Riding, Day 10

Day 10 August 7, 2008

I’ve been looking forward to this leg of the trip since Vince showed me the itinerary way back in December. Today will have us heading west on Highway 16 along the Shoshone River, entering Yellowstone National Park through the East Gate, riding through the park, then exiting at the South Gate for the final push south to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The scenery and roads promise to be nothing short of spectacular. Today’s ride distance is only around 180 miles, so we can relax and take our time saying goodbye to Cody.

The youngsters are still trying to recover from their little Hardin adventure, so we let them sleep a while longer. We've got some shopping to do! Oh, and we might sneak in some doughnuts too...it's the one food group we haven't had the pleasure of consuming this trip. That should change today, but…first things first.

From the start of this adventure, best-bud Vince and I have wanted to pick up something to commemorate the trip, something lasting and meaningful. The tattoo thing is out, at least for now – we still need to come up with a design that we both like and then agree on an artist. I already have about seven tats, but Vince has none, and he was apprehensive about just "diving into" a shop in Sturgis and having a go. Nate and I kept pushing, the old peer pressure thing, but no dice. We're thinking of using the Street & Steel Dead Man's Hand skull design and having Nate at DV-8 (he's done all my stuff and is really talented) do the ink when we get home...stay tuned.

OK, so what else could signify our trip? Matching knives, that might be good. Yeah, assuming you can agree on a style! Cody has a number of great stores and we stop in at the Custom Cowboy Shop, a store that Vince spotted last night. I'm leaning toward a Case straight-blade beauty, but there's just one rub: the stock scabbard doesn't fit quite right. No worries – tucked away in the basement is a gent by the name of Gary Ray, master saddle maker, and he will craft a handmade scabbard, custom fit to my knife. Sold! How cool is that? A local Cody, Wyoming craftsman will be working up a one-of-a-kind piece for my knife. I'm (almost) more excited about the darn scabbard than the blade! But what about Vince? Still nothing, yet!

He ambles back to a sporting goods store we checked out when we blew into town yesterday afternoon. He has already spotted a likely candidate, but needs to make sure it’s truly "Sturgis worthy". It is, and a purchase is consummated. So, we have our special souvenirs, each the same, and yet totally different...kinda like us. We're stoked.

Vince, Mark and I stroll over to the Laundromat to pick up our clothes (yes, I've managed to avoid washing clothes yet again!) and happily pay by the pound (dry, of course). The stuff weighs more than you'd think, but it’s totally worth it. Troop back to the rooms to finish packing up. We've gotten into the habit of filling up with gas when we roll into town, so we have one less thing to do now that we're ready to jet.

About noon, we’re meeting the boys at the Buffalo Bill Museum to finish the tour that we started yesterday. If you find yourself in Cody, it's a must-see attraction. Trust me on this. It's really five museums in one, and all are extremely well done, especially the firearms, Buffalo Bill and Plains Indians exhibits. We hustle through the last of the firearms displays – I know some guys who could spend days just checking out the overstock guns in the basement – because we want to get on the road.

This promises to be the last "easy" day of the trip, and probably the most visually stunning. We saddle up and head west on Highway 16, finally on our way to the East Gate of Yellowstone Park just forty miles away.

Right from the start we are treated to amazing vistas, sheer rock canyon walls climbing to dizzying heights on our right and left. Massive evergreens sprout from impossible perches thousands of feet up the slate grey rock. Along the valley floor, the Shoshone River marks the road’s progress, occasionally changing sides, just to keep us guessing. And just to keep us interested, lakes, ponds and waterfalls seem to appear at every turn.

The sky is a patchwork of white, blue and cigarette yellow. Oh yes, I forgot to mention: there have been fires in the area. As a matter of fact, when we got up this morning, we were greeted with the acrid stench of smoke. There were fires burning north of the highway, near the East Gate, but the road has been open for us. And as the morning wore on, the sky gradually cleared, so we thought the smoke eaters had won and the fires were well out. We were wrong.

