you wanna do what??

Morning came in Darby, MT and it was raining...again, as usual. It was also cold and I felt like crap so not going anywhere just yet. Spent some time getting up to date with everything and found that Nathan had put out an alternative route to get around the issue in Yellowstone. The route didn't look all that fun; a southern bypass of 160+ miles with 7000 ft of climb up over the Tetons...ugh. NPS reported that Yellowstone might have the western gate open by Thursday and most of the racers were still holding up at the western entrance hoping that NPS was accurate in their estimate of when the park would open again. Taking this and my general feeling of crappiness into account I decided that a rest day was in order. If all I had was a little cold then I would be feeling better in a day or so and then could resume the race... hopefully getting to the western gate around the time it was supposed to reopen...at least if things went to plan. Askan, the badass German cyclist that I had br...

Due to historic flooding, NPS has for the first time in almost 50 years closed all entrances to Yellowstone National Park. The closure comes as a safety precaution due to high waters and multiple road collapses inside the park.  Morning and time to go - I need to make up time and miles in the next coming days to get back on track. Bike packed and out the door...wonder if the grill is open yet...could use something other than a Clif bar for breakfast. Nope...damn, ok - Clif bar consumed and down the road I go. The ride to Lolo is a mostly downhill trip with scenery much like the previous 8 miles since cresting Lolo Pass. Montana wilderness Into Lolo a little over an hour later...a little bit bigger of a place than the previous small towns traveled through on this adventure. First order of business, food. McDonald's...which I never eat at under normal circumstances...was the best candidate. While they didn't offer the "big breakfast" option that had been my ...

Dawn...like everyday on this race it showed up cloudy and cool. Unlike other days though I was actually happy for the overcast and cooler weather, given the task ahead...a 90 mile climb up and over Lolo Pass and into Montana. This is one of the bigger climbs on this course and while I hoped I didn't rain on us a cloudy and cooler day would be beneficial. As we got all of our stuff together and did our pre-ride maintenance it occurred to me that this might be the last day...at least for awhile....that we would be riding together. Stuart wanted to get some distance in to try and work his way back up to the middle of the pack. Rodrigo, being a strong rider, would likely do the same. Although a decent night's sleep had refreshed me I was still being hampered by my backside issues and knew that I would not be able to keep up with these guys in my current state. Nothing at this point was helping with my now fairly involved saddle sores and I was starting to worry about secondary effe...

NWS reports severe thunderstorm activity with heavy rain in NW Montana. This weather in conjunction with the melting snowpack increase the possibility of flooding in the area. Morning in Riggins, ID and time to go. Most of my kit was dried out and I had again repacked my gear, discarding a couple of items that didn't work or that I deemed too much weight to the benefit that they might bring. As I pushed my bike outside I found Stuart out there doing some drivetrain maintenance and I set forth doing a bit of my own. I found that if I spent a couple of minutes in the a.m. wiping/lubing the chain, wiping off the derailleurs, and (using a cut down toothbrush) cleaning the rear derailleur gears that the bike shifted a lot better and was overall more reliable than if I didn't. Having done that it was time to roll. As we slow-rolled down to the local C-store for supplies it...wait for it...began to rain. Great...just great - so much for drying anything out.  yup, more rain...

Morning came with the screech of an unknown animal off in the distance. It was probably a dog howling but in my half asleep head it was something spooky and maybe dangerous so sleep was over and it was time to get underway. Took a bit longer to get everything stowed on the bike; bivvy would not pack down to the size I needed it to get to and so it took a couple of tries to get it sort of right. I slept decently but was feeling a bit groggy with a little bit (maybe more than a little bit) of fatigue. My coffee habit/dependency was not being fulfilled despite bringing a full pack of Starbucks instant packs. The packs are really handy for a quick pickup; put one in a water bottle (make sure it's water of course... probably not delicious with Gatorade, etc) and shake well - instant caffeine. However, I drink a lot of coffee on a normal basis and while these helped it was not quite enough. Oh well, coffee can't be too far away, right? Wrong...coffee was still miles and hours away up...