Doing the Buffalo Bill...
After visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, it was on to the Buffalo Bill Reservoir, past the Buffalo Bill State Park, and past Cody peak. I guess they like Buffalo Bill around here.
This ride really worried me. I didn’t know the lay of the land and I didn’t have a good guide map to lead me into the park. I was worried that I might have to ride 100 miles and I wouldn’t have the strength or energy for the ride.
The "Cathedral" as seen on the Road to the Yellowstone East Entrance.
Also, from my review of the map, there didn't seem to be any services along the way. No water, no food. Actually, there was food and water 50 miles into the ride. So, I decided to do what all good touring cyclists do when faced with no sandwich stop along the ride, I made a whole loaf of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That's right, its the return of the PB&J! This was the first PB&J I had since beginning the trip. Why did I wait so long? PB&J is the ultimate touring food - you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and snacks.
As it turns out, the ride was not too bad. It was a gentle ride up the Shosone River. I had to go through 3 tunnels to get up the Buffalo Bill Dam. There were no shoulders. Fortunately, I was only passed by one vehicle as I exited the narrow set of tunnels.
Today, I ran into another highway construction site. This site went from the entrance of the park to the top of the only climb I would do today - a distance of 7 miles. So as I approached the construction site, I saw a line of vehicles. So I road along side the vehicles to the front of the line. The project Foreman flagged me down. He was ready for me. Apparently a lot of cyclists come through the East entrance and most cyclists want their touring experience to be “pure.” In other words, they don’t want ANY assistance whatsoever. From my experience 2 days ago, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be able to ride the construction site because of heavy vehicles. So when the Foreman said that I would have to take his truck, I was glad to wheel my bike over and put the bike in the back. This made today’s ride much easier.
Lodgepole Pine Burned in 1988. Yellowstone Lake in Background.
The Trail to Storm Point
When I go into the Fishing Bridge RV park, I saw some other lightly loaded touring cyclists ahead of me. So I pedaled hard to catch up with these cyclists. It was fun to drop some lightly loaded cyclists while I remained fully loaded. Actually they dropped me. These three gentlemen (actually they were kids - each 20 years old) were riding from Senectedy (sp?), NY to Seattle. It was nice to chat with them and hear about their ride. I didn’t end up sharing a campsite with them because they decided to ride on to the campground at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Have a safe ride guys!
I met another couple of touring cyclists. Luis and Marta are from Madrid, Spain. They spoke some english and it was very generous of them to let me eat with them. I would like to think through our conversation, their english improved, but we'll see.
Later after dinner, I walked to see Yellowstone Lake. Earlier in the day, the surface was very rough and whitecapped. Now it was calm and blue. I headed back to the campsite passing some elk.
Day 26 - Cody to Bridge Bay - 76 Miles (by bike), 7 Miles(by truck)
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