To the north we can see plumes of smoke, still in the distance, but close enough for concern. The road to Yellowstone twists and dips, and turns back on itself…it's simply one of the best stretches of asphalt I've ever had the pleasure to traverse. It's sensory overload – do I gaze at each progressively more stunning landscape, or stay focused on the task at hand, riding the machine, enjoying the graceful arcs and avoiding disaster? Honestly, I kinda split the difference – it's that good! The smoke continues to rise, and we see the first of the firefighting helos that are sucking water straight from the river to our left and dropping the smothering liquid on the flames to our right. It's an amazing sight.

As we continue, we see plenty of evidence of recent fires, some still visibly smoldering. There are camps with firefighters right off the road. Yellowstone is burning, and we are witnessing it. Pressing on, thankful that the smoke is blowing away from us, we make it to the East Gate. Twenty bucks later, we're into the country’s very first National Park. The road snakes east toward Yellowstone Lake, along ridgelines with views that I'm simply not capable of describing…

We stop at a gas station and souvenir store near Yellowstone Lake, grab a quick soda and have a look-see for goodies. Nate casually asks if I saw the buffalo. The what?! Apparently, there was a herd of Buffalo just north of the road about ten miles back. Nate has a knack for spotting critters and points-of-interest at amazing distances – he'd make a great sniper spotter. But crap, I’ve missed it. Guess I really was paying attention to the road after all.

We saddle up and head out...and I'm bummed about the missed opportunity. That is, until we turn south on Highway 191 and to our immediate left is...a herd of Buffalo!! These beasts are enormous, and only about 100 feet off the road, and there's no fence – nothing between us and several 2,000-pound, potentially pissed-off and unpredictable creatures. So, bright group that we are, we stop the bikes and walk towards them. It is an incredible moment – we can feel the wild force of Nature embodied and exuded by these animals. We snap a couple of photos and there’s no stampede, so we’ll call it a win.




More mind-numbingly beautiful sights: sun-dappled green forests, scorched tree trunks on barren rock strewn ridges, sheer cliffs giving way to bottomless sun starved canyons, pungent sulfur ponds, and a geyser. Yup, we’re looking at a geyser in full "go" mode. Not quite what I expected (although I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, really) – imagine a fire hose underground pointing straight up, and you’ve got it...but warmer!

A quick note on spectacularly amazing sights: people lose their flippin' minds! They screech to a stop in the middle of the road, dive off to the shoulder, shove their way back, and just generally forget that they are not the only folks in the universe.

“Any moose?” you ask? As a matter of fact, we did see some moose away from the road, playing in a pond. You can imagine that particular traffic jam! We’re keeping our heads on the proverbial swivel.

Regaining our composure and pace, we head to the South Gate; our 70-plus mile tour of Yellowstone has come to an end. No worries, though, because we're no sooner out of the park than we enter the Grand Teton National Park. It’s obvious that Mother Nature worked overtime in this corner of globe.

To the east and west of us, rain is threatening, but we still haven't experienced any "real" rain on the trip. We're feeling lucky. Rounding a ridge, the Tetons come fully into view, and Grand they truly are. Other than perhaps the Austrian Alps, I've never seen anything quite like them. Mountain peaks – jagged shards of rock – so massive and so sharp that they threaten to gut the sky. Simply amazing. We stop for photos and though we can't do the views justice, we try anyway.

As we fire up the bikes for the final few miles to Jackson, JP's ride won't start...again. Even with the new battery, it won't turn over; we think it's a short, or maybe the starter. A quick push, and it fires to life and we head down the road. But we’re all a little concerned...we don't need a "mechanical" at this point in the trip.

We avoid the rain, other than maybe a drop here or a drop there, as we roll into the upscale outdoor playground of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It’s a very cool place, and I wish we had more time to explore. Dumping our gear at the motel, we set out for some chow. A Mexican restaurant a block or so away will do the trick. The food’s pretty good, but then again, we haven't eaten since morning.

We walk around the town, which is alive with folks checking out the shops and bars. Rain is falling now and lightning flashes in the distance. Dessert is in the traditional form of ice cream, dished up by a couple of the many eastern European students we found working at their summer exchange jobs...do you think there are American kids slinging stew in the Czech Republic as this is written? We're all tired and I have to sort photos and write this blog for you nice people...tomorrow is a big mileage day, so no beer and it's off to bed...