On second thought...let's keep riding

What was going to be a 31 mile day turned into a 56 mile day. I suppose that is an indication of how I'm doing riding. As long as I don't go over any huge bumps or twist my torso too much, I'm pretty fine. Getting on and off the bike I have to be very careful to not twist my body in whatever way that sends terribly sharp pangs into what feels like my heart. Those are bad. But otherwise the riding seems pretty normal--yay! So we ended up going further than planned.

Today was our first actual hazy morning. I mean, yeah, we've had rainy mornings but this was the first sort of overcast. The Tetons looked almost like a mirage, they were so shrouded. So not a lot of great photos on that score. But we had a nice pavement heading out of the park and then after heading due east at the Moran Junction. After about 10 miles we turned onto Buffalo Valley Road which is gorgeous, with views down into the Buffalo River, periodic farms, roadside flowers, the random chipmunk or gopher or whatever they are in Wyoming, even some deer. It was just so pleasant, not too many cars, a morning chill still. Paul noted how he thought that in Wyoming there seems to be significantly fewer "no trespassing" signs than we saw in either Montana or Idaho. A nice sense of welcome, considering were going to be in the state for a while.

We finally left the pavement after Turpin Meadow, where there is a USFS campground; nearby was a sort of lodge/dude ranch, it looked pretty. From there we started up a steep climb on a gravel forest service road, it was a long one, though, about 7 miles of nearly constant climbing, but the grade was on the easy side -- 4.5%- so I was fine, and very grateful, because I was pretty worried about rough road and hills combined. This was another one of the roads that had cautions that the roads could be impassible when wet, so again we were very lucky with our timing. Granted, Saint Paul was carrying pretty much all the extra weight. We had picked up quite a bit of supplies at Jackson Lake before we get to Pinedale, plus he's still toting all the extra fuel, not wanting to throw it away or give it away because we could still need it! He's really helping out a lot making sure that I'm staying okay. 

Our day's plan was to head to the camp area called Angels before Hiighway 26/287, near Togwotee Mountain Lodge. We got to the camp, sat on the picnic table to have some lunch, looked for but couldn't see the Tetons which we were supposed to be able to, and realized that it was only 1:30 -- what we get what were we going to do with the rest of our afternoon?! (plus, there were the ever present horseflies, mosquitoes, and other biting flies, darn it! )–  so we decided to push on, knowing that would be other camping options along the way, bag another official Continental Divide crossing, number seven, plus Togwotee Pass. We enjoyed a nice stretch of highway with surprisingly not too many cars! It was a 9 mile climb on highway to get to the crossing and to get to the top of the pass, which is some 95 or 9600 feet, and then we went off road again and followed a much more rough Forest Road and another climb, but, boy, the views!

Unfortunately there were signs saying that all the camping areas, official as well as dispersed, in the Brooks Lake recreation area were closed and off-limits due to logging... So, we pushed on another ten-ishmore miles and got back to the highway and decided to stop at a place called Lava Mountain. We were able to get a tiny rustic cabin, which, really, made sense since trying to maneuver my body in and out of a tent gets the pangs going. Mind you, we still slept on the floor! Sleep is still really hard because I can only lay on the one side and really don't have many options for any positions and can't turn, and when I try to move, that clinch and death comes at me!  But enough of that, I'm working with it and we are riding on! No helicopter rescues, Genevie! No Cassells' Ambulance Service!

Date 21, Jackson Lake/Colter Bay Grand Teton National Park to somewhere along Highway 26/287 Thursday, July 17. 56 miles, 6.5 hours of right time, 4200 feet of elevation gain, 8.6 average speed with two big climbs, and one continental divide crossing, number 7!