gardiner to tower fall campground really doesn’t seem like it’s too far. 26 miles. the campsites are first come first serve, so i wanted to leave early. the warmshower that i was staying with last night, john bradford, works in the park and offered to give me a lift up the first big climb. only three or so more after that, and it’s an uphill ride until you get to the campground.

i was tired from the day yesterday. i was trying to find any reason to stop so that i could be distracted and rest for a moment. on the way into the park i saw some people with knit caps on and thought that would be a good idea since the temperature felt colder this morning. i stopped at the first store i saw, in mammoth and picked one up.

it was 7:30a, and the traffic was already crazy. everyone was either speeding or stopped in a jam in the road waiting for wildlife to pass. i raced to the campsite and finally arrived around 9:30 or 10am. full, the sign said. i had talked with a ranger on my ride up and he told me that i should give them his name and request a hiker/biker site. they’re reserved just for hikers and cyclists. i did that and sure enough, they had a special plateau for the non-car group. i setup early. it got hot. i stayed in my tent to escape the heat for a bit, then wandered down to the general store to see if i could find some sort of entertainment.

later on in the day i met paul. he is another cyclist, traveling from missoula to boulder. there was also a hiker that showed up. him and a few of his friends were doing the great divide trail and had to hurry because of an upcomming wedding.

yellowstone is beautiful but they need a limit on how much traffic they can get in there. it’s seriously crazy.
gardiner in the morning

the views coming into missoula were amazing. i had an awesome campground last night and i coulnt’t have asked for a better day riding. aside from the heat, everything was perfect. i have a ton of photos. gradually, i’ve been taking more and more.

twice today, my route has led me to roads that weren’t existent or weren’t roads. it’s not good, as i don’t know alternatives, and sometimes the alternatives are wrong. i hope this doesn’t happen again.

tomorrow is only 30 miles, but i have some things to take care of before i leave missoula. care package pickup, verizon store, and adventure cycling association, etc.

i’m going to keep this short, but i’ll fill in more on the quarter update.

last night the guy i was staying with took my iphone and shattered it. i laid him out. he’s in jail now. lesson: don’t touch my phone.

what a day. i’m really not sure how many times i’m going to say that, but man, the day took a toll. io didn’t rest very easy last night and i feel that took a big toll on my body. this morning i got up and ready and it didn’t even feel like i had rested. total today, i had about three miles on paved roads. the rest were all dirt, gravel, riverbed gravel and sand. it was exhausting. i think the temperature maxed out somewhere around 100, but one moment i looked at the gps and i swear it said 114. the weird thing about the heat her is that there’s almost always a cool breeze. it was great to have that breeze blowing behind me, but it didn’t help much because of the gravel and water damaged roads.

the climb up the pass was intense. i swear i’ve never worked that hard to get somewhere ever before. i had to climb up to almost 5000 feet and it wasn’t paved at all. since there was water damage to the dirt roads, giant crevices and divots were everywhere that proved this road wouldn’t hold up much longer if it rains heavily. the downhill ride was rough. even though i had charged my go pro ahead of time to make sure not to miss that moment on film, i couldn’t record it because it was such a slow descent. had i been going to fast, i could have easily gotten stuck in a crevice, hit a rock and either damaged the bicycle or hurt myself. i had to be cautious. ascending and descending today took roughly six hours. it wasn’t easy and i had to push my bike up the mountainside for a while. the reward was great. i wouldn’t have even noticed had i not turned around when i reached the summit.

after finally reaching the base of the mountain, i attempted to gain some speed on the dirt trail, then turned to gravel, then it turned to railroad gravel, then it turned to riverbed gravel. i’m not a fan of any gravel, but all the gravel they were using made my bike jump around and lose it’s footing regularly. i had to stop every three miles or so to tighten the bolts on my rear rack. that’s a lot of bumping around. in comparison, i generally make sure my racks are tight about once every six months when i ride around chicago.

i know i started the day with 130 miles to missoula. i currently have 75 left. i don’t feel like it looks good on paper, but man, today really hurt.

great news is that i can climb longer, handle myself better on gravel, and my endurance is going through the roof. the scenery today was better than yesterday and my new favorite thing to do when i see a gas station or convenience store is fill up on ice water from their fountain drink machines. none of them have asked for me to pay ever, but i probably look insane. maybe tomorrow i’ll post a selfie. my nose started peeling today since it’s been burned. i’m getting much darker every day and keep applying sunscreen. i even upped my spf. there’s not much you can do when you’re out in the sun for so long. lindsey was awesome(as usual) today and helped me find somewhere to camp so that i didn’t have to lose sleep again. she even went so far as to set me up with a place in missoula with her friend tom. i just realized the time change happened, and it’s past my bed time. third state visited, day 06 done.

