Day 41: grand Teton to wear Yellowstone
Woke up cold again. Geeze this was getting old. I didn’t care that it was 5:20 in the morning. I wasn’t going back to sleep in this weather. I gathered my things and half walked/ half ran to the bathroom. It must have been 15 degrees warmer. I took my time brushing my teeth and getting ready. I ran into Ellen on my way back and we just gave each other a look that said ‘why is it so cold’?! I know I should expect colder weather now that I’m in the mountains but it’s still hard for me to deal with it. Not taking the time to balance my panniers I loaded up my bike. I saw that Dan had built a fire and everyone was gathered around it. Mark was starting to boil water so I knew it would be a while before everyone was ready. I was really tempted to join them but I knew once I got warm it would be impossible for me to leave. So I said goodbye and took off. The plan was to meet at Old Faithful and decide where to go from there. The first couple miles were freezing and it was a struggle to keep going. My nose kept running and I could see my breathe in the air. The air was so still it seemed like the world was frozen. My phone battery doesn’t do well in the cold either and was completely dead. It was a shame because I passed a lot of scenic pull offs. I tried to commit the scenes to memory but I’m sure I’ve forgotten most of them.

Getting out of the Grand Teton National Park was easy. Although the shoulder wasn’t very big there were hardly any cars because it was still early. Once I was about 10 miles into YellowStone National Park did traffic pick up. It was a little nerve racking as there wasn’t any shoulder and the road was kinda narrow. I had to cross the continental divide three times. Which meant there were three hills. Overall they weren’t as bad as a thought. I think it was due to the fact I kept telling myself I was biking across YellowStone. Who cares about the hills. 

I hadn’t seen anyone all day. I got to Old Faithful at exactly 1:13. Just as I turned into the visitor center sidewalk Old Faithful went off. It was a nice welcome after biking 50 miles. After watching it I walked around a bit. There are some other cool geyser and pools near by so I explored them. Yellowstone has a lot of gift shops. I was disappointed they didn’t have more national park 100 anniversary items. I still found a cool shirt and a nalgene to replace one of my water bottles and a t-shirt with a bike on it. Everyone else still seemed to be far away so I wrote some postcards and chatted with the park rangers. I had my eye out for any geology field camps but I didn’t see any. Looking for a rite in the rain notebook or burton made me miss my classmates so I took off for West Yellowstone, 30 miles away. Along the way I stopped by Biscuit Basin and Grand Prismatic Pool. Since I already had pictures from last year I just enjoyed the sites. I liked not having to make sure I had the perfect shot to capture the view. 90% of the time my phone butchers the picture anyway. 

Apparently West Yellowstone is in Montana because I passed the state border. I didn’t see the sign so I’ll have to get a picture with it tomorrow morning. While waiting to regroup I walked around the town. I bought a huckleberry soda that’s suppose to be legendary. We grouped at McDonald’s for dinner. I have the app so I got a buy one get one free butter milk chicken sandwich. Not a bad deal! There were lots of cute looking restaurants in town. I was really hungry it didn’t matter what I ate. I decided that I would rather eat cheap than than spend more since all I wanted was calories. I really enjoyed the soda and wished it was sold on the east coast. After dinner we headed to a hotel that lets bikers camp in the back. I was a bit hesitant to take a shower as I didn’t want to go to bed with my hair wet. If it was going to get as cold as last night having wet hair would be a bad idea. Since I didn’t shower the day before I figured it would be a good idea. Afterward Jolee and I held our heads under the hand dryer until out hair was mostly dry. It’s getting late and colder so I’m going to bed. Tomorrow should be a relatively easy day!