Day #9 Aug 1, 2007

Day 9
Wednesday August 1, 2007

Billings, MT to Landers, WY
358 miles today(15,905 – 16,263) today
2154 miles total

1 new state today, Wyoming

5 states total

6:15 AM
Packed, hitched up, ready to go.

8:46 AM
Rode to Red Lodge, MT. for breakfast at Hank’s Place. The temp is COOL as I get out of Billings and head toward the mountain pass.

Getting excited about the accent over the Bear Tooth Pass.
I have wanted to RIDE this on a bike ever since last year when Nat and I drove over it. We drove south to north, and I’m going the reverse direction. Lots of bikes in Red Lodge, even at this hour of the morning.

11:30 AM

Wow! The pass was AWESOME! The views were fantastic…beautiful…spectacular! So awesome. And pulling the trailer was no problem whatsoever. At the first bathroom stop, there must have been 25-30 bikes there. I got LOTS of inquiries about the trailer. One guy said they’d been considering one, but had never seen one up close. He was very glad for the 15 minutes we spent discussing it.

For 3 days I’ve tolerated/endured the heat. Today, I was actually cool! Wow! More contrasts. I never went into Yellowstone, as Nat and I were here a year ago. Instead, I took the Chief Joseph scenic highway back to Cody, WY. This is WY route 296 located at the northeast corner of Yellowstone Nat'l Park. Most scenic ride of my trip to date. How did we miss this road last year? Again, there was so much contrast on this road. There were beautiful green valleys. There were hard, sharp rock formations. And then there were the colors of the rock. The rock formations varied from gray, brown, white and then some very red and pink shades.
I will get some pictures on here when I can figure out HOW!

After getting to Cody, restocking the debit card and refueling, I headed southeast toward Thermopalis. The skies were darkening. Oh oh. I had not run into rain yet, but that was about to change. I suited up outside of Cody. I passed several bikers who decided to chance beating the rain. They didn't.

The Wyoming landscape in this part of the state is sure desolate. A breakdown out here might entail a long, long wait for help. The overcast sky provided some great relief to the days of heat I'd been riding in. And the dark skies were just more contrast to the bright blue skies with the sun bearing down on me.

I made Riverton, WY after 4PM, stopped for groceries for dinner later on, and eventually stopped in Lander, WY for the night after 6:30. The mom and pop campground was no KOA, but it was CHEAP and provided a place to stay for the night. The lady at the desk was the owner. We talked shop a while. EX-business owners (me!) just can't help but inquire about "how's business" everywhere they go!

Light rain eventually drove me inside the tent to finish dinner.

Tomorrow I go onward toward Rocky Mtn. Nat'l Park!