19th: Canyon Village to Mammoth Hot springs 59km 499m

Norris Geyser  Basin

Tim G’s shoulder injury seems to have recovered after last night’s cure. On our last day in the park we rode to Mammoth Hot Springs via Norris. We stopped to look at the Norris Geyser Basin, but it paled in comparison to the Old Faithful area. When we resumed the journey we were heading north beside the Gardiner River, with a tailwind. It was the gentlest 30km we rode all week. Unfortunately we were going so fast we broke the speed limit and when we stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs we received a lecture from a ranger about obeying the traffic rules. We agreed to comply.

Steam Vent - Norris Geyser Basin

Mammoth Hot Springs Upper Basin

Mammoth Hot Springs -Upper Basin

 

Sept. 18th: Grant Village to Canyon Village 79km 730m

Natural Bridge

The price for everything in Yellowstone park has been high so we were pleased to find an all you can eat buffet breakfast to start the day.  It had all our favourite breakfast items and included a bottomless cup of coffee.  We hit the road rather late. 

Our first stop was a natural stone bridge followed by the mud volcano area.  The mud volcano area was impressive, but the pictures of mud looked just like mud.  When we arrived near Canyon we rode to the viewing points along the south and north rims of the canyon.  The Yellowstone river flows through a canyon of high rock walls.  The colouration in the rock was a surprise – bright yellows and reds.   It was an impressive sight.

Yellowstone Canyon

    

When we planned the trip I had read that cycling in the park was difficult.  This has proved true.  The traffic is heavy, the roads are poor quality and the shoulders are narrow.  I have ridden off the road twice so far due to narrow shoulders, but until today we have had no serious mishaps.  Our luck ended today.  As we were crossing a bridge we were overtaken by a camper van.  I was startled by the blast of air as the van just missed me.  TimG was 10 meters ahead of me and the van hit him in the shoulder.  TimG was lucky to maintain his balance and neither of us fell.  The driver pulled over about 200 meters up the road and was checking his mirror (which was broken) when we arrived.  He said he wasn’t used to such a big vehicle, pointed out the mirrors were really wide, and blamed us for being on the road.  I took his picture, with the van’s licence number, and we carried on.   We waved down the first ranger we saw and he wrote up a report.  Then we had lunch.  TimG is suffering from a bruised shoulder, so as a preventive measure I made sure he drank lots of alcohol to deaden the pain and improve the blood flow to the injured shoulder.

Sept 17th: Yellowstone Old Faithful Inn to Grant Village 45km, 691m

Bison

Elk

‘twas a cosy night in our one bed. This was the first time we had not been able to get a twin bedded room. It is hard work sleeping on the edge of a mattress and trying not to move so we were up early. TimB went off to take pictures as the sun came up and I set off to do the laundry. Our Inn was too old to have a laundry so I had to walk to the more modern Snow Lodge on the other side of a humungous car park at the back of our Inn.    

Castle Geyser

TimB was finished before I was but we were still able to get packed and out before 10 o’clock. We watched Old Faithful erupt again at 10 and then went into the Visitor Education Centre to learn about fumaroles, mud pots, hot springs and, of course, geysers. Fully mentally equipped we set off to explore the Upper Geyser Basin, the Biscuit Basin and the Black Sand Basin. After seeing these three areas we were suffering from geyser overload and TimB had 200 pictures of steam and hot water so we did not ride up to see the Midway and Lower Geyser Basins. In any case, it was getting towards mid afternoon and we had to ride the 30km back over two passes to get to Grant Village. Two miles before G.V. we visited the West Thumb Geyser Basin (just to get some more pictures) and were treated to our first close up of some park wildlife.

Sapphire Pool

TimG after a big lunch

Sept 16th: Hatchet Resort to Yellowstone Old Faithful Inn 127km, 1470m

Today was a day of passes. We had to travel from well outside the east gate of Teton NP through the east gate, bend round to exit the park through the north gate, traverse the national forest region to the Yellowstone south entrance, travel north over the Continental Divide (2435m), run down trough Grant Village and West Thumb, turn west and climb over the Divide back to the Pacific side (2558m), run down past Shoshone Point, then climb back over the Divide through Craig Pass (2518m) to get to Old Faithful Inn. This happened because there was no accommodation available in Grant Village for tonight. We have got a room there tomorrow night so we get to retrace our path over those last two passes and then we have finished crossing the Divide for the rest of this trip.

