Campingggg

So a few more days of posts to catch up on. First, day off in west yellowstone which was awesome! I met up with my aunt Mary and uncle Lyle and Noam came along too - we had a great brunch that they brought in a park in west yellowstone, then drove partway up sawtelle peak in Idaho and hiked along the continental divide ridgeline near mount Jefferson - super pretty, awesome views, fun rock scrambling, etc. Then lunch at a nature conservancy post on the way back, heard lots about Idaho and the surrounding parks, not going to update on all of that, I'm exhausted. Drove into yellowstone, I've been there before so I napped in the truck with aunt mary, noam and uncle Lyle went to look at paint pots. We all took a spin around old faithful inn and watched the geyser erupt, cool. Saw some elk, almost ran into a buffalo, had good times, got pizza. Awesome day, I really should post more, but seriously it was great.

Then the ride into bozeman the next day - 90 miles, it was below forty for the first thirty or so miles - it was COLD. Riding with hassie, it was fun, we cheered about bears and took in the incredibleviews. This part of the ride was in yellowstone NAtl park - scary ridig with no shoulder and really fast cars, trucks. Ate lunch sitting in the van, freezing still. Warmed ip after, stripped down to normal riding clothes around mile 55 while chilling by the banks of the galatin river; SO pretty. Tried to whitewater raft partnof the day, but even a donation magic success of getting 50 percent off of the price still meant that the excursion would take too long. We were having a really fun day, since there were two long climbs in the beginning, butthe rest was long and flat. Rode part of the day joined up with Mary, noam, gabe, and his corider from two years ago, Liz. We were having a really good time until a semi cut me off after I took the lane on a turn, then it forced Mary and Liz to the curb, and almost hit gabe. Hence the last seven miles were terrifying and we were on a really busy road with a lot of trucks and fast cars. Pretty shook up.

Bought a new camelbak bladder in Bozeman. Liz took us all out for pizza, it was really good. Had a good group session with a grief counselor/sports peak performance coach at the host. Bozemans a really cool town.

Next day was the ride to Helena, I've been pretty stressed out about riding and stuff in general so I took a mental health day in the van. Based on the number of other riders that ended up in there throughout the day, I probably wouldn't have finished the ride anyway... Gabe was really good about it all, he bought a bunch of avocados and onions and limes and stuff so we made guacamole while the van was driving for second lunch - fun. Saw a herd of antelopes. Crazy pretty country.

The people in Bozeman and Helena finally look like what I'm used to - punk and hipster kids, preps, Urban clothes in general. I am not used to the Iowa/Midwest look of blue plaid cotton shortsleeve collared shirts.

Today was the ride into Lincoln, we crossed the continental divide again, not sure which time this is but the pass was less steep and slightly lower than the Teton pass. Really pretty day. Started out the ride with Olivia, but she had to go into he van for knee problems, so we waited for a while for the van to get there, I almost got swept. So then I hammerred for twenty miles soooo hard by myself, it was really fun. Got up the pass pretty quickly to lunch, hung out for a long time waiting for everyone to get in, we were having a dance party and playing twister and taking pictures etc. Fun. Mary and I climbed onto the van and danced. The end of the day was quick and downhill, fun and super fast, but almost got buzzed by a truck again, they are so scary. Also Paige controls the weather, group joke, but for real. Pretty funny. On the downside, I get a panic attack a little bit any time there's a group of riders hanging out in a ditch on the side of the road, because that's how a lot of us found out.

Anyway, we got to see the love of the bnb community today when we got a million packages at maildrop from other trips, riders, riders from five years ago, their parents, etc. Got some custom water bottles, hilarious pics of Paige, ton of junk food, funny letters. Really great.

Drive safe; ride safer.

Location:E Mt Highway 200,Lincoln,United States