T E T O N P A S S ! ! ! (Ashton, ID - W. Yellowstone - Bozeman, MT)

TETON PASS: (5-6 miles of 10% grade all uphill, 2300ft elevation change)

That morning I was super nervous about the ride. Shira had done it the day before because she was going to be driving the van, and she said parts of it were steeper than Hunter Road back in New York (to Roscoe) 80% of which I walked up. Also, she's a really strong climber, and she had suggested a few days before that buy myself a triple front gear if i had the chance. That would have a been a $200+ investment though, and I have a 10 speed cassette, so I decided to risk it.

We had a nice 7 mile or so warmup to begin the ride. AND THEN WE HIT THE FIRST CLIMB. This really wirey looking lady passed us all on the way up - I didn't really see her face, but her calves were all muscle and veins. (We heard afterwards that she does the Pass every morning before work as her morning workout. WHAT.) I stopped at one point to eat a GU energy gel, and another time because the view was just ridiculously amazing. You could see mountains off in the distance and how much we'd climbed in such a short period of time. At many points along the way, I wondered if I could do it on a double rather than the double compact. About halfway through though, I stopped being afraid because I realized that I was making it up really fast (er, 5-6 mph), and that I was going to make it. It was really steep, but it switched back a lot, and there were many points at which it leveled out where we could catch our breaths. And when we arrived, the faster people all cheered us on, and Shira had a dance party going! This song was playing, and it will forever make me think of Teton Pass: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3jzSh_MLNcY

We all waited at the top for the rest of the riders to get in. At one point, we all lined up, not to high five, but to slap butts as encouragement. I was entirely hoarse from screaming after we were done. The DESCENT was about the scariest thing after that. It had these crazy turns you couldn't see cars around, and I rode on my brakes the entire time. My max speed was thus only about 45.7 mph.

The rest of that day was slightly anti-climatic. We ate lunch at "Teton Thai" which was delicious. I had a flat right after lunch (#3), but it wasn't too big of a deal. Idaho is like a mix between Iowa and Wyoming in that there are rolling (slightly steeper) hills of green grass, but there are also giant mountains in the distance.

WEST YELLOWSTONE:

My legs were remembering the Pass this day on the morning climbs. In these cases, I go into a type of survivor mode, where I latch on to someone's back wheel and try not to lose sight of it the entire day. It happened to be Shira ... who's really fast. She got me up the hills faster, that's for sure. She had a pretty crazy morning. She got a flat pretty early, so I gave her a tube and lent her my pump, but then she had another flat a little ways away. As she pumped it up the second time, we heard the tell tale PSSSSSSS sound of air leaking; the funny thing was, it was coming from about 3 different places along the wheel. I offered her my spare Gatorskin, which originally she didn't think she needed, but finally she decided the front wheel (still on stocks!) was done for.

It was a short day, and Joe was kind enough to do shuttles to Yellowstone National Park!!! We swam in Firehole River for a while, and then we made it over to the Boardwalk by the Paint Pots and the Spasm Geyser that was going off for the second time this entire summer. It looked like an alien landscape of bacteria, water, and parched white pine tree logs.

BOZEMAN:

Shira presented the pinwheel to me for the tubes and tire I lent her yesterday (a little tradition we have, we hand it off to someone who we think has been especially helpful to the group). Ironically, I had a flat from ripping out the valve in my front wheel, and I needed to bum tubes off friends in order to start riding (I'd given all mine away).

And then, I had ANOTHER flat in my back tire. While slapping at swarms of mosquitos, I started changing it, when Jess and Marty came by. Jess offered to wait, and I said no it's fine there's way too many mosquitos, but they waited anyway. We danced the mosquito slap dance while I got it done.

The rest of the ride was amazing! 30 miles flew by as most of it was downhill (after one climb) to first lunch, and then we had about 30 miles of downhill after lunch! Jess would say, it's sooo beautiful, and I'd respond, it's sooo downhill! We agreed it was about one of the best rides ever. After first lunch, we stopped by at Bigsky (a town along the way) at a gas station for some great iced coffee, and then we started off again with a long train of people: Kourtney up front, Kate, Shira, Jess, me, Mark, and Joe. The shoulder was non-existent, but the downhill continued, and the road went alongside a river on which we yelled at white river rafters, who generally yelled back.

After second lunch, I had a SECOND FLAT in my back wheel. I wasn't too surprised, because I hadn't checked the back wheel all that thoroughly the first time (because of the mosquitos). This time, I found a shard of glass, patched the tire, and went along my merry way. Jess stayed with me again. I was super greatful for her company.

Anyway, Bozeman is a really nice college town. Apparently, University of Montana is here. Aside from the mountains, it reminds me a lot of Chambana. Also, the Christian fellowship(?) church/dorm we're staying at has a beautiful curved laminated wood vaulted room that I'm planning to sketch pretty soon.

Overall:

This week has been ridiculously amazing. Continental Divide, Grand Teton National Park Visitor Center, Jackson Hole, Teton Pass, and 30 + miles of downhill whitewater riverside road ride today.