  

The Old Faithful Inn is, as one might guess, very close to the Old Faithful Geyser and we were able to sit down, along with several hundred other tourists, to watch the 18:20 eruption. The whole area here is full of steaming hot springs and geysers but that is something to explore tomorrow. The Inn is something we had to look at this evening. It is a very large structure, not only horizontally, but vertically. When you walk in to the entrance you can look up 74ft to the top of the roof and the lobby is surrounded by two mezzanine floors. Now this might not sound remarkable but considering that it was built over 100 years ago entirely out of tree trunks and branches I think it is an impressive building.

Old Faithful Lodge

Sept 15: Togwotee pass 54 km 889m 2944m high

Top of Togwotee Pass

We had 1 goal today - to climb Togwotee pass and come back down. Togwotee (at 2944m) is the highest pass we have climbed so far. From our current location (Hatchet Resort) we are at the foot of the pass and within 100 meters we started to climb. It was a steady 6% climb and after 3 hours we were approaching the top when we were stopped by construction. We had been stopped about 1 km from the top. They wanted to load our bikes into a pickup truck and drive us through the construction to the other side of the pass. All the cars were going through in a convoy. When we explained we wanted to go only to the top they got a truck for us, and a volunteer on break, to drive us to the top. The top was under heavy construction so we took our picture with our driver (Dayle) and she drove us back to the start of the construction. It was a quick descent.

Pinnacle Buttes on Togwotee Pass

Sept 14th: Jackson Hole to Hatchet Lodge (Moran) 89km 648m

Morning Storm

It’s a good job nobody could film us trying to get moving this morning. It takes about 3 minutes to get my calf muscles moving pain free. TimB looks like he needs a Zimmer frame (walker). It was a slow start to the day and after some shopping for breakfast and supplies at the supermarket we rode around the middle of JH to take some photos. It was after 12pm when we finally set off north to pass where we were yesterday and continue on past Jenny Lake to Signal Mountain Lodge where we stopped for lunch. The weather forecast was for possible showers and thunderstorms and it was spot on.  We watched the weather over Jackson deteriorate in our mirrors and a thunderstorm pass across ahead of us.

Storm approaching

All we got was rough winds and a few rain spots from the edge of the storm behind us. After lunch we rolled on through the forest until we came to the Jackson Lake dam, which formed the road. We stopped to take pictures but suddenly the mountains to the left, on the other side of the lake, had disappeared in black cloud and the winds dropping off the mountains accelerated across the lake and nearly flattened us.

After the storm

My bike was blown over twice so I stopped trying to stand it up and TimB took shelter behind a pickup. After one picture we decided to adopt TimB’s suggestion and “get the hell outta here”. The road turned to the right after the dam and the wind pushed us on at 45kmh and we thought we would be at the Hatchet Lodge in next to no time but it turned out to be 10km further east than we had been told. It was with some relief that we arrived because about a mile ahead there was a full-scale thunderstorm in progress even though we were riding in sunshine.

Arrival at Hatchet Ladge

Sept. 13th Ride & Climb to Amphitheatre Lake; Ride 54km 260m, Walk 16km 400m

Our plan for today was a hike into the mountains to Amphitheatre Lake. We rode 30km from Jackson Hole to the trail-head and started our hike. Tim G is an ex-Alpine club member and has conquered 100’s of peaks in the Alps so a 12km walk will be a snap. We bought a map at the trail-head and started the climb. One kilometre down the trail we asked each other for the map and neither of us had it so TimG hiked back to get it. After 3 kms of easy hiking we stopped for a food and photo break at Bradley Lake. We continued up until we hit the next trail junction. The climb turned into a steep uphill hairpin climb. We started up, but we set a time limit to turn around and after 2kms we had reached our time limit. We were both feeling great so we continued a bit farther. When a group of hikers coming downhill said we were at the best part of the climb, we made the decision to turn around without reaching our goal. Downhill is always easier than uphill – so they say. That wasn’t the case for us. My toes started to cramp, my feet hurt, my hips got stiff and, strangely, the trail back was longer than the trail out. At the bottom TimG was walking funny and I was walking funnier. We learned two things: cycling shoes are not the best for hiking and cycling muscles are not made for hiking. It was absolute bliss to get back on our bikes and the 30km ride back to Jackson was a doddle. Back in Jackson we celebrated our survival with a double scoop ice cream. (Cold is good for aching joints.) Tomorrow will be a slow day.

