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Cycling America Adventure of Yvonne

Page 1: June 5 - June 25, 2000

June 5-9: Chicago, where I bought computer stuff, a cellular phone and met Beth Sholley from the women's list and Ned Burke, a guy from the Warm shower List.
June 9-10: travel by Amtrak to Denver.
June 11-12: met Ben Staggs from the randon-list. The sweetheart helped me in getting a new rain jacket, new pedals, new foam and 12 banana jerkies, better know as Power Bars. He insisted on bringing me up into the mountains to Dillon/Silverthorne.
June 12: Silverthorne/Dillon - Kremmling: nice downhill, but the place where I forgot about the straps of the new toeclip pedals when I mis-shifted and tried to get out of the cages sideways. Had a good dinner, but chose a crappy place to sleep, thinking that there wouldn't be many trains. Wrong! one passenger train yes, but many, many freight trains throughout the night. No earplug can remedy that.
June 13: Kremmling - Granby, got a huge sunburn in the Hot Sulphur Spring pools. Great place to be in a bath... spent another 2,5 hours trying to validate that darn phone card. Fairly decent camping spot in the woods.
June 14: Granby - Rocky Mt. NP - Estes Park. Slept late, was embarrassed at not being able to ride uphill in the park. Stuck up a thumb and got an easy ride up the pass.. great views. Was punished by missing a turn downhill and slogging uphill , mostly pushing the bike for 2 hrs and then discover I should have cycled the other way. Well, the views were good, and making the opposite mistake would have been worse (having to go uphill again). Camped at the river on what later appeared to be a busy bike path. Met great people at the Dairy Queen where cyclists rave about and sampled a blizzard. They helped me contact hosts in Ft. collins and even put a note on the bike with the directions, while I was having dinner!

June 15: Estes Pk - Loveland - Ft. collins. Great ride down the river, the downhills I love, uncomplicated curves , slight grade so you can grind the biggest gears. Wind turned into a headwind after Loveland and temps dropped considerably. Stayed with a wonderful couple in Ft. Collins who had just signed up on the Warm Shower List. Hooked up the Psion and transferred files.
June 16: cycled northwards towards Wyoming in a cold, rainy headwind... gave up after 30 K and stuck up a thumb as I had planned to hitch-hike across Wyoming anyway. Got a ride to Rock Springs from a firefighter who was going to California to get assistance from his 2 brothers (also firefighters). After I treated him on a dinner (me splurging on shrimp fajitas, he modestly on Texas toothpicks = baked onions & jalapeños), I decided to push on and got a ride at 8 pm from a former potato farmer into Jackson, S of Grand Teton. Great ride with a full moon... made me wish I'd cycled there. Stopped just S of Jackson and slept near a deserted rv storage. Was spotted by the police who said he would patrol several times at night...
June 17: Jackson - Grand Teton NP : started really late, checked e-mail , played around with the Revo and left Jackson at 16.45 but stopped at ... 01.00 am and went straight through the NP, enjoying the terrific panorama, and also putting on layer after layer after layer to keep the cold away.. Stopped exhausted but exhilarated because of the great ride in the near-full moon, just N of the NP.

June 18: in between Grand Teton and Yellowstone - Grantville. Was tired from last day, but mostly from the sleepless coooooooold night. Even cold with all clothes on... hey I didn't remember all these hills. Slugged on for just over 40 K and arrived in Grantville (Yellowst.) to find the campsite closed because the fishing season hadn't finished yet for the bears... oops... what to do. No energy to push on, too scared to pitch a tent.. hey, here's the ladies' toilets! 2 other French cyclists (male,female) did the same in the mens. Got company from 3 Koreans, who I could convince that bears wouldn't smash the glass of a car window to get food from them...
June 19: Grantville - Madison . It had been cosy in the restroom, but too short. The cleaner came at 5.30 am :-(. Brekkie at 6.30 and out at 7.30 (normally I leave at noon or later). Was a coward again, with all of the cold rain and yes, stuck up a thumb and left bike in Madison. The biggest problem was the cold feet and cold upper body, which is caused by the too well ventilating Ultrex rain jacket.. a goretex keeps you warmer! The rest of the day was spent hitch-hiking without a bike throughout the park. Met some great people from Aloha (?) in Oregon. Finally hitch-hiked back to Old faithful as my first vehicle had been from a salesman in bullets who had no interest in seeing geysers.. During the day, I've seen at least 2 hailstorms and at the end, another huge rain shower which even had snow mixed in.. glad to be in a car. Met the same cyclists in the campsite whose tent had been flooded... soooo I payed for a tent site and slept in the....ladies' restroom again..