side note. the cover photo for this post was taken from a road that is clearly available to use on both google maps and ridewithgps. it was basically unrideable since it was primarily sand. also it was blocked a few times. i probably should have found a different route.
“freedom lies in being bold.” -robert frost.

about halfway up my climb.

view from the summit.

nice mountainsides.

lunchtime.

campsite setup.

a days rest after my body shutting down yesterday was what i needed. sure, i may not have taken a full day off, and i don’t have any full days to do that on schedule, but there are plenty of days like yesterday that i’ll be able to rest. combine my rest with all of the support i received from everyone and i was fully charged and ready to go today.

the ride from spokane was great. a few days ago, the farmer that i had talked to had told me not to rely on my gps, but go rather where i feel the ride will be better. my gps had told me to go down a gravel road today, once again and i thought of that. it was about a quarter mile longer to just stay on 28 and get to the same place. eastern washington is great. it smelled like fresh wheat and pine trees, because each were on both sides of me. rolling into idaho was no big deal either. i’m not sure if it was because i was well rested or if it was because i had just given up paying attention to the grades and elevations. the next thing i know, i get to a steep hill. a very steep hill. it’s about a 1200 foot drop over a mile or so. i reach for my go pro, go to turn it on and the battery is dead. i charged it before i left, i made sure it had a full battery, but those cameras i swear use way too much battery for the little convenience they offer. i’ll have to charge it up tonight and use it on my big drop tomorrow.

after coming down the giant wavy hill today, i ended up on the start line of the cour d’alene trail. it was so nice. paved, and about 60 miles. i’m not to the end of it, but i heard it was paved the whole way. it wraps around the lake and it’s about eight miles of waterfront that you’re riding on. right by harrison, by the trail is a beach that i had to go rinse off in, and then promptly went to the bar across the street with all of my water bottles. one beer and four water bottles filled with ice water later and i was on my way again.

it’s now been another 50 more miles and i’m finally tired. i did a century today and it was over 100. there’s a cool breeze in idaho, and it’s hard to describe. maybe not. think of it like when it’s really hot out, then you turn on your ac, then you put your windows down and go for a drive. you get some cool air, and some warm air, but it’s still hot out.

the moon is full and i was sitting out writing this when a woman came and stopped to talk. she lives in the next closest town, wallace, and she owns a chocolate shop. she only had one chocolate with her on her bike and gave it to me. i’d love to go get more but i’ll be leaving much before anyone is awake.

these three days were supposed to be 117, 110 and 12, but i figured rather than try and get all of it like that, i can split it up and use some extra time from my missoula day. today i did 100, tomorrow maybe i’ll do something closer to 80. either way, it’s going to be fine. i’m glad that i feel better and it was really nice to hear from everyone. day 05 done.

wild turkeys cheering me on in spokane right before i left.

the bridge for the trail of the coeur d’alenes

so many new backgrounds for my macbook.

********i mentioned it would get dirty in this post********
**below i will talk about what is happening to my body***

my muscles are getting much more toned. i thought my legs were muscular before, but now they’ve got more and in different places. and it’s only been five days. that wasn’t really gross, but it’s going down the scale and getting worse.

i gained a bit of weight before the trip. i wanted to burn it off as i go, and not have to worry about my body not having anything if it needs to burn fat. today i noticed my stomach is a little loose, like the skin hasn’t had time to adapt to the weight going away. it’s like i’ve got this silly skin bag on my stomach(not flappy, just almost stretched but needs more time).

i’m not sure what to think of this, but mostly on my knees, i’m getting these whiteheads and a lot of them. its only on my lower legs and knees, but mostly my right knee. i can’t think of what it’s from other than some sort of reaction to my knees getting sunlight. i’d like to think they’re fine.

my poop is green. it’s been green for three days. after the second day i became concerned and thought maybe i shouldn’t have drank from the yakima river. after doing a little bit of research, it turns out that there are two very common causes for green poo. one is a high intake of certain fruits or vegetables with a certain protein. i forgot what it was, otherwise i’d put it in there. i’ve eaten a ton of blueberries and apples. more in the past week than the past few months. second is a little more about me. when your liver gives out bile, bile is green. during the normal course of your day, your poo starts green and goes to brown after the bile has robbed as much as it can from the poo and then out it goes. my body is going through food and digesting things so quick that it may just be that i’m pushing it out before it’s normal time, probably due to riding my bike for eight hours a day.