Day 38 - Thursday October 1st

Mammouth, WY (Gardiner, MT) to Bozeman, MT
89.32 miles
6:33.19hrs
26.7 max
13.6 avg

This morning I woke up and felt amazingly well! I did not have trouble getting out of bed and was eager to see what the day had to offer. It did take me a little while to get everything together and packed up because my bike was outside and all my gear was scattered out in the basement of the church. Well, it wasn't scattered all around but I wanted to make sure that I had it all very organized for when I set out on the road again.

After saying adieu to Sally and Jim, I calmly road by the heard of elk on the motel lawn next door and gazed up at the snow capped mountains that surrounded me. I spent a little extra time in town to call my father and give him an update that everything was alright and I was deciding to continue on my way. I know that everyone thought that I was snowed in but that was not the case.

Due to the previous days experiences with the weather I made sure that I had plastic bags to put over my socks and hands in case it started to rain. Rain was not really expected in the forecast but I was not going to take any more chances. To make sure I was warm I was also wearing, an underarmour sleaveless shirt and arm warmers under a polar fleece long sleave shirt under a cycling jersey under a heavy duty cycling rain jacket under a windproof/water resistant vest. I had legwarmers on with cycling shorts under my rain pants. I wore a thick pair of wool socks with my shoes and toe warmers over my shoes. I put my extra large pearl izumi gel biking gloves over my wind proof cycling gloves and with that combination, I was very warm. I tried to get a feel for how cold of conditions I could bike in with this setup but I did not know the current temperature to guage it by. I would say that I could probably bike in 40-45 degree weather fairly comfortably with all that gear on. I might have to stop at Walmart and buy a temperature guage for my own safety.

The day was gorgeous! The mountains were beautiful and leading all the way up to Livingston I had a slight tail wind which allowed me to make great time. Besides a flat tire (my rear tire has now been replaced along with the tube) and the cold at the top of the pass leading into Bozeman... it was a great day! My legs are now a little sore after climbing to the pass. I just hope that they will hold up for tomorrow's ride to Helena (107 miles I believe but there are no large climbs!)

As you can see, I am changing up my route a little bit. I am no longer looking strictly for the scenic route and am highly considering elevation changes due to the cold. Mountain passes no longer look like a good challenge. They are more of a dangerous misshappening that will slow my pace and prevent me from making good time. It is unfortunate that things have come down to this but I don't think that Glacier National Park is a wise choice for travel as well. I will have to see how the next few days go and if the weather starts to turn around or not but I am not expecting it to be sunny and 70 any more.

Tonight I am staying with a guy I met on Couchsurfing.com. It is a great site that I would highly recommend trying if you are looking to do some travel and can't afford a hotel or just want to meet some amazing people. Alex gave me a place to stay and his roommate made a great pasta meal to boot! Hopefully I can utilize this website more often for this trip, at least until I get to the coast where temperatures are a little better for camping.

I just ran the figures on my average mileage for the trip thus far and I come in at just shy of 83 miles per day of riding.