I was a bit disappointed to miss our final day of riding, but I respect the decisions made by the guides. Lots of women had already made their personal decision not to ride, so the van was already pretty full; I would be on the second shuttle. Just before they pulled out, though, the snow abated and we were given permission to ride if we wished. Why not; it seemed like a better option than killing at least 3 hours in Ennis in my bike clothes. Unknown to those of us left behind, at some point on the first trip the van and trailer pulled over to the side of the road to tend to a loose bike some miles from Ennis and a police car stopped to check on them. He reported that conditions further ahead were not good due to sleet & snow. Cy called (chef) Sue to hold us back, but we had left by then. Oh well....The road was wet but not icy and there was nothing new falling from the sky. A tad chilly though... We started out at -1.1C at about 9:30 and it didn’t reach 0C until 11:51 - brrrrr! The clouds hung very low on both sides of the road, but every once in a while we would catch a glimpse of mountain tops on either side of us which were beautifully adorned in fresh snow. Not much to look at today, though. About 14 miles into the ride we came upon a cattle drive with hundreds of head of cattle and about a dozens cowboys and cowgirls. The poor cattle stopped in their tracks and just stared at us. I’m sure the cowboys thought we were crazy too! The first photo is mine; the second is from Patricia, taken from inside the van.
The profile today was a gentle uphill the whole way, so it helped me to stay warm but I had to shed some clothes in order not to work up a sweat. The delicate balance of moisture management.....
Our second SAG stop was at about mile 43, the Earthquake Lake Visitor Centre. The Centre itself was closed for the season (I'm OK with that since it would have been quite the climb to get up to it on top of the landslide - 2nd picture below) but there were some interesting information boards along the road. A large earthquake happened here in August 1959, damming the Madison River and creating a huge lake. Twenty-eight people, mostly campers, were killed.
Eight of us did some riding today. Only 4 of us did the whole distance. The others came to their senses along the route. Shortly after Earthquake Lake (aka Quake Lake) came Hebgen Lake, a very large reservoir. Oh - and can we be far from Yellowstone when we start seeing bison signs?
The route flattened out, signs of civilization started to appear and the sky significantly brightened. When I stopped to take this picture, though, I looked behind and the black sky looked gruesome. We had a good tailwind at that point and I thought for sure we were going to get dumped on.
I only felt about 5 drops coming in to SAG #3 at about 62 miles. The storm luckily went around us - whew! Just a final easy nine miles into West Yellowstone.
I took the time to savour the views and reflect on what a terrific trip it has been. Everything was just great - the route, the scenery, the weather, and especially the people. Outstanding guides and just a really, really great group of women to travel with. We went out for a final dinner together and then back to the hotel for a fun gift exchange and heartfelt farewells. It looks like lots of folks have signed up for Part 2 next year. I hope we get most of the group back for an encore!
Stats for the day:
114 km / 71 miles from Ennis MT to West Yellowstone MT
3126 feet up, 1403 feet down
Temps: -1C to 16C. Cold and overcast for a long time. Finally turned into quite a pleasant day for maybe the last 15 miles. Quite a downpour came through town after we were all safely in.
Total stats for the trip:
1890 km / 1174 miles from Florence OR to West Yellowstone MT over 20 days of cycling.
54,741 feet of climbing
Temps: from -1C to 30C and everything in between. Way more sun than cloud and way more tailwinds than headwinds.
Calories burned: 20,774
Pounds lost: 0
Congrats to all!
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