(photos to be added later)
Breakfast was watermelon juice (complicated explanation), coffee, and Denver scrambled eggs (a folded omelette being beyond my cooking logistics). I stopped in West Yellowstone for ice and a few groceries, primarily the next two dinners worth of meat. I thought it would be fun to pick up some local ... specialty, and came closest by getting a pound of ground buffalo. (Ranched in Colorado, so not entirely 'local', but good enough.)
Had a lovely, if short, chat with the kiosk attendant at the park entrance. I think she liked my enthusiasm. The Madison campground is a rather short distance inside the park, but far enough for me to have a chance to encounter that quintessential Yellowstone experience: the bear jam. Well, technically it wasn't bears -- it was a pair of bald eagles who were nesting about 50 yards off the road and were photogenically ripping something into bits to feed the young ones.
By the time I'd gotten settled into camp and organized my typically-over-prepared biking kit (after all, it might rain, or turn suddenly cold, or I might need to identify a bird ... or to sketch something), it was noon. I figured I'd start riding generally in the direction of Old Faithful and turn around after 2 hours. I took the Firehole canyon loop ( the steepest climb of the day, on the first 20 minutes) and the Fountain Flat Drive trail (old gravel road restricted to foot and bicycle traffic), then stopped at Biscuit Basin to get off the bike and walk the boardwalk around the geysers.
I had noticed that the road didn't stray far from the Firehole River and that I was heading upstream (and into a headwind), so I relaxed my 2 hour rule of thumb and continued on to OF, arriving in 2.5 hours (including side trips). Actual biking time: 2 hours for 19 miles.
I munched my lunch snacks waiting for Old Faithful (who was being a bit of a tease, throwing up a couple of small spouts then waiting for the very end of the 20 minute prediction window for the main event.
The trip back was, as predicted, much easier -- 19 miles in 1 hour. When I started out originally, I was thinking that I might just bike down again tomorrow, but by the end I was back to my original plan of driving and hiking tomorrow. (The general overall plan is to alternate forms of exertion: bike, hike, kayak, bike, hike.). So tomorrow I do a fairly easy walking tour of the OF area trails and then whatever else I feel like doing.
The campground has no cell signal (so this gets posted later -- assuming I don't manage to lose it trying to save it) but I was able to post a couple of facebook pix and download my e-mail while waiting for IF to blow. Didn't read the e-mail until I got back to camp. Probably a good thing, since it included a note from my mom about some recent downturns in her physical and mental health. The down side of being wired while off on a relaxing vacation.
Suddenly, cooking a gourmet dinner didn't seem as appealing any more, but I figured that I was actually more shaky from the bike ride (and therefore needed food) than from the e-mail.
While I was fixing dinner, an elk came wandering by just in the edge of the trees around the camp area. Elk, I'm ok with -- I'd prefer no bears that close.
Dinner was spinich fettuchini with home-made pesto (basil and garlic from the csa box) topped with a stir-fry of some of the ground bison and the usual csa box suspects (the rest of the crookneck squash, onion, bell pepper).
I'll probably wander over to the nature program in the amphitheater when I'm done cleaning up. Assuming I don't just fall into bed.