Day 58 - June 30 - Grant Village Campground to Madison Campground, both in Yellowstone National Park, WY - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

June 30, 2023

Day 58 - June 30 - Grant Village Campground to Madison Campground, both in Yellowstone National Park, WY

A Day of Ups and Downs

John’s Story

It was a cold morning. Normally I wear just a pair of briefs in my sleeping bag, but night before last I pulled on a pair of wool socks and a long-sleeved jersey in the middle of the night when I got chilled. Last night, expecting even colder temps, I wore the jersey, bike shorts, tights and wool socks. I was just on the edge of getting chilled even with that. When I crawled out of the tent at 5:30 AM the dew that had fallen on the picnic table was frozen. There was ice on the vegetation. Due to my body heat inside the tent the water on the fly of the tent was liquid, but when I removed it and laid it on the picnic table, it immediately froze and stuck to the table. There was ice on the tent poles. I was wearing three layers on my legs and four layers on my torso, and gloves and a hat, and I was shivering. At one point I went to the restroom just to warm my hands under the dryer because they were aching with the cold. Did I mention it was a cold morning?

I tried to absorb as much of the early morning sun’s heat as possible.

Yes, that’s ice on the flower. It looks like something in the rose family, maybe even some kind of wild strawberry?

I met John from Belgium. He and his wife are touring from Salt Lake City to Glacier National Park in 39 days, all the time off they can afford.

As we left the campground I saw a large elk near the road. Before I could get my phone out to take a picture a car pulled up next to it and frightened it off. No picture.

We stopped first at the West Thumb Geyser Basin. West Thumb is a small caldera within the greater Yellowstone caldera. It blew its top 125,000 years ago.

Can’t tell if it’s steam or fog on the water.

Definitely fog here, with ducks for good measure.

Fairly early we had our first long climb of the day to the Continental Divide once again. Hooray, back on the Pacific side! It was followed of course by a lovely, long descent. After a few miles we climbed another long hill and went over the Divide again. Back to the Missouri side again! A family at the Divide insisted on pictures of their kids with us.

Murad (from Syria) and Christine traveled here from New York with their sons Jack and Danny.

There was a LONG line of cars backed up at the first Continental Divide, waiting for a pilot car to take them through a construction zone where paving was being done. We rode and walked our bikes along the line of cars to get up to the flagman. We were told we could ride in the “dead lane” once the cars on our side started moving behind the pilot car, and stop when we got to the active paving. The pilot car driver said that when she returned she would follow US so that the cars behind her would not interfere with us. As it turned out, when she came back in the opposite direction she was at the end of the line of traffic and found us waiting at the active paving area. She told us to just ride down, that we would clear the construction zone before she came back again in our direction, and that if she caught up with us she would follow to make sure no one would pass us. And so we did.

For her help, Jennifer is granted today’s Road Angel Award.

The construction backup actually helped us afterwards. Each time a long line of cars came up behind us after being led through the zone, we would pull off and let them pass. We knew that we would then have 10-15 minutes of riding without almost no cars. We alternated like this all the way to Old Faithful.

Some of the features near Old Faithful.

We sat on benches for at least 30 minutes waiting for Old Faithful to spout. I was so sleepy I could have crawled under one for a nap.

While we waited I was entertained by this little guy.

Finally, the moment we were waiting for.

As we left Old Faithful, we saw another bison. This picture shows how closely the animals and people get in the park.

These are the Kepler Cascades, the closest thing we saw to a waterfall at Yellowstone.

Once we left Old Faithful there was very little in the way of hill climbing to Madison Campground, where we are tonight. There was a tremendous amount of traffic, though, an endless parade of vehicles moving on to the next sight or to leave the park.

We are camped near Thomas, a 30-year old German whom we met at Old Faithful earlier in the day. We had a good long conversation, shared some beer and compared notes. He is headed in the opposite direction. He was disappointed to discover there is a high pass between Walden, Colorado, and the Cache la Poudre Canyon. He somehow missed that in his route planning. Oops. He plans to ride to Denver, rent a car so he can skip the middle part of the country (he only has so much time), then bike again from Cleveland to Washington, DC. Nice guy.

Ed talked about the bird in the bush where he spread his tent to dry. At first he thought it was a fake. I pointed out that you could see it breathing. Looks like a fledgeling that has been pushed out or has fallen out of the nest and is considering it’s next steps.

