Started out the day with a brief soak back at the Astoria Hot Springs. Proceeded to a second breakfast at the well supplied Hoback market, before turning toward the Wyoming range.
Once off the highway, the trail gradually degraded over the next 8 hours from well defined and evidently well traveled at first to largely theoretical by the end of the day.
While fairly uninspiring terrain and trail for much of the day, reaching the alpine has me feeling more sanguine.
This area seems to be a forgotten range. There are indications that once upon a time there was considerable human activity in this area but that time has long since passed. Signs of modern human activity (well established campsites, footprints, etc.) are almost entirely absent. I wonder if there’s a bit of a social media effect going on here: the Wind River Range went viral and the Wyoming Range went dormant?
Used my headlamp for the first time tonight. The days are getting perceptively shorter as the season goes on and I continue to move south.
Yesterday (day 25) began with the unfortunate discovery that my rear carbon wheel was damaged in a manner that would be unwise to trust into the rugged and remote reaches of the Wyoming Range.
Fortunately, Dan at The Wheel Wrangler managed to make time to built up a new wheel for me, and also service my suspension and dropper post (both about 200 hours overdue on their 50 hour service interval) and quiet down my creaking headset, though this meant a whole day hanging around in Victor.
By uncanny luck, Victor also has a great gear repair shop, Needle & Shred, where Tim put a new slider on my triangle bag zipper which lately was bursting open and threatening to become a problem.
I had a delightful mimosa brunch at Butter and visited the Grand Teton Brewing Company—a favorite of mine (their Bitch Creek ESB has been permanently discontinued 😩).
By happy coincidence, my coworker Damon and his two delightful children were passing through the area yesterday and met up with me for an early dinner. It was delightful to see a familiar face!
By another happy coincidence, a ska band was playing the last of Victor’s Music on Main series. I stuck around and enjoyed the show—and was blown away by the huge community turnout for the event.
My resupply box arrived in Victor early this morning, which I picked up when the post office opened. By 9 AM I was on the trail climbing up into the Palisades, with a repaired bike, triangle bag, full batteries, and full supplies.
I crossed into Wyoming today around noon, marking the crossing into a new state with a celebratory swig of whiskey.
The Pole Canyon and Mikesell trails get ridden frequently, offering pleasant (if sometimes steep and rocky) climbing. In Wyoming the trail (“sheep driveway”) became more of an adventure ride—slower, but not painful.
I finished the day with a long soak at Astoria Hot Springs, camping nearby to keep open the possibility of a quick return in the morning.
I’ll be starting into the Wyoming range tomorrow—reputed to be the most challenging riding of the route. I expect the crossing to take three days.
Easy ride through the Teton Valley, including a nice section of the Ashton Tetonia Rail Trail. Got my spoke fixed (basically… finding the precisely correct washer proved elusive) in Driggs at Peaked Sports. Stopped off in Victor and gorged myself. Made it a bit out of town last night before the food coma overcame me.
Noticed this morning that my rear tire was a bit low. Looking a bit closer, discovered a crack in my rear carbon wheel. Back in Victor today getting a new wheel built up before departing into the wilds of the Wyoming Range.
Listening to: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
After a delightful ride out of Lionhead, I spent the afternoon in West Yellowstone hoping to get my spoke fixed and generally being a tourist. Partial success on the spoke: the bike mechanic called in sick; the shop let me use their bench; they did not have the correct spoke length or washers for the nipples. So, while my wheel is no longer held together with string, I am still in search of a proper fix in Driggs.
After several meals and several beers and copious ice cream, I took the wonderful Yellowstone shore line trail back to the CDT.
The area south of West Yellowstone and West of Yellowstone National Park is a bit of an odd no man’s land. The area is extensively crisscrossed with historic logging roads that get used for winter snowmobiling, but there is no water, and no people. Just an endless sea of adolescent Lodgepole Pines.
After turning off the CDT at the junction leading into Yellowstone national Park, I began my next bike-legal alternate and pedaled wide and empty roads until dark, partially making up for a mostly fruitless five hour diversion into West Yellowstone.
After feeling like the last week was a bit of a hard push, I may have overdone it on civilization in Island Park, limping out of town well past noon today with a hangover and having eaten so much food that even dinner tonight is unappetizing.
Fortunately was mostly back in good form upon reaching the base of the 3000’ climb up into Lionhead. It’s hard to imagine a nicer climb into the alpine than Mile Creek—offering a smooth, steady gradient and ridable switchbacks through a pretty canyon.
I pitched camp upon reaching the summit, and will be pleasantly surprised if I ever have a better camp the rest of the trip. The views are sublime, and it’s quite pleasant to be camped among the coral and buff colored sandstones of Targhee Peak.
Tomorrow I’ll detour into West Yellowstone to get my spoke fixed, then begin then head south for Driggs.