June 20: Madison - Big Sky: felt much better, better weather too, well that was after West yellowstone, when I cycled in a beautiful vally (downhill ;-) towards Bozeman. Another 100K day. Did my first 'knock' and could stay next to a mountain cabin of 'ski bums' = people who work in the snow areas in order to be able to ski lots and lots. I'm a bit scared of asking permission, but even more scared of bears!
June 21: Big Sky - Belgrade (Bozeman) - Missoula. Cycled for 4 hours and covered 70 K (yup, downhill). Stuck up a thumb and got a ride from a farmer to Deer Lodge who told me lots about the area and a farmer's son from kansas to Missoula. When I put everything back on the bike and pedalled to town to go to the hostel (which proved to be closed), my front tyre exploded. it had given problems ever since I'd pumped it up real hard in Ft. Collins with a track pump. Had 2 flats afterwards, and now the exploded tube. Discovered a fractured side wall and put on the foldable tyre. Glad to get rid of the 37mm tyre and put a 32mm one back on.. am not going to ride the Great Divide MTB route after all since I hate dirt roads and also love chatting to people. A guardian angel came along to offer help and eventually offered a warm shower at his & his fiancee's house. He even could speak Dutch to me!

June 22: Missoula. Got laundry done, went to Adventure Cycling, where people were extremely helpful and friendly to try to hook up my Psion Revo, but alas... it didn't work. Bought hydro-socks which may help to keep me warm in rain as I just wear sandals. To the 'Bike Doctor' to get a new non-foldable tyre (Michelin Wild Gripper 32mm), tubes, and have people look at the saddle. The nose now is fixed on the downward position so as to protect my sensitive feminine parts. Met lots of interesting cyclists: a Swiss couple on a tandem, a solo cyclist from ? and a Cat 2 racer who's race-touring from California to Bozeman.. Am now in the Internet cafe to catch up with the mail.
June 23: Missoula - Clark & Lewis Hwy 12. Further on... considering my slow pace, there's going to be a lot of hitch-hiking ahead, will be difficult to decide where to do that.. I'll probably follow the Adventure Cycling's TransAmerica route as it ends up in Corvallis too near Ellener from the women's list! Want to be in Seattle by July 4 and in BC for the rest of the month, which explains the haste.

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June 5-9: Chicago, where I bought computer stuff, a cellular phone and met Beth Sholley from the women's list and Ned Burke, a guy from the Warm shower List. June 9-10: travel by Amtrak to Denver. June 11-12: met Ben Staggs from the randon-list. The sweetheart helped me in getting a new rain jacket, new pedals, new foam and 12 banana jerkies, better know as Power Bars. He insisted on bringing me up into the mountains to Dillon/Silverthorne. June 12: Silverthorne/Dillon - Kremmling: nice downhill, but the place where I forgot about the straps of the new toeclip pedals when I mis-shifted and tried to get out of the cages sideways. Had a good dinner, but chose a crappy place to sleep, thinking that there wouldn't be many trains. Wrong! one passenger train yes, but many, many freight trains throughout the night. No earplug can remedy that. June 13: Kremmling - Granby, got a huge sunburn in the Hot Sulphur Spring pools. Great place to be in a bath... spent another 2,5 hours trying to validate that darn phone card. Fairly decent camping spot in the woods. June 14: Granby - Rocky Mt. NP - Estes Park. Slept late, was embarrassed at not being able to ride uphill in the park. Stuck up a thumb and got an easy ride up the pass.. great views. Was punished by missing a turn downhill and slogging uphill , mostly pushing the bike for 2 hrs and then discover I should have cycled the other way. Well, the views were good, and making the opposite mistake would have been worse (having to go uphill again). Camped at the river on what later appeared to be a busy bike path. Met great people at the Dairy Queen where cyclists rave about and sampled a blizzard. They helped me contact hosts in Ft. collins and even put a note on the bike with the directions, while I was having dinner!

