For my rest day I was going to stay at the local church hall. However, I couldn't get in with the host. Later on I found out her phone was out of charge, so I booked into the local RV park. It's a rather classy joint with a swimming pool but it's good to see that despite being a sweaty cyclists who just wants the absolute minimum, you are treated in just the same way as £100,000 RV drivers. I will post some photos later.
The last two days have been absolutely amazing. Setting out in the fog before dawn and making my way up towards Old Faithful, was a bit like a Lord of the Rings experience or something out of a post apocalyptic movie: steam coming off rivers, evil mud flat disappearing into the fog, pools of unknown substance and consistency, dead trees everywhere. Unfortunately there was the occasional buffalo standing in the field or trundling along the side of the road, spoiling the image.
Old Faithful was impressive if you managed to ignore the endless carparks, the hotels and the crowds. The eruption was a real one-off, you can't quite believe what you are seeing. I loved it.
The following day it was over the Togwotee Pass. At 9,658 ft, it's the second highest pass after Hoosier. It was probably the toughest and longest climb of the whole trip. It worked just fine and luckily I managed to doge the thunderstorm.
Then it was a fast descent (trying to keep it under 40 mph) into the Wind River valley with its amazing sandstone cliffs, to Dubois and the campsite. The photos probably don't do it justice.
After watching the eruption of Old Faithful, I got talking to one of the guys working there. I noticed that he, like everyone else there, was carrying bear spray. I asked him if he ever used and he said yes, once. The image that immediately sprang to mind was him wrestling with a large brown bear and the spray saving the moment. Looking him up and down, it probably wasn't such a close encounter, because he didn't show any signs of injury or disfigurement. However, what he actually meant, was that the bear spray was used on HIM. Again, I couldn't see him freelancing as a bear so I imagined a disgruntled visitor. It wasn't that either, in fact, and that's his story, it was his girlfriend who accidentally spray him. They had a can, unfortunately without a trigger guard. She put it under her arm, set it off and he was standing right behind her and got it full in the face. He could personally confirm that bear spray is in fact extremely effective. Anyway, that was his story and I didn't ask if he and his girlfriend were still together.
With regards to bears, I didn't see any, but on the way up to the Togwotee Pass, I saw the following sign: DON'T APPROACH BEARS ON THE ROADWAY, STAY IN VEHICLE . Not exactly helpful, when you are on a bike. I would probably have stopped, put the bike between me and the bear, taken out the spray, made some noise and slowly back away. However, there was no need for that.
On my way up to the Craig Pass, I came across some road works with the road down to a single lane. Most of the time, the traffic here is managed by two guys or girls standing on either end with stop/go signs and two-way radios. Anyway, it was on one of the steepest sections, I was down to my lowest gear and there was lots of traffic in both directions, cars, RVs and motorcycles. When I got there, the guy made me wait until all the cars and RVs had gone ahead, them he radioed his colleague that a cyclist was coming through. Honestly, I took close to 15 minutes to get through and when I got to the other end, there were well over 50 car waiting for me. Some guys even got out of their car to look because it took so long. I suppose the same number of cars were waiting on the other end. It was a bit embarrassing, because they could all see why they were held up, but rather than cursing me, I got cheers. It seems that by the end of this trip I might have changed my views on Americans' attitude to cyclists. A bit further up, I looked back at one of those mobile notice boards and it said "Heavy Congestion Ahead". I am sure it wasn't my fault. I hope.
I have been rather please that I haven't even lost a single tent peg, or my phone for that matter, since starting out. I think this because right form the start, everything always goes in the same place. So no "Where's the car key?", Hilary. Otherwise, when you are tired or groggy in the morning, things could easily get lost, fall off or left behind.
Anyway, after 417 miles and 17,900 ft, a rest day today, with a sleep-in, coffee and croissants, then laundry and some phone calls.
