Hello all,
Writing from Ennis, Montana tonight. I just ate a 32 ounce blizzard from the local ice cream place so I'm gonna need to use the bathroom soon.
Yellowstone was awesome, though cold. The ride into the park from Cody was probably one of the toughest of the summer. Uphill with the wind in our face the whole time, cold temps, and a little rain towards the end. Luckilly, we had a lot of beautiful stuff to look at, which made it easier.
Once we made it to our campsite, I went for a short run on a trail nearby, made it to the top of this overlook, great view, but then fell pretty hard on the way back... good thing noone was around to see... That night we had some chili and made smores by the fire, which was sweet till it started raining and we all made a break for tents... However, there was still plenty of fun o be had in the tents in terms of late night immature jokes.
The next day I decided to take adavantage of the rest day and not rest at all- went for a 14 mile run on some pretty rugged terrain. Running down one trail, I came about 4 feet away from a wild buffalo, which was absolutely terrifying, but also awesome. I just froze and backed away really slowly... then checked my shorts. There were two of them, so I just stopped and watched them for 10 minutes or so. I'd later see two more buffalo, but kept my distance this time. The run was great, ran on a bunch of great trails, with some amazing views of the lake and sorrounding mountains, but it took a lot out of me so the rest of the day I just chilled by the lake and read.
The ride out of Yellowstone was equally as cool. Stopped at Old Faithful, saw that and hiked around the area and saw a whole lot more geyers and geothermal stuff- really impressive.
We ended at West Yellowstone, just outside the park. Major tourist town with a bunch of shops and restaurants with jacked up prices.
The ride into town today was awesome. We dropped 4000 feet in elevation over the 75 mile ride so it was pretty much downhill the whole way, plus we had an awesome tailwind so it made for easy riding allowing us to get in early with time for me to take a nap and go for a run before dinner. Which brings me back to the 32 ounce oreo blizzard and the dump I'm going to go take.