When we arrived at Madison Campground we were told that a bear had been spotted earlier today just across the road. Later we heard what sounded like a gunshot. We were told that it was rangers “hazing” the bear to discourage it from entering the campground, and to report to them if we saw it wandering nearby.

It’s been raining on and off. We managed to set up a dry camp anyway between showers. Speaking of which, no showers in this campground. Less than ideal but it wasn’t that hard a day. Time for bed.

Ed’s Story

It was a cold night. I delayed getting up for a bio break as long as possible. When I did it up, I put my khaki pants on over my wool tights, and I put on my my green insulated jacket. When I came back to bed, I don’t even bother taking them off.

When we got up, we found water frozen to the picnic tables. Additionally, the humidity and moisture inside our rain fly also started to freeze. That should tell you how cold it was. Just as a side note, when we got to camp for the night, everything was soaking wet, and then it took a while for them to dry.

We headed out. Our first stop is at West Thumb. There are a number of bubbling pools here. No geysers just a bunch of hot water.

There was road construction for 22 miles of our route today. It made it very difficult to ride because many times the side of the road was dug up. Additionally, there were orange cones down the center of the road which at times prevented drivers from passing us.

We had another long ride up to the top of the hill to find the Continental Divide (again).

Somewhere along the route, and I’m not sure where, there was a one lane road because they were paving. We walked ours bikes past a bunch of parked cars to get to the flagman. We were able to ride in the unused lane until we got to the paving. At that point where able to ride down the other lane to the end of the paving area. It was a screaming downhill.

At the bottom of the hill, there was a 1.1 mile climb with an elevation gain of 330 feet. The average grade was 5.8%. This made it very difficult for me to ride. When I go slower and in lower gears, I lose control on the front wheel. I ended up walking most of the hill.

On our way down we came across Kepler Cascades. This is a fast flowing body of water with miniature waterfalls. Someone, I don’t know who, climbed to the bottom, and was climbing back up as we were leaving the viewing area.

We arrived at Old Faithful viewing area. Instead of going around to check out what was happening, we decided to have lunch. After lunch I went out the opposite side of the Inn, I found Old Faithful finishing its eruption. If we wanted to see the whole thing, we would be waiting another 90 minutes.

So while waiting, we rode along the path and looked at various geysers and boiling pools. There are quite a few of them.

We ended up at the Morning Glory Pool. It is very deep, very hot and very colorful.

We worked our way back to Old Faithful. We still had about 25 minutes before its next eruption. We ended up with front row seats. The geyser was still a good distance away, but they were still front row seats.

I heard this man behind us saying they have been there for two days and here seen Old Faithful 14 times. A bit excessive I think.

The last 15 miles to the Madison Campground were uneventful. One location cars were backed up quite a bit on the road as people wanted to see some springs. There was little to no climbing.

We got to Madison campground and checked in. The hiker biker site was directly behind the check-in area. Once again, our food and bathroom items were stored in a bear box.

There was one other biker there. Thomas is from Germany doing a tour across the country. He has been doing tours since he was 10 years old in Germany when he did them with his family.

As my tent parts were drying from the morning wetness, I found a bird sitting on a bush. The bird did not move. It looked like a fake bird. If you looked close enough, you could see the bird breathing. Strange.

It rained on and off while we were there. I finished setting up my tent in a light sprinkle, but the inside of my tent was not wet.

Dinner was a can of beans and another freeze dried meal. I have one more of those I need to eat in the next two days. I will be having three more delivered by general delivery in Dillon, Montana. We will be there in three days.

Tomorrow, 1 July, we are staying at the West Fork Cabin Camp. As of this writing, I do not know what town it is in. It is 51 miles from Madison Campground and is in Montana.

I am writing this in the tent. It is raining again. There is thunder in the vicinity. Since we don’t have any type of Internet signal, I do not know how long the rain will last. I expect a low of around 45 tonight. Much warmer than last night.

Both John and I need to do some grocery shopping in West Yellowstone as we pass through tomorrow. I need oatmeal, raisins, some more coffee, and some orange juice. Hopefully we can find a coffee shop for an early second breakfast.

Until tomorrow, happy biking!

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 1,304 miles (2,099 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	4
Comment on this entry	Comment	0