July 30, 2014
I am going to start by saying sorry for not staying on top of the blog. It has been hard to find wifi and I have been tired at the end of the day.
Today my day started in Dubois and I had a wonderful nigh sleep in the church we stayed in last night. I was nice to sleep inside for a change and not have to worry about setting up the tent. So, the original plan was to stay the night in the Grand Tetons National Park, but that plan went to shit pretty quickly. The day started with a climb over 35 miles and it was pretty tough. Halfway through the climb the group stopped at a gas station to refill water before making the last push to the summit of the pass. As soon as we left the clouds rolled in and it started thundering and lighting. We had nowhere to go and we continued to push on. It began to rain really hard and it was about 60 degrees out because of the altitude. I had my rian jacket on, but that only does so mucha nd it does not fend off the cold. Eventuallly the summit of the pass was in front of me and there was a small bathroom to pull off too. There were six other cyclists huttled in a small space trying to stay dry. After about 5 minutes we all decided to push on because we were already wet. This was a bad move on our part. We did about 12 miles of down hill in the rain and I could not feel any part of my body because I was so cold and wet.
We found a mountain lodge on the side of the road and it rented out log cabins. They had a bar and grill, so we decided to stop. Once inside we hung out for a while and all decided that we were done riding for the day. It just was not our day. We talked to the front desk and they siad the cabins were $250 a night. We said that was to much and then they said we could camp at the old campground a mile behind the hotel down a dirt road. The best part was the price, free. It was kind of weird that it was free to camp, but we were all excited. We began to talk to some people around the hotel and found out the reason the campground was closed, wass due to high bear activity. I guess this is something the state does to campgrounds with bear problems. It reduces the interactions between the bears and humans. It was already pretty late, so we really had no other choice. We went to the campground and began to set up our stuff. The campground did have bear boxes which was a positive. We put all our food into the box and now I am off to bed. It is going to be an interesting night and hopefully the blog continues on, which means I am still alive.
I am going to start by saying sorry for not staying on top of the blog. It has been hard to find wifi and I have been tired at the end of the day.
Today my day started in Dubois and I had a wonderful nigh sleep in the church we stayed in last night. I was nice to sleep inside for a change and not have to worry about setting up the tent. So, the original plan was to stay the night in the Grand Tetons National Park, but that plan went to shit pretty quickly. The day started with a climb over 35 miles and it was pretty tough. Halfway through the climb the group stopped at a gas station to refill water before making the last push to the summit of the pass. As soon as we left the clouds rolled in and it started thundering and lighting. We had nowhere to go and we continued to push on. It began to rain really hard and it was about 60 degrees out because of the altitude. I had my rian jacket on, but that only does so mucha nd it does not fend off the cold. Eventuallly the summit of the pass was in front of me and there was a small bathroom to pull off too. There were six other cyclists huttled in a small space trying to stay dry. After about 5 minutes we all decided to push on because we were already wet. This was a bad move on our part. We did about 12 miles of down hill in the rain and I could not feel any part of my body because I was so cold and wet.
We found a mountain lodge on the side of the road and it rented out log cabins. They had a bar and grill, so we decided to stop. Once inside we hung out for a while and all decided that we were done riding for the day. It just was not our day. We talked to the front desk and they siad the cabins were $250 a night. We said that was to much and then they said we could camp at the old campground a mile behind the hotel down a dirt road. The best part was the price, free. It was kind of weird that it was free to camp, but we were all excited. We began to talk to some people around the hotel and found out the reason the campground was closed, wass due to high bear activity. I guess this is something the state does to campgrounds with bear problems. It reduces the interactions between the bears and humans. It was already pretty late, so we really had no other choice. We went to the campground and began to set up our stuff. The campground did have bear boxes which was a positive. We put all our food into the box and now I am off to bed. It is going to be an interesting night and hopefully the blog continues on, which means I am still alive.