Day 20-Bozeman to West Yellowstone MT

Today was a 90 mile ride to West Yellowstone, I rode with Dylan again and Randy. Everyone was really looking forward to the ride today, people we talked to said the road coming into Yellowstone was gorgeous. It definitely was beautiful, followed a river through the valley and saw lots of river rafting and kayaking with massive cliffs and gorgeous hill sides. However, the road itself was awful, hardly any shoulder and some sections with no shoulder or it was unrideable because of debris and holes. This was all on a small two lane highway with cars, trucks and semi trucks, including one oversized load truck that luckily passed while we were all off the road, it made for a pretty dangerous ride, definitely the first time I was scared on a bike. We were only on that really bad section for 15 or 20 miles until we got to some construction that we planned for and started ferrying people across on vans, this was very frustrating because it took us over an hour from the time we got to the red flag at the construction to the time we got back on our bikes on the other side. While we were waiting most of us were really not happy with the road we were riding on and decided ourselves that if it didn't improve on the other side we were not riding on it any longer, too many close calls to go for 75 miles with those conditions. After 3 miles on the road after the construction we were done with it, it was getting worse, guard rails on the side of the road forced us to ride even closer the the car lane so we pulled off at the next van and they drove us up 7 miles to Big Sky where the roads were a little better. Still slightly uncomfortable for us and one guy actually got clipped in the shoulder by a car mirror about 40 miles away from lodging. After we heard that there was another big debate about if we should even be on this road but I was over it, I told myself beginning of this trip that I would never rack myself and I felt comfortable enough on the road to keep going so my pace line and I pushed on.

It really was quite the push today too, other than the less than ideal roads, we were dealing with 15-20 mph cross wind, head wind and gusts. That much wind blowing right at us makes it so much harder, we were moving a 10-12 mph on flats and still struggling. It felt like the ride was taking forever, I remember coming up on a mileage sign and as we were coming around a corner I was hoping it was going to say we were under 20 miles away but it read 27 and I was ready to just fall over onto the grass beside the road. Somehow I convinced myself to keep moving. I have realized that so much of the cycling is a mind game for me, just convincing myself that I can do another 27 when I only want to go another 2, if I let the thought of stopping get embedded in my head I won't make it. I have been focusing hard on keeping in the right mindset on every ride and my teammates have been vital to this. Just the small things like saying great pull after a long time up front or anything to help get me up a hill or to keep pulling through the wind when the other guys are more tired and hurting more than I am. Even though today was the most frustrating and one of the most difficult days on the bike so far, the feeling I had making the last turn and seeing all our vans lined up outside lodging was so great. Overcoming all of the obstacles we had today was even more rewarding for me because today I dedicated our ride to a friend I made in elementary school Michael Zimney, his excitement for everything was contagious, I remember he was in my group for a project in design tech in middle school where we made a Rube Goldberg machine and he was so fun to work with. I will always remember him throughout my life and wish he was still here with us today to know how much he meant to me and my friends. It was great to have the chance to dedicate this ride to him because just like us he overcame so much and knew how to keep his smile going all the time.

We did not have a friendship visit tonight but out dinner was at a church in West Yellowstone which also happened to be hosting a gospel musical group called New Wine from Minnesota that has been traveling around performing at different churches and venues. We ate dinner with them and got to know a few of them which was fun, there was lots of mutual curiosity about our different traveling experiences, they are mostly high school age or younger. They invited us to stay for the performance and a group of guys took them up on it and apparently it was a phenomenal performance. The biggest surprise came at the end of the show, they group decided to donate all the the profit they made from the night to our Journey, 177$. That was so amazing, I wish I had been there to thank them in person.

The rest of us walked into town to go explore a bit and see what the gift shops had to offer, lots of furs and horns, not my kind of thing but it was a neat little town. Tomorrow we have the whole day to explore Yellowstone and we are taking advantage of every minute, departing at 6am to get to a hike that is apparently one of the best in the park, very common to see a lot of wildlife, big horn sheep, bison, birds and at the top is a view of the whole park. We are also going to check out old faithful after the hike and see where our adventure takes us.