Day 56: West Yellowstone MT to Cameron MT

By Michael Riscica / July 16, 2005

Day 56 Saturday July 16, 2005, 63 miles (102 km) – Total so far: 3,373 miles (5,428 km)

63.4 miles and 6:03

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Since I offered to be the guy that crashed on the floor of the cabin Matt let me use his inflatable/padded mattress. He calls it ‘The Princess’ because it’s so damn comfortable. The princess weighs about 5 pounds and hangs off the back of his bicycle. I probably had the most comfortable sleep of my entire trip last night.

I woke up around 8am. Andy cooked a giant breakfast for everyone. Last night the owner of the motel worked out a deal with Andy, that he could use all the pots and pans he wanted to, as long as he gave his 7 year old boy Jack a sausage. Shortly before breakfast was over Andy grabbed that last sausage and found Jack and gave it to him.

While we were eating, the clouds became black and it rained and thundered for a few minutes then cleared up. I obsessively watched the weather channel and learned that it was raining everywhere in the country except for Kansas. I bet those farmers are pissed.

While I was packing my bags Jack kept coming into our cabin yelling at us to get on our bikes and ride around the parking lot with him. So I had Jack help me load up my bicycle full of gear, then I rode around the parking lot with him for about 20 minutes.

The wind was blowing really hard to the North. I was worried about my ride today. I wanted to get to Ennis which was 78 miles away and I would be traveling either north or west the whole day, but I knew this wind was too good to be true.

I stopped at the library and fooled around on the internet for a half hour. After I left I got on the road and rode north for the first 8 miles. No problem. I rode those first 8 miles at 25 mph with the tailwind. Then I turned west the wind wasn’t that bad.

When I turned west I was entering the Earthquake area. In 1959 there was a huge earthquake here. It caused a giant landslide and ended up killing many people and greatly changing the topography of the land. Quake Lake was created in an area where there wasn’t a lake previous.

Riding along Hegben Lake was very beautiful. I stopped at a place to get lunch and chatted with a couple of motorcycle guys in the parking lot. When I went inside the bartender was quite rude to me, so I decided not to eat there. I rode a few more miles and ate lunch at the next place I saw. The young girl working at the bar cooked me up a mean buffalo burger.

When I got back on the bike the wind was blowing pretty hard to the north. I had to ride about 21 more miles to ride west then I’ll turn north and the wind will be my tailwind. But the farther I got down the road the stronger the wind got. I was struggling to push the bike 6 mph and I was getting blown all over the road. Eventually I saw the Quake lake visitor center. I had to get inside for a little while. The wind was so strong that I had to get off the bike and push it the road until I got into the building. This was the first time I have had to get off and push my bicycle.

When I got inside the lady working there wanted me to pay her $1 because it was kind of a museum. I told her didn’t have a dollar and I wasn’t really interested in seeing anything inside, I just wanted to get out of the wind. She told me I could hang out inside for a little while as long as I didn’t look at anything on the wall. Fair deal.

When I was going into the visitor center I noticed the tire in the trailer was flat. I used the building to shield me from the wind while I fixed the trailers tire. I pulled a fishing hook out from the tire with my Leatherman. I put a patch on the interior of the tire and on the tube and pumped that sucker back up. Then I pumped up the tires on my bike, they were a little low anyways.

I rode down the hill from visitor center. I took it really slow because the wind was just pushing me all over the road. In a few miles I stopped at some fly fishing store. The wind was starting to ease up a little bit. I drank a disgusting cup of coffee and watched the entire nerdy fisherman talk about fly fishing.

When I left the wind was easing up. One of those fishermen told me that the visitor center is the windiest place in Montana. Right after I rode past Bad Luck Creek. A big gust of wind hit me on the side, pushed me off the shoulder and I slipped on some gravel and fell off my bike. I was probably traveling about 10mph. I scraped my arm and leg. And twisted my angle and wrist. Luckily I wasn’t hurt. I sat on the side of the road for a good 15 minutes listening to my headphones, then got back up and charged away pretty hard from the scene of my accident.

The road slowly turned to the north and I wasn’t getting any tailwinds. I stopped at another fisherman camping place and they told me that they had seen Matt and Jim a few hours ago. Leaving the fisherman place I saw an east bounder, I pulled over on his side of the road because I wanted to ask him where my friends are but he just rode past me and said he needed water.

I kept riding north through the strong headwinds. There was no way I was making it to Ennis for the night. I stopped in a small town called Cameron and saw Karen and Andy. They were happy to see me. I ate dinner and we talked about how tough of a day it was. Apparently the wind did a complete 180 in the middle of the day and Jim and Matt made it to Ennis because they got an earlier start this morning.