Detours and a buddy

I'm in West Yellowstone MT. Finally made it to the last state on my trip; Montana.

After leaving Jackson hole I rode a good bit through the Grand Teton National Park which was absolutely stunning. Huge rock formations rising several thousand feet in the air above flat valley floor--Amazing. The only thing better would have been a clear blue sky, but as my luck would have it, it was raining.

After the Teton park, the route called for me to go west through Idaho and the up north into Montana. However, being that the Yellowstone National Park was only 10 miles up the road, I decided to forgo the American Cyclist route and go through Yellowstone. Afterall, how many other times in my life am I going to be near Yellowstone. Yellowstone was a scenic ride too, though I must warn anyone who attempts to bike through there, the park is BIG. By 6 pm I had made my way to old faithful geiser, and wanting to be a typical tourist for a day, I waited till the next eruption which was predicted at 7:20. True to its name Old faithful went off at 7:22 pm, 2 minutes close to the predicted time. It was cool but nothing entirely too special. I would have loved to hike around and see all the other features of the park, the hot springs, sulphur springs, bubbling mud...but it was getting dark and I had to cover another 16 miles before sundown.

I then headed further in the park to Madison Junction where I camped out for the night. A scary moment was riding on the road with buffaloes flanking me on both sides. Apparently these beasts can run up to 30 mph when they charge, and they have charged at people before. Being that I was on a bike and not in a car, I felt a bit uneasy when a couple miniature wooly mammoths were standing only 10 feet away from me. Fortunately nothing happened.

I ran into a biker I had met before in central Colorado too, which was totally unexpected but a welcome thing. We shared stories of what had happened since we split back in Frisco. Although we took different routes to get to Yellowstone, we both had similar stories about central Wyoming: wind and rain. I aslo met a ranger in Yellowstone who, curious about my heavy loaded bicycle asked me where I was headed. I told him mexico to Canada. He then said "this doesn't mean to rain on your parade but several years ago I met a cyclist, who was came from Tierra Del Fuego and was headed towards the arctic circle"--that's something I'm perfectly happy to read about, but would never consider doing--for now.

Lastly, I'm not going to be finishing this trip where I planned it, or alone! I'm still going to Canada, but I'm not going to fly out of Calgary; I'll be flying out of Kalispell MT. Calgary tacks on an extra 250 miles and unless I pull some really long days, I won't make it in time. Furthermore, my older brother Julien is flying into MT on saturday and we're meeting up on sunday in Three Forks MT, and finishing up the last 600 miles or so of the trail together. Though riding the trail alone is spectacular in its own right, I have to admit, its better when you have someone to ride along with.