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After staying our first night in a hotel, you could say that we were well rested. The Econolodge in Missoula allows dogs and they have continental breakfast where you can make your own Belgium waffles. Yummy! We woke up just in time to get the tail end of breakfast and then decided to go for a mountain bike ride. We were headed to a place called Rattlesnake National Recreation Area which is just 2 miles from downtown Missoula.
As we arrived at the trail head, the parking lot was already crowded (by Montana standards) and I was thinking our day would be spent passing/yielding to others on the trail. We headed out on a ride called Spring Gulch. It basically climbs up a creek drainage, crosses over the top of a mountain, and then descends down another creek drainage. 10 miles total with about 1400 ft of climbing.
This trail was awesome, super smooth single track greeted us after ½ mile of pedaling. The trail was probably 10 inches wide and it cruised through pine forests and meadows filled with wildflowers. I can say that this is the best smelling mountain bike ride I have ever been on. The trail climbed gradually up the creek drainage with a few super steep spots towards the top. We only saw one other person out here which was great because we felt like we were truly in the wilderness.
After turning right at the final trail junction towards the summit the trail starts to switchback through tall trees. At the second switchback, something caught my eye and I stopped pedaling and told Becca to stop too. Just down slope from the trail about 30 yards away was a BEAR! Becca thought I was joking with her because I know she is scared of bears, but when she looked again, there it was. Good thing we left the bear spray in the car. Becca was freaked! She began pedaling ahead and this was the fastest I have seen her ride when not in a race. I stayed to watch the bear for a bit. About 10 seconds after Becca sprinted away, the bear stood on its hind legs with its mouth open. I took this as a sign to get out of there.
I cruised ahead to catch Becca, but she was way up there. We made the final few switchbacks to the summit and I had to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure the bear wasn’t following us. So far this has been a pretty sweet ride!
The descent from the summit was the best part. About 4 miles of sweet, smooth single tack awaited us. Sweet it was! It seemed like a playground for bikes. I almost felt like I was snowboarding on a fresh powder day, smooth turns and big smile. The trail took us al the way back to the car. Becca agreed with me that this ride was awesome. If you are ever in Missoula, go ride it.
We spent the afternoon hanging around downtown Missoula. It reminded me of Boulder a little bit. It is a college town, University of Montana, situated alongside a river (the Clark Fork). There were a lot of cool shops and restaurants in the town and the people were really friendly. There also happen to be a ton of hippies hanging out which I don’t like too much. This city has a great park system and a trail that goes up and down the river. We watched the kayakers play in Brennan’s Wave and then some crazy guy started surfing the wave on a boogie board. It did not look as fun as it sounds because it is hard to move against the river using your arms as paddles. We took Payton for a long walk along the river and then started thinking about dinner.
We went to the Iron Horse for dinner which was packed full of people due to the live band playing out front. This place reminded us of the Southern Sun in Boulder.
They served the best beer in town: Kettle house brewery cold smoke scotch ale and the best French fries too. These titles were according to the Missoula news best of 2008. We had a great time here, but we were tired and could use some more sleep. Tomorrow we are headed to Glacier National Park.
After a long day if sitting in the car and doing some short side hikes to the various hot springs, I was ready for some heart-pumping exercise. I awoke in the Bridge Bay campground to a beautiful blue sky and cool temps. I could tell it was a perfect day for a bike ride. I took Payton for a quick walk and saw two huge black-tailed deer on the shores of Lake Yellowstone. I am glad Payton was on a leash. These deer looked like they could do some serious damage. I wish I had my camera with me.
After the walk I fired up some coffee to help get me going. I did the traditional French press method and used the sledgehammer beans from camp 4 coffee. This makes an extra strong cup of joe. In my boredom waiting for the water to boil, I decided to also fire up the new mooka express cappuccino maker that we received as a wedding present. You just put in the grounds, some water and some milk. In a few minutes you have perfect cappuccino. Well, that’s how it is supposed to work. I started looking over the map of my bike route for the day and forgot about the cappuccino. I can say that the machine makes a lot of foam. It poured out of the pot and all over the stove big mess.
After downing a few cups of the regular coffee, I was ready to roll. I pedaled out of the campground around 10 am with the plan to meet Becca in Mammoth hot springs later in the day. This would be my chance to get up close and personal with the sights and sounds of Yellowstone.
The ride starts following the shores of Lake Yellowstone. This lake is huge, with snow-capped peaks visible across the lake. The lake empties via the Yellowstone river, which the road followed for the next 18 miles. Along the way I was treated to views of rapids, water falls, and many Buffalo. A buffalo seems much bigger when you are on your bike and only 10 feet away. I am glad there weren’t any in the middle of the road like we had seen yesterday. I finally made it to canyon village. I have to say that the large motor homes cruising through the park are probably more dangerous than all the wildlife.
