August 28th & 29th

Glad you're back Alex. You had me worried!

This is what I have been up to:

On the 28th I said goodbye to Jill in Portland at the hotel. Shame she had to go but I think she had a good time. She was taking the airport shuttle and I was riding the bike east. I decided that I would rather go east than south back to California. I planned on going towards Boise, ID and see what happened. In the morning I rode down I84 next to the Colombia river and then made my way into Idaho. Some road crime but only got forced onto the hard shoulder once! :) Well I got well past Boise and ended up continuing towards Yellowstone, camping by the side of the road about 100 miles south of Idaho Falls. It was a warm night that got cold in the early morning - I was freezing. Had an interesting conversation with Bubba the hunter at the camp site.

On the 29th I rode up to Idaho falls then made the additional 150 miles to West Yellowstone Park. I found a hotel there for $79 a night and booked in for 3 days. After those 3 days I will ride non-stop all the way home if I can (I will need to change my rear tire somewhere though).

So I got into West Yellowstone about 2pm and got my hotel room sorted out. Left for the park, buying a week bike pass for $20. Didn't wear much gear as I was planning on leaving the park before sunset. Within 5 minutes I saw a young teenager bison crossing a river (probably drunk). I rode to the center of the park (Canyon Village) and had a coffee. Saw 3 guys with a broken ktm motorcycle, offered to help, was told to piss off. Went for a walk and saw quite a few elk. Then decided to make my way round the inner loop of the park clockwise. This was much longer than I thought and I ended up getting very cold as there seems to be a big temperature difference between daytime (60s) and night-time (20s-30s!). However I did see bunches of elk, bison, volcanic smoking scenery and three grizzly bears (mama and babies), which were near the road but then scared off by some asshole tooting their horn in their car for 5 fricken minutes! So I am very cold & tired but pleased.

Tomorrow I am planning on riding up to Mammoth Hot Springs then east to Tower-Roosevelt then onto Lamar Valley. I was going to go early morning but having frozen to death tonight I doubt that will happen. I will be a wimp and explore in the daytime - not as many animals but much warmer! To me the Northern areas of the park are where the interesting stuff is. Seen enough drive-through bison observation in the center south of the park already. I particularly want to see big-horned sheep, which I have not seen yet. As a note last week someone reported a MOUNTAIN LION chasing a WEASEL across one of the main roads in the park. I didn't even know those two species were in Yellowstone. Source: http://www.maxwaugh.com/yellowstone/map.php - recent sightings.