	June 15: Estes Pk - Loveland - Ft. collins. Great ride down the river, the downhills I love, uncomplicated curves , slight grade so you can grind the biggest gears. Wind turned into a headwind after Loveland and temps dropped considerably. Stayed with a wonderful couple in Ft. Collins who had just signed up on the Warm Shower List. Hooked up the Psion and transferred files. June 16: cycled northwards towards Wyoming in a cold, rainy headwind... gave up after 30 K and stuck up a thumb as I had planned to hitch-hike across Wyoming anyway. Got a ride to Rock Springs from a firefighter who was going to California to get assistance from his 2 brothers (also firefighters). After I treated him on a dinner (me splurging on shrimp fajitas, he modestly on Texas toothpicks = baked onions & jalapeños), I decided to push on and got a ride at 8 pm from a former potato farmer into Jackson, S of Grand Teton. Great ride with a full moon... made me wish I'd cycled there. Stopped just S of Jackson and slept near a deserted rv storage. Was spotted by the police who said he would patrol several times at night... June 17: Jackson - Grand Teton NP : started really late, checked e-mail , played around with the Revo and left Jackson at 16.45 but stopped at ... 01.00 am and went straight through the NP, enjoying the terrific panorama, and also putting on layer after layer after layer to keep the cold away.. Stopped exhausted but exhilarated because of the great ride in the near-full moon, just N of the NP.

June 18: in between Grand Teton and Yellowstone - Grantville. Was tired from last day, but mostly from the sleepless coooooooold night. Even cold with all clothes on... hey I didn't remember all these hills. Slugged on for just over 40 K and arrived in Grantville (Yellowst.) to find the campsite closed because the fishing season hadn't finished yet for the bears... oops... what to do. No energy to push on, too scared to pitch a tent.. hey, here's the ladies' toilets! 2 other French cyclists (male,female) did the same in the mens. Got company from 3 Koreans, who I could convince that bears wouldn't smash the glass of a car window to get food from them... June 19: Grantville - Madison . It had been cosy in the restroom, but too short. The cleaner came at 5.30 am :-(. Brekkie at 6.30 and out at 7.30 (normally I leave at noon or later). Was a coward again, with all of the cold rain and yes, stuck up a thumb and left bike in Madison. The biggest problem was the cold feet and cold upper body, which is caused by the too well ventilating Ultrex rain jacket.. a goretex keeps you warmer! The rest of the day was spent hitch-hiking without a bike throughout the park. Met some great people from Aloha (?) in Oregon. Finally hitch-hiked back to Old faithful as my first vehicle had been from a salesman in bullets who had no interest in seeing geysers.. During the day, I've seen at least 2 hailstorms and at the end, another huge rain shower which even had snow mixed in.. glad to be in a car. Met the same cyclists in the campsite whose tent had been flooded... soooo I payed for a tent site and slept in the....ladies' restroom again..

	June 20: Madison - Big Sky: felt much better, better weather too, well that was after West yellowstone, when I cycled in a beautiful vally (downhill ;-) towards Bozeman. Another 100K day. Did my first 'knock' and could stay next to a mountain cabin of 'ski bums' = people who work in the snow areas in order to be able to ski lots and lots. I'm a bit scared of asking permission, but even more scared of bears! June 21: Big Sky - Belgrade (Bozeman) - Missoula. Cycled for 4 hours and covered 70 K (yup, downhill). Stuck up a thumb and got a ride from a farmer to Deer Lodge who told me lots about the area and a farmer's son from kansas to Missoula. When I put everything back on the bike and pedalled to town to go to the hostel (which proved to be closed), my front tyre exploded. it had given problems ever since I'd pumped it up real hard in Ft. Collins with a track pump. Had 2 flats afterwards, and now the exploded tube. Discovered a fractured side wall and put on the foldable tyre. Glad to get rid of the 37mm tyre and put a 32mm one back on.. am not going to ride the Great Divide MTB route after all since I hate dirt roads and also love chatting to people. A guardian angel came along to offer help and eventually offered a warm shower at his & his fiancee's house. He even could speak Dutch to me!

June 22: Missoula. Got laundry done, went to Adventure Cycling, where people were extremely helpful and friendly to try to hook up my Psion Revo, but alas... it didn't work. Bought hydro-socks which may help to keep me warm in rain as I just wear sandals. To the 'Bike Doctor' to get a new non-foldable tyre (Michelin Wild Gripper 32mm), tubes, and have people look at the saddle. The nose now is fixed on the downward position so as to protect my sensitive feminine parts. Met lots of interesting cyclists: a Swiss couple on a tandem, a solo cyclist from ? and a Cat 2 racer who's race-touring from California to Bozeman.. Am now in the Internet cafe to catch up with the mail. June 23: Missoula - Clark & Lewis Hwy 12. Further on... considering my slow pace, there's going to be a lot of hitch-hiking ahead, will be difficult to decide where to do that.. I'll probably follow the Adventure Cycling's TransAmerica route as it ends up in Corvallis too near Ellener from the women's list! Want to be in Seattle by July 4 and in BC for the rest of the month, which explains the haste.