From Canyon Village the road heads up. I climbed through quite pine forests with a blanket of wildflowers in the meadows between. I reached 8859 ft Dunraven pass and was treated to incredible views of the park to the south. I could see down into antelope creek (prime grizzly habitat) and I could also see the edge of the Yellowstone caldera in all directions. I stopped to take in the view for a while and then headed down the other side. I was treated to a long descent on a smooth road that went through the old burn from 20 years ago. It is pretty weird to see a whole forest of standing dead. Luckily the young trees are growing in quickly.
This descent from Dunraven pass was awesome because it was long and fast with many swooping turns. I did not have to pedal at all. Soon enough, I reached Roosevelt Lodge. I had covered a distance of 40 miles in less than two hours. I was making great time and Becca had not caught me in the car yet. I was now on the third leg of the ride from Roosevelt lodge to Mammoth hot springs. Only 19 more miles to go. The road got rougher here and began to curve a bunch. I came around the corner only to be caught in a bear jam. This is like a traffic jam, but it is caused by a bear sighting on the side of the road. A grizzly was way off in the distance. I don’t know how anybody could see it to begin with, but sure enough, there it was. I rolled through the bear jam and noticed Becca was right behind me. I told the support car that I would see her at the finish.
The last stretch of the journey was the hardest part. Rolling, rough roads were nothing compared to the vicious winds that faced me. My pace slowed significantly and I started to question why I decided to do this. Crosswind, headwind, crosswind, headwind. All the way to Mammoth hot springs. I finally made it in 3 hours on the nose. I had covered 60 miles and had seen why Yellowstone is such an amazing place. We fueled up on cokes and sandwiches at the Mammoth Hot springs hotel and are headed north into Montana. A truly amazing day.
We left Jackson just before noon, and traveled up to Grand Teton National Park. Each National Park has a $25 entrance fee, so we were happy that we had purchased the annual pass back in March! The views of the Tetons from the overlooks were outstanding. Wildflowers are in full bloom and the foreground of each photograph was washed with sage, lemon & lavender hues. The snake river winds in the valley below the mountains, and Payton was excited to go swimming there. After traveling through the Grand Teton NP, the next stop is the entrance to Yellowstone NP. Again another $25 fee covered by our annual pass! We got the map and plotted a course. It was early afternoon, around 3pm, and our first stop was Old Faithful. Andy had never seen it, so we parked at the visitor center (which was packed with tourists...Old Faithful being the park's most popular attraction). It was estimated that the geyser would erupt at approximately 4:01pm, so we took Payton for a stroll & booked a campsite for the night. We have a short video of Old Faithful that I will attempt to upload to this site sometime this week. After enduring the mass of tourists, we headed around the western side of the main loop through the park stopping at fountain paint pot (a mud pot), sapphire pool (a deep blue hot spring) and hundreds of other thermal features. Along the way we ran into a number of the predicted "traffic jams". If it were not for two of them, we would have never seen a BEAR! The first large jam was for a Black Bear just about 40 yards off of the road eating - take a look at the slide show for photos. One of the last jams was for a Momma Grizzly & Cub. They were almost too far to distinguish with the naked eye, but we used the video & camera telephoto to get a better look. This was the first time either of us had ever seen a grizzly bear. Luckily they were very very far away. Along with herds of buffalo and elk, we also witnessed a small coyote hunting for it's dinner off the side of the road in an open field. It was a long day and we were too exhausted to cook dinner, so after setting up camp at Bridge Bay, we ate some ham sandwiches, had a small campfire and called it a night...after we locked all scented items including food in the car.
We left Louisville and traveled north on 285 into Wyoming. We headed west on Interstate 80 to route 191 north. Becca got pulled over for going 77 in a 65 on 191, so now we owe $100 in stated taxes to Wyoming.Last night we camped at Fremont Lake in the Bridger National Forest in north western Wyoming. See pics! A very beautiful wooded campground with aspen and douglass fir trees. Payton enjoyed swimming in the crystal clear lake. The campground is located just outside of the town of Pinedale.We arrived in Jackson, WY this morning at 11am and found a small coffee shop with wireless! The plan is to drive through Teton National Park and into Yellowstone. In Yellowstone we hope to do some of the hikes this afternoon, and a road bike ride in the park tomorrow. We hope to find camping somewhere in the park this afternoon.
We left Louisville today at 12:30pm. The plan is to make it to Jackson, WY by night fall. We are hoping to make it into Yellowstone sometime Wed evening. Stay tuned for photos!
We have recently recovered from the Wedding & Events following! Thanks to everyone who was able to celebrate the big day with us! It was so wonderful for all of our friends & families to meet each other.We are currently packing for our month long honeymoon road trip. We are inviting you all to follow along with our travels. We plan to post photos of the trip here in the up coming weeks, so please stay tuned.
Right now our route includes: A. Louisville, CO B. Jackson Hole, WY C. Yellowstone NP, WY D. Bozeman, MO E. Missoula, MO F. Glacier NP, MO G. Banff NP, Alberta, CA H. Kamloops, British Columbia, CA I. Vancover, British Columbia, CA J. Victoria Island, BC CA
The route home depends on time & gas.
Thanks to everyone who helped to make this trip possible!
