TA 2 - September 9

Well, it’s been 11 months since finishing the Trans Am 1 in West Yellowstone but today it seemed like we just picked up where we left off last year. We have 15 of the same riders as well as the same guides. The new riders are all very experienced and are easily fitting right in. It feels so good to be going again.

We had a wet evening in West Yellowstone yesterday and everyone was checking the forecast with a bit of dread. But - the forecast improved somewhat overnight and except for cool temperatures and some light scattered showers, the day was actually quite pleasant.

We had plans for a group photo at the Yellowstone park gate but KJ’s flat tire right away scuttled that plan.  At about 5 miles we crossed over into Wyoming. A WomanTours tradition is that we have margaritas before dinner whenever we cross a state line, so guess what we’ll be doing before dinner tonight......

We rode by lovely views of the Madison River and did a side road through Firehole Canyon; very nice!

I stopped at the Midway Geyser Basin and walked up to the Grand Prismatic Spring. Good views were hard to come by since it was quite cool today and the steam was spewing forth in abundance.

I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time today changing layers as sprinkles came and went. With all my stops and clothing changes, I missed the eruption of Old Faithful.  I’ve seen it quite a few times before so I don’t think I missed too much.

A few laps around the parking area and finally I found the way back out to the main road. We had most of our climbing later in the day, as we crossed the Continental Divide twice. Thankfully any rain showers were done by then.

Everyone was to be in to the Visitor Centre at Grant Village by 2:45 so that we could load up bikes and riders for the 2 hour drive south to Jackson. Apparently commercial trips aren’t allowed south of Grant Village due to non-existent shoulders and heavy traffic. We drove through the south end of Yellowstone and the entire length of Grand Teton NP to get to Jackson. Along the way we drove by a huge herd of bison.

Jackson is a ritzy little ski & tourist town. It might have been fun to spend a rest day here, but I suppose day 2 is too early for that.

Due to late arrival in Jackson we had pizza & margaritas (and ice cream) for dinner.

It was a great start to the tour. Great people, beautiful riding, and weather better than expected.

Stats for the day:
West Yellowstone to Grant Village
55 miles.  89 km.
3170 feet up. 2060 feet down.
Temps: 5C to 11C. Scattered showers and mostly single digit temps. Brrr!

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Badlands and Grand Teton National Parks

Not a whole lot to report here....  We finished the Adventure Cycling trip on Friday August 30th and headed east a bit to Badlands National Park. Friday was rather wet so we toured the Visitor Centre and drove through the park, stopping at lookouts along the way. For someone whose car normally turns west toward the mountains this was a nice change of scenery. On Saturday the smokin’ hot weather returned and we did a few hikes in the park. Pretty amazing rock formations. Many are very delicate and fragile-looking; hard to believe they won’t just disintegrate in the next rainstorm.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed west once more. We made a stop at Devils Tower National Monument (America’s first, apparently).  A pretty impressive chunk of rock!  And, yes, we did see climbers on it.

Back in the car and on to Thermopolis. We didn’t have time to visit the hot springs at the state park, but I did have an amazingly yummy pineapple curry at the local Thai restaurant.

While I certainly did want to see Badlands, Devils Tower, etc, some of the rationale for the circuitous route to Grand Teton NP was to avoid the long weekend since the campgrounds there don’t take reservations. Success!  Lots of room in the campground we wanted even though it had been full all weekend. Tuesday was a hike up into Cascade Canyon (after a boat ride across Jenny Lake).

Wednesday was a 75 mile bike ride down toward Jackson and back.

Thursday morning was a short hike up to Grandview Point followed by a canoe outing on Jackson Lake in the afternoon.

Our weather was glorious the whole time we were in Grand Teton and the mountain and lake views did not disappoint.

As forecast, the weather turned a bit on Friday. Ursula was anxious to get back to Calgary so we drove through Yellowstone (scattered rain much of the day) on Friday, stopping at a few thermal basins along the way.

It might be September, but there are still lots of tourists in the park!  We made it to West Yellowstone in good time for some main-street-strolling. A few minor purchases but for the most part we both kept our credit cards in our wallets.  I ran into 3 women who I will be riding with for the next month, so they’re starting to trickle into town.....

On Saturday we were up in good time and Ursula made it back to Calgary by 6. I spent a few hours at the Grizzly Bear & Wolf Discovery Centre (a worthwhile trip if you’re in town),

caught up on a few things, did another tour of the shops, had a chat with a fellow biker and ran into Cy (our guide), got some reading done, watched the US Open tennis final (yay Bianca!), and generally did nothing productive.

Off to meet the troops now........