Day 29, (6/27/07) Rand, CO to Heeney Dam (Past Kremmling, CO), 70.6 miles

We climbed over our fist Colorado Continental Divide at 9,621 feet. Not too bad, but the last 4 miles were pretty steep. We rode past Kremmling to help our ride out the next day, but we stayed in Kremmling. THe skies were looking like T-storms, but it held out and we got our ride in. I am not a fan of the lack of shoulders and the Colorado drivers are not very courteous! We've been run off the road several times!

Day 28, Riverside, WY to Rand, COLORADO-71.7 miles

NEW STATE! A state which hopefully has wind (although doubtful). Today was exhausting, I ended getting in the RV at the end of the ride and passing out, we had to drive 13 miles on dirt roads to find anywhere to stay. My knees are a little sore, but I'm PUMPED to be in a new state!

Day 27, 6/25/07-Rawlins, WY to Riverside, WY, 63 miles

WIND! I hate it. Actually the first part of today was easy, we had a nice tailwind, a very strong tailwind, the only issue is that we had to ride on Interstate 80, our first highway riding experience of the trip. Wide shoulders, but lots of gravel in them and lots of trucks going 70-80mph! Then we turned south off of the highway and hit some crosswinds which wasn't pleasant and the rest of the day we had very strong headwinds...

But, we did go through Sinclair Wyoming, which apparently is the home to the Sinclair oil refinery. (picture above).

There is Riverside way off to the distance, actually only about 5 miles, but with the wind it didn't feel like downhill or 5 miles! Tomorrow we plan to make it to Rand, Colorado, which will be our fifth state. Counting today we've gone 1700 miles! Not too shabby.

Day 26 (6/24/07), Jeffrey City to Rawlins, WY 53.5 miles

All I can say is that I'm HAPPY that we went those 14 extra miles yesterday!! Wyoming is windy once again! Not like 20 mph winds but 30-40mph winds! But we made Rawlins in relatively good time and had lunch and went to the grocery store in Rawlines. We passed over the continental divide twice today, although they weren't more than 8 miles each of climbing and each was at about 7000 ft elevation.

This picture shows the road winding up the second Continental Divide of the day.

Day 25 (6/23/07), Lander to Jeffrey City, WY 72 miles

Wyoming is windy...I think that is all I have to say. We had a nice calm day and then picked up fierce head wind and after 20 plus miles we picked up a tailwind. We went about 14 miles past Jeffrey City but ended up coming back to stay the night. We went to the only thing open in town a Cafe/Bar/fuel place and met some other cyclists there. Not too much to see, but plenty of plains for the wind to whip over.

Skip's mom, Skip and Cydna

Day 24 (6/22/07) DuBois, WY to Lander, WY 77 miles

We attempted to start early because yesterday afternoon got so hot, today was similar weather and by about 10:30 the heat was oppressive. The first 45 miles just blew by, it was a slight downhill (some rolling in there) and a tail wind we had an average speed of about 19 mph without trying. Then we had took a turn and had a two mile climb, and we turned into the wind! It was much harder to pedal and the heat was starting to get to us. It was 92 degrees when we arrived in Lander around 1:15pm. We called it quits for the day but we did the mileage we planned on. The landscape reminded me of the southwest, very arid looking, especially as we entered Wind River Indian Reservation.

Day 23 (6/21/07), Moran Junction to DuBois, WY ~48 miles

Today was a shorter day of riding, but the 21 mile climb up the second highest pass of the whole route, and the highest by far called for a shorter day. We climbed the first half of the day up Togawtee Pass elevation 9,658 feet!

It was a slow grind up, and I expected to fly down to DuBois, unfortunately the construction crew that had chopped up the pavement of 14 miles on the descent didn't have the same ideas. The ride down through gravel was slow and scary, especially when inconsiderate cars tried to force us in to large piles of gravel on the edge of the "road". They drove us over about 2-3 miles of the construction that was one lane and they were doing that for all cyclists. Over the pass we entered "Butte" country and then closer to DuBois it even looked a little bit like the soutwest.

There was another Jackalope at a gas station. It was a half day of riding mostly, but the 90 degree temps here in DuBois and a decision to just take a rest day has me here in the DuBois library updating my blog. Sorry for the lack of details but I was kicked off the computer a couple times by the librarian. We haven't had much cell phone reception or internet so I will try to keep updating as much as possible-even if it is more than a week in between! Hope everyone is doing well and having a good summer. I appreciate all of your comments so keep them up!

Day 22 (6/22/07), Old Faithful (Yellowstone, WY) to 6 miles east of Moran Junction, WY 73 miles

Started off the day as early as possible at Old Faithful and biked south to the south entrance and 7 miles between Yellowstone and Grand Tetons and through Grand Tetons park and out to Moran Junction. Yellowstone was a mix of hot spot geology and wild animals and the tetons were amazing. They just pop right up out of the ground (that's technical geology speak). I can't do them justice with any of my pictures and I certainly can't find the words to describe them. We crossed the continental divide three times today in Yellowstone.

