We are in Montana

I think it has been a week since my last post and a lot has happened. On Tuesday, July 5th we got up early and rode 77 miles to Dubois, WY.  It was a beautiful ride with great scenery along the Wind River.

We made one stop on this ride at the country store in Crowheart. The town is named after the fact that when the Crow Indians lost a battle here the chief of the victorious tribe placed the heart of a dead Crow warrior on his lance.

We did have a lot of uphill on this ride although we did not have any steep climbs. Some of our group have been struggling with the long grades. In Dubois we camped at a KOA and it was by far the best KOA that we have camped at. Everything was very neat and clean and very well kept.

On Wednesday we hit the road again early and after a long climb of 2400 feet vertical we rode over a beautiful pass (Towgotee) and on the decent we got our first views of the Teton Mt's. The rest of the ride was a lot of fun and we rode into Colter Bay Village in Grand Teton National Park about 3PM. A friend of Terry's came into the park and cooked up buffalo burgers and all of the fixings for a picnic. Peter also had the best smoked salmon that I have ever had.  He catches the fish and then slow smokes the filet's. Wonderful.

We were now in bear country, grizzly and black bears so we had to place everything in bear proof metal boxes. It worked and we did not have any unwanted visitors.

On Thursday we had a nice fairly short easy ride form Colter Bay to Jackson, WY.  Between yesterday and today the rides have been the most beautiful on the whole trip. Stunning scenery all of the time. The Tetons are absolutely beautiful.

And more

Once we got into Jackson we stayed at the Motel 6 and it turned out to be OK, a little spartan but clean and near most of the services we needed.  Since we were spending a rest day here sleeping for the last time in a motel on the trip is great.

On our rest day we took the local bus to Teton Village and rode the tram to the top of Jackson Hole Ski Area.

We rode the tram with a fellow who was going skiing. Once on the tip he changed into ski boots, (tele) and headed out across the slope.  He expected to get about four hours of skiing in before having to walk out.  The west had a terrific snow year and he expected to be able to ski into August.

On Saturday the 9th we headed for Warm River Camp Ground with a ride of 82 miles and a climb up Teton pass.  This was our longest steep climb with five and a half miles of 9% to 11% grade.  A couple of our folks had to walk part of the way but I was able to ride up without stopping and getting to the top was are relief.

Once we got the pictures taken I put on the helmet cam and down we went, and this was a fun downhill. A few switchbacks and 47 miles an hour makes for an exciting ride. And the video came out pretty good, including a pretty good bump in the road that at 40 mph caused a little uneasiness.

OK, so we get over the pass and continue to ride toward Warm River but the cue sheet we had was wrong and we ended up doing about eight miles more than planned, but eventually we got there.  I did not have cell service there so I could not call back to the others to warn them about the bad directions. In the end everyone got there.  And again we had to lock up all food stuffs because of bears. But again no visitors at night.

Sunday we headed for West Yellowstone by climbing another pass, but this one was mellow compared to the others we have been over. Targhee pass also took us into Montana and the ride into West Yellowstone was flat and fast.

Well, today is Monday the 11th and most of our group have gone into Yellowstone Park for two days but Terry and I have elected to stay in West Yellowstone at the Grizzly Park RV Campground until the group gets back on Tuesday evening.  Both of us have been in Yellowstone numerous times and I have enough pictures of elk, bison, and geysers. After this rest we will be heading for Missoula and then on to Idaho and Oregon.  Only three weeks left on the trip

Life is Good!

Bobo