July 21st/Day 49 – Ennis, MT to 20 miles short of West Yellowstone. 52 miles (Zoe)
Sleeping with the tent flies off last night was pretty awesome – big clear Montana sky, no light pollution, and the moon didn’t come up until about midnight. I saw my first shooting star in a long, long time. We had our second 6am alarm in a row – easier than you’d think, when the sky starts getting light about 5 or so. We bid a sad adieu to the Ennis RV park, which is fantastic – sitting on a bluff above the Madison River with views back west to the VC hill we’d come down, and east to the mountains surrounding Yellowstone. The goal was to beat the wind we’d be riding into. It seems to start coming up about 9 every day, and can get pretty crazy mid-afternoon. We managed to beat it for an hour or so, but…
Today’s ride was supposed to gain us 2000 feet of altitude over 70 miles and put us within striking distance of Yellowstone, to set up for park adventures tomorrow. We’ve achieved that, more or less, though at a little cost. The wind crept up and started hitting us head on after about an hour of riding, reducing our speed to about 8mph. We knew the valley, then canyon, would open up in two directions - one pass to Idaho, one to Yellowstone - but had no idea which direction the wind was coming out of. Headwinds are worse for my mental health than anything else we’ve encountered on the road, and headwinds with climbing…blech!! My left knee is being incredibly fussy – we’ve adjusted my saddle, seat post, foot position etc a half dozen times, but I think it’s just protesting at the passes. Riding uphill into the wind is perhaps the most strenuous thing I can ask this mistreated joint to do, so I tried to help it out by concentrating on my upstroke, pulling the pedals up rather than pushing them down (ish). This worked well…for about 4 hours. At which point I absolutely couldn’t get any more out of muscles that have never been used in this way. Fortunately, just as I was reaching my limit, the headwind became a crosswind – still strong, but rideable. We then met a rider, Matt, who let us know that as we turned into the Hebgen Lake road we would have a tailwind – the wind was in fact coming from Idaho, and blowing not only in our faces, but eastwards into the Hegben valley – inspiration!
There used to be a river running east out of the lake. In 1959, though, an earthquake started a landslide which blocked the river, as well as killing a number of people in the campground. Overnight the river valley became a second lake, Quake Lake, and the rising waters drowned hundreds of pines. Although the lake’s been there more than 60 years, the bleached bones of the trees still stand in the water. It’s remarkably eerie.
We’re now at a campground with meadows full of wildflowers surrounded by aspens and pines. All pretty shattered after the slog into the wind. It’s Kraft Mac n Cheese for dinner (our emergency meal), since we didn’t pass a single shop or town today. The camp host assures us that we’ve picked a good spot, since they haven’t had a bear come by for a month…