It was once again a sunny and clear beautiful day.

Day 21, 6/19/07 West Yellowstone, MT to Old Faithful, WY ~31 miles

Yesterday was a day off, we picked up Skip's mom at the Cody airport (which by the way takes a very long time to get to from Fishing Bridge Village in Yellowstone), we saw Old Faithful go off and basically drove around the park a bunch. Today we went up to Mammoth hot springs and saw the springs but we got disconnected as a group and then we finally connected and drove to the West entrance at West Yellowstone and had a night ride from the entrance to Old Faithful. There was a nice strong headwind for the first part of the ride after that we fought a strong headwind. There are waaaay too many beautiful pictures of scenery and wildlife in Yellowstone to even try to show it all, but we saw lots of bison, a bald eagle, a coyote, a wolf, some mule deer and some elk, pelicans and some swans, i think that's almost everything there is to see.

Day 19 6/17/07, Virginia City, MT to West Yellowstone, MT 75 miles

Started off as a beautiful day but ended in a downpour and winds like I've never felt riding before. 30-40 mile per hour winds had us ending a little bit early,but that's okay, we planned to SAG into Yellowstone and take two days off, so we'll ride a litte on one of our off days.

The storm is brewing in the background.

Day 18 (6/16), Bannock State Park to Virginia City ~81 miles

We climbed Beaver Pass to start the day. The view on the way down showed

hazy mountains which were amazing. It was a nice day until it started to thunder, which made a nice view of the clouds at the end of the day. We saw a hawk with a fish in its talons.

Day 17 6/15/07, Sula, MT to Bannock, MT ~78 miles

We climbed to start the day and crossed the Continental Divide for the first time at Chief Joseph Pass. After the pass the downhill had a strong headwind, so we didn't quite fly down as we had hoped. On the other side of the pass we were in Big Hole Valley, which is also known as the land of 10,000 Haystacks. At first I thought it said Mistakes, but on closer look it was haystacks, and it's grazing country and there are quite a few haystacks. At least 7,000 but I'm sure they rounded up.

They day was, "OK" as the barn roof said, it was sunny but a lot of wind and by the end of it I was exhausted and ready for bed.

In Wisdom, MT I saw a drill rig, but they told me they were drilling for oil when I asked. I said that's not an oil rig and then they told me it was a well, so we finally got that straightened out.

We had to climb up Big Hole pass to end the day and on the downside I blew a flat, not too bad for my first flat on the trip. Luckily it was only a soft flat on my rear wheel because we were flying down that hill at 30mph.

Day 16 (6/14/07), Lolo, MT to Sula, MT ~79 miles

It was a beautiful day, but most days are when you're biking across new and interesting country. In Darby, MT a truck was pulling along us like he was going to pass, but instead he slowed down and the passenger door opened and the passenger started throwing up. Luckily, i was just far enough away not to get any on me, but it creeped me out and it was gross! The rest of the ride we saw the Bitteroot Mountains which were snowed capped peaks and less gross and disturbing images. Right before Sula, MT we saw a whole herd of what looked like mountain goats, or some sort of sheep, but I'll let Katherine D. figure it out for me, she's the one who raises goats. There were like 20 of them and they let us get pretty close (not really by choice, but they were practically standing in the road and we needed the road to get by). We did an extra 6.5 miles past Sula to start out tomorrow's climb early because that is our first crossing of the Continental Divide.

Montana!

Day 14 (6/12/07) Jerry Johnson Campground, Idaho to Lolo, Montana, only ~58 miles today, but a pretty major climb up to Lolo Pass which separates Idaho from Montana. Good weather, but I was definitely stiff from the century yesterday. My legs felt a bit like lead, but that helped on the downhill from Lolo Pass to Lolo, Montana about 34 miles of downhill or slightly downhill and we had a tailwind and cruised on in to Lolo at about 20 miles per hour without really trying. It was nice! We sagged into Missoula, MT and checked out Adventure Cycling the organization that puts out the Transamerica route maps (and lots of other routes throughout the US and Canada). They were really nice, they gave us cold drinks and took our pictures. It was really fun. Now I'm staying at the KOA in Missoula, while Skip and Cydna are out to dinner for their 25th anniversary! Tomorrow we're taking a rest day and hopefully checking out a bike shop and just hanging out around Missoula. Then we're off and in a week or so we should be in Yellowstone for two rest days to check out both Yellowstone and the Tetons! I'm surprised that we've gone over 950 miles total and we've made it to our third state! It's been an amazing experience to see the country at a slower pace. I've actually learned quite a bit of history surrounding the areas we've ridden through. We rode past Fort Fizzle (Fo Shizzle) and we've been on the Lewis and Clark trail. Hope everyone is having a good summer!

