Monday, August 8th Moran to Dubois ( pronouced: da boys) Day 25!

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I have to start off today's post with a reflection of a portion of my ride yesterday, August the 7th.  Let me start this reflection off by saying that I feel so lucky to have "the best of both worlds" (as Voltaire said repeatedly in his novel Candid)...as I get to hang with some of the finest people on earth, gaze at the glorious beauty of America up close and personal, stop to take photos often, eat great food, share music and stories every day. And once in a while, I get to share the road with Sue Shrader. Sue "sister" as we call her on this adventure. Sue is an amazing athlete. She has done 3 Ironman Races...While the rest of us are goofing around, stopping to gaze at our surroundings and snapping pictures of random things on our full day rides, Sue is getting the ride done. She takes off early, finishes her ride, then manages the parking of the camper, organizes the camp, exercises the dogs and probably a dozen other things that we are unaware of, and then she greets us late in the day when we come straggling in. I have had the honor of hanging with Sue sister on a couple of portions of this epic adventure, one of them yesterday. We started off in the cold fog within the Teton National Park. I followed Sue sister up and around hills, curves and corners. I felt like I was floating an inch above the pavement. It was an honor to follow such an experienced rider. At one point we both came to an unexpected stop as a trailer with a bike dragging off of the rear end of the vehicule went whizzing by us. Phew! That was a close one! Then off we went to finish up the morning portion of our 15 mile ride. The time flew and so did we! I am amazed at Sue's savvy and drive. She is a safe and confident rider.  It is so fun to bike like that! Thank you Sue sister! You have allowed me to have the best of both worlds. 

Which brings me to today...we started off in Moran, knowing that we had a 20 mile climb ahead of us, then a 31 mile down hill ride! Sue sister flew by us around 8am. We cheered her on knowing that we would not see her until the afternoon. With thoughts of the climb in our heads, we started out. The climb was very enjoyable. We kept looking back at those Tetans. Wow. And then, just when we thought we never wanted to lose sight of those magnificent peaks, another beautiful sight appeared in front of us and then another and another. And up and up we went through the Togwotee pass until finally, we crossed the continental divide at 9,584 feet of elevation.


There the friendly local bear management official informed us that there was a Grizzly (Felitia) and her 2 teenage cubs just a mile or so down the road.  He added that she might be making her way to the Wind River Lake. With those thoughts in our bonnets, we decided that catching sight of the bears was paramount to making our ride even better than it already was! 
We did catch a glimpse of the bears. Pretty cool! But not before we checked out the afore mentioned lake and talked to a fisherman who was just finishing up his morning's catch. After taking pictures of the bears, we got serious about getting to our destination; da boys.

 Another amazing change of terrain occurred several miles down the mountain: First the Wiggins Formation, a huge row of cliffs and then several miles later, right before Dubois, the Painted Hills.


When we all met up in town, we did the usual; talked about our individual adventures, found an ice cream shop, took some more pictures of the town and the townies (as we call them back east). We stayed in a really cool resort with the Wind River running through it. Had yet another awesome meal by chef Lesli. 
Looking forward to tomorrow's ride!!

Comments

  1. VarettaAugust 10, 2022 at 5:46 PM

    I feel like a I'm read a book and I know a couple of the characters. The writer is awesome!!! Grace and Peace

    ReplyDelete

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