Fireworks...well sort of.

Yesterday I was going to take a day off and celebrate America's birthday in Yellowstone NP. This plan would have worked out much better had I been touring in a car. After entering the park the day before, I rode 14 miles to the nearest campground and stayed there in a hiker/biker site. From there it was 16 miles to Old Faithful along a gravel bike path. Along the way I stopped to take a picture of a buffalo. While messing around with the zoom on the camera and trying to get a good shot of it, I noticed it started to trot toward the path. Earlier in the day I read a sign that said they can run at 30 miles an hour and so I decide it would be best to get going without a solid picture. We made frequent stops along the path at geysers and sulfur hot springs. We didn't leave the bikes continued until we came to the trail head of hike with a waterfall. The waterfall wasn't very impressive, but I saw a Marmot along the way which immediately triggered quotes from "The Big Lebowski"(Nice marmot...man). While hiking away from the falls it started to cloud up and rain. As the rain got worse, the lightning and thunder followed. Shortly after we started to sprint for the bikes, the hail came down. In the distance we could see a funnel cloud. We shouted curses the last 6 miles to Old Faithful as we were pelted in the face with hail. Once at Old Faithful we stopped and ate at a diner letting the storm pass before we started the final 22 miles to Grant Village, the next campground. This ride took us across the Continental Divide twice and brought us to the highest elevation of the trip, 8391ft. The route also brought us through the first area with snow on the road, some you could tell had fallen that day. The rain continued on and off all day and the temperature dropped down to about 40 degrees. I didn't see any fireworks all day but the epic weather display made up for it.
Clay and Gabe had ridden off on their own to see some pool, so I was riding with Tyler most of the day. Going through the passes and the snow we quoted Dumb and Dummer the whole way. Popular quotes included "you've had two pairs of gloves this whole time? Yeah man were in the Rockies!" "I thought the Rocky Mountains would be a little rockier than this. Yeah that John Denver was full of shit!" "Just go man...oh that's warm" and "we're there..." The quotes are what kept us going, them and the fear that if we stopped a grizzly or some wolves might decide to take their chances on the guys with road flares.

At Grant village we paid for a camp site and were informed by the ranger that there is a grizzly with a cub near by. This was comforting.
When we got to the camp site a swarm of mosquitoes began to attack. They were relentless. Fire, tea tree oil and deet did not deter them. I went to a grill nearby and had a burger for dinner rather than catching West Nile while trying to make spaghetti. To celebrate the forth of July I decided to buy a flask of Yellowstone, Kentucky Bourbon named after the park and distilled in St. Louis. I wasn't expecting much, but it tasted like gasoline...or what I imagine gas to taste like. After failing to build a fire with wet wood and without seeing fireworks, I went to bed.

I am happy to get out of the heat of the Snake River Valley. The spf 85 kept burning to a minimum, except where my shorts slid up my leg during the day. As a result, it looks like I have tiger stripes all over my mid thigh. My seat is finally starting to break in and just in time too. I have anti-chaf cream, but I'm considering throwing a couple strips of duct tape on the cheeks to add an extra layer of protection. Showering hasn't been as frequent as I would like and I look homeless with the dirty ginger beard that I am growing. I have been able to keep my clothes from smelling too bad, but my shoes definitely have Da Funk! I can't bring them in my tent anymore.

Today I took a day off. I spent most of the day doing laundry and sleeping, but found time to get a shower in. Entertainment for the day included getting hit on the shoulder with bird poop and building a bon fire that extended well beyond the fire pit. One log has been burning for about 6 hours now, it started off about 4ft long and 1ft in diameter...only you can prevent forest fires. Something I find interesting about being in Yellowstone is that there seems to be more foreigners than Americans here. Camping around us are families from New Zealand, Germany, Japan, and Guatemala. Also, a corporation called Xanterra now manages all of the services in the park, seems kind of strange to me.

Tomorrow I will ride through the Grand Tetons...my legs already feel swollen.

-Marcus