Woosie, what a doosie of a daysie, but not in a bad waysie.
I got out of camp at a decent time, well, sort of. 7:50 am, my goal is 7:30, but it was before 8am. My camp host buddies offered me morning k-cup coffee, which I usually decline since k-cups are the devil, but, the opportunity for coffee while packing up was too much to refuse.
The ride started and ended with about 10-15 miles of pavement each, with about 30 miles of rough gravel and dirt in the middle, making for 65 miles for 5:38 on bike (kind of a standard on bike time for this trip, but more than I prefer for other tours), and riding from 7:50 to 5pm.
The cool thing about today is I biked *around* the Grand Tetons. I approached them from the west, climbed over their north flank on dirt (it was a difficult climb at times on rough road, but not too bad) and toured down their east side for awhile to end up in Colthier Bay, a sort of touristy campground in the Tetons, but that has relatively cheap food and a hiker biker section that's affordable. The campground is full, for cars, but there is often room for hiker bikers. The route I biked went through a narrow national forest strip that separates Yellowstone National Park from the Tetons National Park - so I saw into Yellowstone a lot today.
I think I'm going to take my first rest day here. There are full services, and a great view of the Tetons over the lake, which I can swim in, etc. It's a little... touristy, but hey, that's national parks.
I ran into the southbounders that I'd been leap frogging since Bannack. I thought they were ahead of me but the came up on me around mile 30 mile during my second breakfast on the climb around the Tetons. We leapfrogged for a bit more, and then hung out for a bit at a lodge/restaurant about 15 miles before this place. I *think* they are staying in this same campground tonight, but I got here a ways before them and left to go get food at the cafe and wifi.
They are cool folks, doing 10 days on the trail with a start 30 miles outside of Butte and riding close to where they live in Wyoming. One of them sewed all the bags they are using, and the other sectioned some of Canada and Wyoming in the past. I'm also jealous of their front shocks.
Tonight I plan on watching the sun set on the beach over the Tetons, and then sleeping in past 5:15am tomorrow. Sweet!
Oh, also, the route lines up the Trans America Adventure Cycling route right now, so I expect to see some road baggers around as well. I actually did this section waaaaay back in 2003 on my first x-country bike tour. I remember it a bit - I was a 23 year old Iowa boy who was experiencing his first real mountains on this tour, and had just biked through Yellowstone. Many things have changed since then. :)
