We know you missed us. Never fear, your favorite cyclist/journalist duo is back on the internet with endless stories to share!  After dropping off the face of the earth for a few days of camping, we are so happy to be back to writing our journals as daily as possible. The team has spent the past few days at the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone national parks (don’t worry, a full recap of our camping trip is on its way!!!), and have returned to a stable internet connection here in Livingston, MT. We had an adventurous day — although that truly is the norm at this point — as we said goodbye to Yelllowstone, encountered some wildlife, and entered a new state! Welcome to Montana, the home of beautiful mountains and somewhat treacherous road shoulders. We’re beyond excited to be back inside for a few nights and to get back to posting journals as usual :) Please excuse the absence of the Cyclist’s Corner as we get caught up (we will do our best to come back for one more round of interviews with everyone on the team)!

Ride Overview

Mileage: 92

Elevation: 2,482’

Ride Dedication: Heinz Kepper, Joey’s great uncle

Points of Interest: Yellowstone River, Yankee Jim River, Custer Gallatin National Forest, Los Pinos Restaurant

Quote of the Day

Tales of the Trail

Our day started as usual camping days do, with chilly weather and clumsily putting away tents. After chowing down on some bagels, the team was introduced to their morning activity for the day. Inspired by 2014 I4K alum Ellen Butler (who paid us a surprise visit on Friday!), Riddhima gave us all the task of sharing our life story with our group members at some point during the day (kind of daunting, but I suppose you have to do something during a 90+ mile ride). This ended up being a well-picked activity, as the team ended up shuttling a portion of the morning stretch due to logistical difficulties. This left us with plenty of time to say goodbye to Yellowstone and talk with one another about where our lives have taken us up to this point. 

After our shuttle adventure, we descended out of the national park, seeing some of the most spectacular views of the entire ride so far. We took a quick stop at one of Yellowstone’s many restaurants to grab lunch in celebration of Olivia’s 20th birthday!!! We quickly flew down the slopes of Yellowstone and across the park border into Montana. We’ve loved meeting other cyclists on our camping days — it’s been incredibly inspiring to see people putting in so much work on mountain rides or solo biking trips — and saw one brave soul climbing the slopes we were speeding down. 

Montana, with its huge mountains and abundant nature spots, has really impressed upon us how far we’ve come, even in just one day. As a team, we still can’t believe we’ve traveled over 3,000 miles together, and are exactly four weeks away from crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. While South Dakota and even some parts of Wyoming still felt like our home of the Midwest, we are now in completely different territory. Our first big day in the West tested us, largely because of the length of our ride and powerful heat. We hydrated well and took plentiful breaks in the shade of our beloved SAV to stay cool. We also encountered a haze that reminded us all too well of last summer in the Midwest. Wildfire smoke from California has made its way across our path at last, and while the air quality was safe for us to ride through, the layer of fog over the mountains served as a weighty reminder of the state our planet is in.

We rode about two thirds of our ride parallel to the Yellowstone River, and took our final stretch through Paradise Valley. Despite some less than ideal road conditions — fast traffic and narrow road shoulders — we pushed through to reach our destination of Livingston. We were greeted by our dream scenario; showers AND a laundry machine! A big thank you to Neal and Dylan for figuring out how to clean our clothes — three nights in tents has us smelling less than cleanly. Olaf’s Aunt kindly donated dinner at a nearby restaurant, and we are now well-fed and looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow due to a much lower mileage count. We can’t wait to catch you up on our national park adventures as soon as possible!

(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)