IDAHO...no you da HO

Day 13 (6/11/07): Grangeville, Idaho to Jerry Johnson campground, Idaho 103 miles! This was my first 100+ mile day! The weather was perfect, and the river along Route 12 was beautiful, there was Clearwater, Lochsa and one other one they were great. It was a very very long day but I was pumped we made it and we had a nice bottle of wine at the end to celebrate!

Day 12 (6/10/07): New Meadows, Idaho to Grangeville, Idaho. 83 miles in the rain! Pouring, relentless, cold rain. There were no pictures today. Today was the day of near-misses! Two dogs attacked us, I almost hit the one who went after Skips back wheel and the other went after my rear tire! Skip got run off the road, because there was no shoulder and lots of fast moving logging trucks. There was a 12+ mile steep climb (crazy switchbacks) up Whitebird pass, where it was so foggy we missed our SAG and ended up riding down freezing without visibility in the rain to our campground. We were worried and cold and the very nice owner of the campground let me take a hot shower and let me borrow a towel...he was awesome!

Day 11 (6/9/07): Brownee Dam, Idaho to New Meadows, Idaho ~72 miles.

Nice weather but a 9 mile climb to start of the day was a bit rough. Then a couple shorter climbs during the day made it a long day. New Meadows had a nice little bike shop and an A&W rootbeer which we had some nice burgers and root beer after the ride. Once again, the scenery was beautiful, we saw the largest deer so far with large velvety racks, they crossed and recrossed the road in front of us!

Day 10 (6/8/07): Baker City, Oregon to Brownee Dam, Idaho ~85 miles. Cool in the morning, a 7 mile climb before lunch and just after Richland, Oregon. My new computer reset itself and so I don't have an accurate mileage, but it was around 85 miles. The ride itself was once again pretty and went past some huge hydro electric dams near Hell's Canyon. We saw some deer cross the road and half a dozen brown sheep grazing, although I thought they looked more like goats.

Oregon Trail....

Day 9 (6/7/07): Baker City-REST DAY! Today was our first rest day and it was much needed. WE went shopping and I got some stuff fixed at the bike shop and did laundry. It was nice to not have to bicycle today, but we'll be heading into Idaho tomorrow, so it should be fun to go into a different state! Oregon was beautiful, but I've heard good things about Idaho too. I'm not sure we'll have any more internet access until Missoula, MT, so until then, Happy trails!

Day 8 (6/6/07): Prairie City, OR to Baker City, OR: ~68 miles. Three 7 mile climbs over 3 pretty high (5000ft+) passes, it was another cold day. It was snowing up two of the three passes. Once again, no pictures, and we finished with a strong headwind through Baker City.

Day 7 (6/5/07): Dayville, OR to Prairie City, OR: 45 mile day. I took NO pictures today because it was about 48 degrees and rainy. Luckily it was a short day, but we were soaked and cold and my computer broke so I had no idea how far I'd gone. It was the first bad day, so I can't complain too much. Cydna got the RV in a bit of an accident at the RV park so we had to stand out in the rain a little more, but it involved a tow truck and the Prairie City water department...


Day 6 (6/4/07): Prineville, OR to Dayville, OR:
86.5 mile day. Two passes to climb the Ochoco pass, which was a 30 mile slight grade, and a drop into Mitchell, OR and then a steep and hot 7 mile climb to the Keyes pass. Then a 35 mile downhill along a creek into Dayville. The downhill was through what looked like canyons in the beautiful basalt. We saw deer today on each side of the passes.

I'm not sure why, but it seems to be popular in Eastern Oregon to throw shoes in a tree, I thought they were mushrooms at first, but they were nice shoes, probably not even worn all the way out! I kept my shoes on, however, earlier in the day I had problems and my cleat lost 3 of the four screws attaching it to my shoe (insert joke about screws loose here...). Luckily I'm wicked handy and was able to fix it, but I'll have to find more screws soon.

We biked by John Day Fossil beds where they once filled trainloads with fossils. Dayville is another small town, approx. 130 people. WE saw Steve again and had dinner with him and I had a creamcicle from the Dayville Mercantile for desert.

Day 5 (6/3/07): McKenzie Bridge, OR to Prineville, OR

68 mile day started off with the remaining climb to the top of McKenzie pass. IT was spectacular! The road itself was closed to vehicular traffic, only cyclists and pedestrians could be on it for a two week period, so we lucked out! There is still snow on the pass, and near the top there are tons a basalt lava flows ~300-400 years old, so relatively new! At the top there were 360 degree views of snow capped peaks. We could see two of the three Sisters, Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson and ever-so-faintly Mt. Hood. WE met a local cyclist who acted as our tour guide which was really nice of him.

On the other side of the pass the terrain was dramatically different-it was arid and hot. I guess this is the Oregon desert. It was amazing how quickly the terrain and climate changed in a few miles!