Day 54 Thursday July 14, 2005, 81 miles (131 km) – Total so far: 3,253 miles (5,236 km)
81.1 Miles and 7 hours
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I woke up at 7:30 and walked across the street to have breakfast. The hostel was in the basement of a motel so there were no windows and it was hard to tell it was morning. I quickly packed up my gear and was at the Internet café at 9 when they opened. I sent out a few emails and did some stuff I didn’t get to do the day before.
I left the internet place around 10:30 and rode through Jackson for a little while, taking pictures. I stopped into a bike shop because my headset was making a crunching sound when I turned my handlebars. They told me it was actually the housing on my cables that was making that noise. I might replace the housing next time I get a tune up, which will probably be in Missoula.
On my way out of Jackson I met Dale who was also riding west but going to Jackson for the day. I had heard about Dale from some other people and had seen his journal on this website. We talked on the side of the road for a while, he’s a nice guy.
I rode back through Teton National Park and got back on the Transam my little side trip to Jackson Hole cost me 80 miles roundtrip. Its ok I’m glad I went. I stopped at the Grocery store in the little village where I stayed in 2 nights ago. I grabbed a sandwich and talked with a German man while I ate lunch. He was really excited about my trip and that I would actually take the time to see this country by bicycle.
As I was riding alongside Jackson Lake I wanted to go swimming so bad. I’m not even much of a swimmer but I was craving to jump into that lake. An east bounder told me that I’ll have a lot of swimming opportunities on the transam at a lot of hot springs.
Around mile 54 I stopped at a rest area. It was my last rest stop for the day and I still had another 22 miles. They had this beautiful 3D topographic map of Wyoming hanging on the wall. I stared at it for about ½ hour retracing my trail.
While I was coming out of the rest area I was 2 other cyclists climbing up the hill. It was Matt from Australia and Jim Hammond. I went with them back into the rest area and the 3 of us grabbed dinner there. While we were leaving Karen and Andy the 2 west bounders I saw the day I was leaving lander rode up.
2 miles from the rest area we were in Yellowstone. We climbed uphill for almost 10 miles but it wasn’t that bad. I actually flew up it pretty fast. A lot of the area we were riding through was destroyed by wild fires. It was pretty sad. Matt and Jim flew past me and I kept stopping to take pictures.
The mosquitos were so bad it was getting dark and I had to put on my sunglasses so I could keep them out of my eyes. That wasn’t fun.
The last couple miles I rode like hell so I could make it to the store before 9:30. I got there with 10 minutes to spare and was able to buy my beer. I checked into the campsite and it only cost $5. Matt and Jim were already here all setup. Matt also picked up some beer. For the rest of the night we sat around drinking beer and talking about the day.
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Click Here to Visit Previous Page: Day 53: Grand Teton National Park WY to Jackson Hole W
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