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Yellowstone Grand Loop - Day III - Old Faithful to Mammoth

September 9, 2008 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Bike

Weather: 30s -> 60s and sunny/warm

Comments:
Woke up early again and had a nice breakfast of coffee, muffins and Clif snacks in the Old Faithful Lodge overlooking the steaming geyser before heading out for our last leg.

The first leg went really well; it's always nice to bike early in the morning, while it's cool and quiet/low traffic. We made a couple stops at geyser basins, but other than that, we made really good time going downstream with the Firehole River to Madison Junction.

After a fairly brief stop at Madison, we rolled the consistently uphill ride to Norris, riding upstream along the Gibbon River. The climb wasn't too bad; the worst was the approach to Gibbon Falls, but it was fine after that.

I felt really good today. At first, my calf/achilles felt a little sketchy on the initial ride, but it really came along and was pain/stab-free in the second leg. After Gibbon Falls I took off just a bit, leaving Dan behind. I wanted to get in a real workout, so I biked pretty hard all the way to Norris before turning back to reel him in.

We had a decent rest stop at Norris, but it was still cloudy and cool so it was tough to get/stay warm. We both missed the stops from Sunday, where we were able to go inside and get coffee at places like Canyon.

Just before leaving, the sun started to come out. At first it looked like the sunlight would be brief, but by the time we'd biked a mile to the Norris campground for water, the skies had magically cleared. We doffed a couple layers and started our last 21 miles to Mammoth.

I led this last leg, but being sure to keep Dan right behind me. Around Norris we felt a significant headwind, so we figured we could do a nice pace if I blocked wind for Dan and we tooled along.

The first couple miles did have a headwind, as well as a couple minor climbs. But before long, we were again going downstream, among several creeks that would eventually comprise the Gardner River. On top of that, we picked up a significant tailwind along the way, such that we were literally cruising along at well over 20mph -- a hell of a pace for us, considering we averaged 12 on the first day.

We really hammered that segment, stopping once at Roaring Mountain for a pic, and then to doff even more layers. I even took off my jacket, which was a first for the entire bike trip!

From there we continued hammering; the only limiting factor being how fast I could pedal my legs, such was the terrain and wind conditions! Traffic was picking up, and that was annoying, but when you're going 25+, a lot less cars pass you in the park than if you're going 10, that's for sure. One last stop right above the canyon leading into Mammoth before bombing down it into the finish!

What a great finish -- we really lucked out with the selection of this route, with, once again, our finish being an exhilarating downhill to the end.

Once back at Mammoth, we hit up the car and then cracked the two leftover beers I had in my pack to celebrate. After we downed those, we bid goodbye to Yellowstone and headed north to Gardiner. We took one pitstop along the short trip, stopping to soak in the Gardner River and it's "boiling" counter-part -- a well-known segment where hot springs water empty into the otherwise frigid snowmelt waters, creating a hot tub-like effect. We iced for ten minutes and had a steamy soak right afterwards. GREAT way to end the trip!

Back in Gardiner, we stopped at "K-Bar" for beer and pizza, then retired back to Eagle Creek GG for the night.

Overall I'm in pretty good spirits, but a little down that my heel is f-ed up again. Coulda done without that.