Bradley Lake from above

Bradley Lake

Sept. 12th: Driggs - Jackson 54km 735m

10% grade - Teton Pass

World record downhill with luggage

The fine weather continued (and is forecast to do so until Fri) and it was so pleasant and warm we stopped in Victor, after only 13km and sat in the sun outside a café drinking coffee. We would have stayed longer but there was Teton pass to climb. We set off climbing steadily and before long a sign warned (trucks) of a 10% gradient for the next few miles and that is exactly what we got. We were in a narrow valley forested on both sides but at the summit, 2568m, there was a clear view for miles across the Snake River valley with Jackson in the distance. When we rode in the rain last Thursday 10 inches of snow fell on this pass but fortunately there was very little left today and the road was clear and dry. Moreover, the road dropped 650m with a 10% gradient so a downhill speed record was on the cards and sure enough I clocked 90.5kph, a personal record. Now that was fun and I’d love to have another go without the luggage on the bike but we have other plans.

Sept. 11th: Driggs - Targhee pass 46km 607m

House for sale near Driggs

We had a tourist day in Driggs. The clouds had disappeared overnight and we had cloudless skies and crystal clear views of the mountains so we rode up to the Grand Targhee ski resort in the afternoon. The weather was great and as we passed through Alta, Wyoming, the views opened up giving us many opportunities to take pictures of the Teton Mountains.

The Tetons from Grand Targhee road

Sept 10th: Idaho Falls to Driggs 119km 793m

Idaho Falls

Another cold and windy day, but the wind was at our backs for the first 50km and the rain held off.  The final 60km were a bit more strenuous with a heavy crosswind most of the time, but we crossed some beautiful terrain and saw the potato fields of Idaho. Teton Valley is the largest area of seed potato management in the world As we entered the Teton Valley the mountains came into view – covered with fresh snow from the previous night.   We are in Driggs, Idaho for 2 nights because our next stop, Jackson, Wyoming is fully booked on Sat. night.    We had a few beers at the local tavern last night with Nick, a self-proclaimed conservative.  We had an enlightening conversation about gun control, Medicare, taxes, same sex-marriage and immigration.  Nick is 33 years old, unmarried and owns 6 guns.  He is a well-spoken polite young man and we wish him well.

Canyon River

Teton Valley

Sept 9th: Arco to Idaho Falls 116km 784m

Today was another tough weather day. We started with a heavy cloud cover, cold spitting rain and a strong wind. The rain continued all day but we never got a heavy downpour, just a light rain all day. We rode into the wind for only 3 km and it kept us down to 15kph but as we turned east the wind was at our back or a crosswind all day. The stretch between Arco and Idaho Falls is one of the most barren stretches we have traversed. The only civilization for 100 km was the atomic reactor development facilities of the US government. We detoured 3km to the south to see the EBR1-Experimental Breeder Reactor but we were 3 days too late because the visitor centre had closed after Labour Day i.e. last Monday.  

Sept. 8th: Craters of the Moon National Park 74km 471m

 It was well worth the extra 60km round trip back to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. The loop road led us round the different types of lava, splatter cones, caves and lava tunnels. There are black cones where very little vegetation has developed in the 2500years since the cone erupted up and other cones that are 7500 years old an in that time have become green all over (mostly with a hardy sagebrush) and even have pine trees on them. It is an arid and rough landscape and there are 750,000 acres of it!! 

