North America, First and Second.

The black art of moving from A to B on foreign soil
OnHellas
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Re: North America, First and Second.

Post by OnHellas »

Thanks for the info chaps, and for reading my stuff in the first place.
Yellowstone will be another First and Second for us.

But today, 145 miles from Sheridan to Cody. Please choose the shortest route for us Mr TomTom. Well he did, and he didn’t ask if we wanted to avoid gravel roads. That’ll do then. Off we go. First stop was to buy some water for the drink packs and then we were off......on to a gravel road within about 4 miles. Maybe it’s a section of yet to be completed roadworks. No, gravel road it was. Very hard packed but damp. All good though until we were about 10 miles in and came to a Road Closed sign.
Not to be deterred we carried on to see if the road was blocked or passable.
A section of road had been washed away at some point but there was just a ditch across the reinstated part to let the excess water in the fields flow away.
No bother for a pair of rufty tufty seasoned off road riders!! Not for us either luckily.
On we went, eventually joining up with Highway 14, the road I thought that we’d be on directly from town.
The road climbed and climbed. The temperature dropped and after our customary 50 ish mile stint we came across a place to stop. Tea and Pie. Nice.

From there we had two choices. Hwy 14 or Hwy 14 A for Alternative.
We took the Alternative and Wow! did it deliver. We spotted a couple of deer just in the side of the road, as we slowed they both leapt over the fence to our left and ran away to safety. Unfortunately we saw a couple of their relatives who’d obviously made the wrong decision as to when to cross the road. Poor Bambi!!
Next I spotted a Marmot making its escape. Sarah only saw the second much slower Marmot laying in the road a bit later.
The road climbed up in to the snow line and 10 degrees was shown on the bike dash.
From the top the views.....

A sign told us that the road would descend over 1000 meters in 8 miles. The drop offs were quite severe and you could see the lower ground below very clearly.
It look like a relief map. Stunning. And not something that I’d seen or at least thought of before. Beautiful tarmac all the way to the bottom added to the enjoyment.

We had a short navigation error as instead of looking at the satnav I was looking at the junk vehicles in a scrap yard and sailed on past the junction. Two miles later we made a U-turn. Thankfully it’s not something I do very often.

The final run in to Cody was less impressive but still in big empty spaces with virtually no traffic.
We found a proper Diner for a late lunch. No chain food for us. Proper meat loaf.

That’s it, Yellowstone tomorrow. Maybe we’ll see a bear??

Two happy people, two happy bikes.
OnHellas
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Re: North America, First and Second.

Post by OnHellas »

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OnHellas
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Re: North America, First and Second.

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OnHellas
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Re: North America, First and Second.

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OnHellas
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Re: North America, First and Second.

Post by OnHellas »

Filling up with fuel was completed on the way out of Cody and at the start of the 50 mile ride to the Yellowstone East Gate.
What a 50 miles they turned out to be. Another case of something that isn’t in the guide books, not that I actually checked, but is a Wow! none the less.
We saw deer and a large male buffalo. The buffalo was in the middle of the road, there were barriers both sides so we applied proper caution until the opportunity to slip by presented itself.

Yellowstone Park. For those that have been you know what it’s like and hopefully thinking of it now will bring back great memories of what you saw there.
For those that haven’t been, I would thoroughly recommend it. Yes it is Tourist Central. But the landscapes, geothermal activity and animals are well worth the time.
It was another First and Second for us. We were both Wowed! by it. We even got to see a couple of bears. I didn’t manage to get a picture of Yogi’s relatives as the first lot were to far away for my trusty iPhone camera and the second opportunity presented itself whilst we were on the bikes in a stop start queue of cars. The bear was happily feeding on the vegetation seemingly unaware of the adulation of the crowd.
The last hour of our first day in the park was spent under leaden skies that seemed to unload heavy rain interspersed with hail all the way to West Yellowstone which would be home for the night.
The next morning we got an early start as I wanted to go and see Old Faithful. The Geyser that erupts faithfully every hour or so. In my first visit I didn’t get to it until the afternoon and by that time the queue just to get to the car park was a couple of miles. Hence I wanted to see it this time and the early start.
There was no queue, we saw it. One of those things that probably didn’t quite live up to expectations, but hey, it was still a 10/10 day.
We didn’t see anymore bears but added Chipmunk to the list of creatures seen.
Out time in the park up, we headed back to West Yellowstone for a late lunch early dinner and then on to a cabin on a ranch in Idaho. The peace, solitude and tranquility were a perfect antidote to being with the worlds tourists.
The bloke that owned the place, on finding out we’re British, told us that he spent two years in the UK and that Sunday dinner and chocolate Hobnobs are missed. Peckham not so much so.....from rural Idaho to Peckham I asked...how does that work?
A missionary, that’s how.

After that couple of days it’s definitely....

Two happy people, two happy bikes.
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Re: North America, First and Second.

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Re: North America, First and Second.

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Re: North America, First and Second.

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Re: North America, First and Second.

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Re: North America, First and Second.

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