Jackson Lake --> Madison, Yellowstone (7/8/10)

Rise and shine! 0440 is early, cold and dark.  Getting out of the sleeping bag was the second hardest thing this morning, the first was having to put on my riding shorts after they sat out in the cold air all night.  After getting dressed and bundled up in 2 wool shirts, a wool hoodie, rain jacket, shorts, pants, leg warmers and rain pants I put on water to boil for a cup of coffee (Via by Starbucks is AWESOME).

Packing up camp was also a challenge as my hands were frozen, but I accomplished a decent job of packing and we all got ready to head out. Upon leaving we found the temperature to be about 37 degrees.  The first mile was tough, so tough that we had to stop to put socks on our hands to help keep them kind of warm.

Arriving at the park at 0645 we found the gate open and no one there to take our money, Yes!  into the park for free!  Riding the first 15 miles was not pleasant because 1. I was so bundled up it was hard to ride and 2. there was 1500 feet of elevation gain over 8 miles of really cold air.  Stopping part way up to de-robe (getting sweaty and riding in cold weather is not a fun combo) I then headed on to meet up with the others at the gas station halfway to Old Faithful.  At the gas station we ran into 2 other east bound cyclist, who were getting ready to head out.  Having another cup of coffee I relaxed in the morning sun that was now cresting the trees.

Moving on from the gas station we started to hit the traffic, which is some of the worst traffic yet.  Thankfully there was about a 1 foot shoulder and the sun was not in the eyes of the drivers.  Riding on to Old Faithful we found the lunch cafe and figured out where to camp.  After lunch we walked over to watch Old Faithful which was 10 minutes late!  Old Faithful was really nothing special, I was extremely unimpressed.

 After the non-event we waited around for traffic to die back down and then headed off to our final stopping point for the day, Madison.  Riding over to the next stop was not as tough as I expected the roads had better shoulders and the drivers was actually giving us space.  After finally getting into the camp spot we set up and met with all the other cyclists who were there also.  There were 5 girls riding from Astoria back to school in Maine, 3 guys who had no real idea where they were riding to, 2 guys on a trip from Washington DC to San Diego via Seattle and then the Pacific Coast and a older guy that was doing the TransAm East to West since he did the ride West to East 2 years ago and wanted to see if there was a difference.

We all stayed up later than usual and chatted which was really nice, hearing everyone tell their experiences and goals.  But the early morning was not helping with the tiredness and knowing that we had to get up at 0500 again was going to suck, so I stuck the ear plugs in and went to bed.