AA Lava

Lava Tunnel

Apaupau Lava

Sept. 7th: Hailey to Arco 117km 648m

Hills near Carey

We left Hailey with the wind at our backs and made good time for the first hour. Then we turned east into an easterly wind and the hard work started. We have left the mountains behind but we are still going up and down. It is haying season and the fields are green and gold. We have trucks laden with hay whizzing past us regularly with two and sometimes three trailers. We rode through the top edge of the Craters of the Moon National Monument today and stopped at the visitor centre where we sat through a ranger presentation about the origin of the park and decided to come back tomorrow to see the park properly. We rolled into Arco in good time and got a hotel room at the best hotel in town.
Arco was the first town in the world to be powered completely by atomic power. There is an experimental nuclear reactor 40km outside of town, which we will visit on our way to Idaho Falls if it is not too far off the main road. Unfortunately, Arco appears to have fallen on hard times – Main Street has several businesses boarded up and bars and restaurants are sparse. Our motel only costs $57 per night so we will stay an extra night and go back 30km to the Craters of the Moon NP tomorrow and ride around it to see all the features.

Sept 6th: Stanley to Hailey 122km 866m

Morning Frost

Getting up this morning was hard. 
I’d seen the frost on all of the cars outside and was not keen to make an early start to a 50km climb over the 2661m Galena summit. Still, it had to be done and at least the sun was up in a cloudless sky so there was hope that the temperature would rise to double figures. With some thicker clothes on we set off just before 10 and climbed steadily for 40km to the Smiley Creek Lodge where we were able to warm up with a soup for lunch before tackling the last 10km and 450m climb to the pass. The climb up rewarded us with tremendous views across the source of the Salmon River and way, way down the valley that we had ridden up.         

Salmon River near source

The ride down from the summit to Hailey was 70km with 1000m drop so we were looking forward to an easy afternoon but unfortunately, as the day warmed, a southerly wind developed so after the initial steep descent we had to pedal quite hard to get down the rest. It was with some relief that we arrived in Ketchum (famous as the town where Ernest Hemmingway committed suicide) and were able to take a late afternoon break.  We finished our break with a passion fruit double scoop ice cream cone before tackling that last 20km to Hailey.

Salmon River Valley

Ketchum ice cream

Sept 5th: Stanley 40km 272m

Sawtooth Mountians

Being in the middle of the Labour Day long weekend and having had problems getting a room last night we decided to get a room for an extra day in Stanley by waiting for people to check out at the hotel next to the restaurant where we breakfasted and then booked ourselves in for the night. We used the day to get online at the library, get laundry up to date and then ride over to see Redfish Lake set in front of the Sawtooth mountains. TimB booked a room for tomorrow night south of Ketchum so we are not under pressure to get there before teatime when he motels generally start to fill up.

Redwood Lake Chipmunk

Sept 4th: Challis to Stanley 102km 841m

Hot spring source - Sunbeam

Today will rank amongst the toughest we have done.  We plodded along all day into a strong headwind and uphill.  Again we followed the Salmon River and passed through canyons and valleys of Idaho.  This time the wind seemed to channel through the canyon and straight into us.  At times we were down to 10 kph as the wind just about stopped us dead.  Idaho is not heavily populated and we travelled most of the day through wilderness and farmlands.  There were two points of particular interest a few miles before Stanley. One was a viewing point over the gravel beds in the river where the salmon were breeding and the other was a hot water spring pouring a lot of sulphurous water straight out of the mountainside rock about 10m above the road. This water was too hot to touch for more than a second and where the water entered the Salmon River on the other side of the road, rocks had been used to create a warm bathing pool which was actually being used by a young lady in a bikini!! We did have 2 stops along the way where we got lunch and an ice cream cone.  Due to the slow travel we arrived in Stanley after 6 pm and the whole town was booked.  We rode back to Lower Stanley and they were also booked out, but the nice lady at the motel made several phone calls and all she could find, at a motel/lodge further down the road, was a tepee to sleep in with no bathroom or toilet facilities for $35. It was either that or sleep outdoors and the forecast overnight temperature was just above freezing (we are 1908m above sea level here) so we resigned ourselves to the tepee and little to eat or drink in view of the lack of toilet facilities.  Much to our surprise and relief, when we arrived at the Salmon River Lodge they had freed up a room for us and we have a comfortable room with a hot shower though there is no TV, telephone or internet.

Salmon River - Challis

Near Stanley