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Day 15 – Twin Bridges to Hebgen Lake

Posted by Alan on Thu, 17th Jun, 2010.
Filed under: Montana

Thurs 17th June 2010

We’ve had an interesting day today but I’m so tired as I write this I’m sure to miss lots out. I’m currently sat in the cab of a little all terrain veh sheltering from the snow as it’s the only place to sit in the dry where I can get a signal.We had to ride an extra 10 miles today as we are currently about 20 miles from Yellowstone Park on the west side of Hebgen Lake.

Going back to this morning we set off at our normal time of 6:30am and it was very cold, close to freezing and the weather forecast was for rain at some point. However it was dry and the sky, although overcast, did not look like rain. Apart from being cold the first 30miles were good as we climbed up to a pass at 7,000 ft and it was snowing lightly as we did so. This pass did not have a name so we have named it Frozen Feet Pass. As we started to descend we were greeted with the most impressive scenery we have seen so far. The photo cannot do it justice but it was just fantastic looking down over the town of Ennis and plains with mountains in the background.

We were cold at the top of the pass but by the time we had freewheeled down into Ennis at over 40mph we were absolutely frozen to the core and had to find a coffee shop to warm up. That’s our excuse anyway. So after a few cups of coffee and blueberry pie we set off again towards Yellowstone. Just outside of Ennis we met another cyclist, Josh from Tasmania, who was cycling the transam from the other direction. He had set off at the end of April so good luck to him.

In the morning we had a tailwind but this afternoon it had turned around to become a strong headwind. We also met up with two other cyclists, Anthony & Kat from the UK. They were taking a year to cycle the perimeter of the USA and had taken a detour to visit Yellowstone. They had both given up their jobs to make the trip and have cycled 9,000 miles already. We cycled with them for the rest of our day and had a good laugh with them. It was also good to see someone else carrying a heavy SLR camera other than just me. They’ve been on the road so long that even their GPS units have been given names! We joked about the film ‘Castaway’.

We all battled against the headwind as we headed towards Quake Lake doing 8 mph while peddling downhill in places where we should have been freewheeling at 35mph. It was so hard and draining but we all just battled on and eventually cycled through it.

When we reached our planned overnight stop it was just not suitable and they had no food. We had no choice but to cycle another 10 miles until we found Kirkwood Marina here on the lake. We bid Anthony & Kat farewell as they were finishing in West Yellowstone.

So overall it’s been a good day with lots of variety. We also saw a skunk  as it crossed the road in front of us. I’m sorry Chris for blaming the awful smell on you again.

Daily Mileage – 95.5 miles

Time in Saddle – 9 hrs 15 mins

Total Climbing – 5,043 ft