Monday, July 29, 2013

          Howdy ya'll! Long time no see right?! Sorry it's been so long but we have been passing through towns faster than I can remember them. By this point we have made it safely out of the rocky mountains and into the arid plains of eastern Colorado. It is on one hand exciting that we have been able to move into some differing landscape but at the same time it is getting hot much earlier in the day and there is never any point to rest, just pedal pedal pedal. But this also means our course has changed to almost due East and we will be covering land much faster, already in the past few days we have started to average more around 70 miles a day rather than the 50 or 60 we were doing before.
          On some unfortunate news our friend Sam, who we had picked up in Yellowstone park, had to fly home. In a moment of great excitement he acted too fast and took his bike off a jump at the Frisco adventure and skills park. He ended up nose diving, flipping over his handle bars and breaking the left collarbone, quite badly. We were able to drive to the hospital where they got an x-ray and heavily suggested surgery, the bone was separated enough that it would likely not be able to pull itself back together and he would likely have problems with the healing. It is unfortunate but he took it well and has been able to happily re-unite with his dog back in Anchorage Alaska.
          There is much much more that has happened but I am afraid most of it will have to wait for those one on one moments when I am able to much better relate the story. But to make up for it for now here are some photos!
Squiggles, our friend Kingsly's dog

if you can read it at the bottom it says 100, my first century on this trip!
thats how they make ice cream right?

a beautiful body of water

the newest addition to our team

that's really tall

it wasn't thaaaaat hard
Squiggs is awesome.

taaaaaadaaaaaah



Friday, July 19, 2013

Hello all! I'm really sorry for our lack of posts, we have been putting in lots of days with few chances to stop at a computer. I am unable to describe all of what we have done in one go but here are some basics: crossing into Colorado tomorrow, meeting some more awesome cyclists, battling headwinds across open plains and long distances, hugging the white line as we ride through construction devoid of a shoulder, feeling accomplished as we sleep in a tipi, crisscrossing the continental divide and so much more. These are some pictures to give an idea of our adventures:
We got to sleep in a tipi, we also cooked and had a fire inside it

but we also had to assemble it ourselves

a sunset from our hosts house

it started like this

jackalopes are real!

our friend Sam, who we are now riding with

our highest elevation yet, 16 miles and 2500 feet of climbing

dusk over the west thumb of Yellowstone lake

one of our seven continental divide crossings, we made three in that one day

our stop by adventure cycling HQ

our other companion Jez passed out after a long day that night we got to stay in a church

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Hello one and all! I apologize for the lack of posts recently but we have really been on the move and sometimes its just hard to keep up. At the moment I am posting from a friends tablet so photos will have to wait, but very soon you will be bombarded by images of our exploits. Today we leave from Jackson Wyoming, we spent a rest day here and had an opportunity to recuperate from the long last week. We left Missoula on  the 4th  and rode up into the big hole valley (aka the bug hole valley.) After two days of warinng with mosquitoes on the beautiful battlefield we climbed out and into Dillon. When we rolled into the town campsite we met with another trans-am cyclist. His name is Jez, he is from Engeland and he is now part of our party. With our new trio we cruzed on into West Yellowstone, the overpriced entrance town to Yellowstone national park. When we finally entered the park we were quite unimpressed at first. It is filled with dead trees and RVs that make bison look like hamsters. As dusk came and we criss-crossed the continental divide we were greeted by a great change; the tourists began to retire, leaving the roads to us and creating a quite presence you can rarely find anywhere else. As we left the park the next day we cut our ride short when we met another two cyclist, Sam and Mike of Anchorage, Alaska who are riding to fundraise for ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. We spent the night with the two and fate decided we would stay together. Sam ended up tapping his ankle with a hatchet and the next day they found their way to Jackson to go to a clinic. We met them there that night, his ankle was fine, and we stayed together at a mans apartment. The next day we rested in Jackson. Unfortunantley Mike ended up having to leave for Alaska. His step father has ALS and is progressing rapidly in the sickness. So now our party has grown to four, let's see how it goes!

Friday, July 5, 2013

update

Maura and I have been trudging down the bitter root the last two days and are now sitting on computers in the library of Darby, Montana. Later today we will be crossing the continental divide and coasting on into the big hole area. Everyone we have met has asked to make sure we have bug repellent for big hole because the mosquitoes are supposed to be as big as sparrows. But without further ado, here are some photos!
Adventure cycling headquarters

kissing asphalt

the new loaner all together

the paper on these maps really is waterproof!

the bitterroot mountains in the backround, there is still snow on top

little bridge over the bitterroot river

Thursday, July 4, 2013

departing

Hello all and sorry to keep you in suspense. Because of the accident what had meant to be a single rest day in Missoula has become four days and we are leaving this morning. During that time we were able to have a loaner frame kindly shipped out by my parents and Jim's bicycle shop. (our place of work) We put it all together at a local co-op bicycle shop which allowed me to use their tools. We also ended up with a chance to go whitewater rafting down Alberton gorge! It was amazingly fun. Then we got the classic ice cream from adventure cycling headquarters! yum. While at adventure cycling I also discovered that in reality my bike and gear together weigh 90lbs, while Maura's only weighs 64. So after dropping the old frame at fed-ex to ship home we will be out of this town for good. Sorry no photos at the moment but there will be soon.