Written by Dave

Day 25 – June 22 – 74 Miles, 3,660 feet climbing (Ennis to West Yellowstone)

A long hard day to West Yellowstone. We were up early, getting out of camp at 7:30 and boy, I’m glad we did. Overnight the wind switched direction 180 degrees and we had wind on the nose until well after noon. We’ve had so many nice tailwinds on this trip, it would be disingenuous to complain but I may just a little. Curtis estimated the wind speed at 20 MPH, which would have been hard enough but we had a 1 to 2% gradient as well. We slogged it out at about 10 MPH for most of the morning.

Pete was not feeling on the top of his game for his last riding day and dropped back off the pace line pretty early.  We had a nice shoulder but any more than 3 people riding didn’t help the others. Slight side winds had us angling our draft and the fourth person was in the gutter most of the time getting little to no benefit. With these two points in mind, Curtis did the kind thing and dropped out of our group to wait for Pete. They ended up about a half hour behind us but Curtis definitely helped increase Pete’s speed.

We had nice views of the Madison River Valley and Madison Range Mountains but really, they were hard to look at. In fact we passed an antelope herd while I was on the front which I pointed out to everyone. At our next stop I asked Chris if he saw them – nope, didn’t even notice. It was that kind of day.

Eventually Chris, Nancy and I made the gradual left turn out of the valley towards Earthquake Lake. Almost like flicking a switch, we had a ripper tailwind. We dared not say anything out loud for fear it would change again. We flew along to Earthquake Lake and the memorial where we smiled at our good fortune and waited for Pete and Curtis. Before they could arrive, up drove Inge, Pete’s wife. Pete’s last day is today and she is here to pick him up. She’d already caught Curtis and Pete and taken their bags. After hugs all around, we too loaded most of our bags into her car – woohoo.

We all left Earthquake Lake as a bunch and rode together the last 28 miles to West Yellowstone. It was mostly tailwinds except for the last 2 or 3 miles. We were all getting tired now, and it was a long time from the last food stop.  We all arrived in West Yellowstone on fumes. We landed at Yogi’s Waffles and Grill where we had milkshakes and a very late lunch.

It took us 7 hours to ride 74 miles. We had some stops but not for very long. The wind was not our friend until it was, and then it wasn’t again. Anyway, we made it and we live to ride another day. We lose our official team doctor and bike mechanic after today but enjoyed having Pete in the team. And special thanks to Inge for the bag sag today, made all the difference.

Tomorrow Yellowstone NP – we’re hoping to get a look at Old Faithful and a few other sites. And if we’re lucky we’ll see a moose!