ICE in Yellowstone (Pedaling Wyoming)

Hello fellow Trike Asylum readers,

For those who may not remember, this is Steven Telck.  It would appear I have lived long enough to be 69-1/2 years old. I hope all are doing well as I know it has been rough for many people including myself.

My thoughts for this recumbent trike tour were originally to drive to Shoshone, Wyoming and start my trip. I was hoping to then ride to Thermopolis, then to Worland, then to Basin, then to Burlington, then to Cody, then to the east entrance of Yellowstone and then over Sylvan pass to Fishing Bridge, then to the Marina campground, then around the southern part of the lake to West Thumb, then up over the divide pass down to Flag Ranch and then on to Moran junction. After Moran junction it would be up and over Togwotee pass and down to Dubois, from Dubois over to Riverton and then back to Shoshone.

Well, like military strategist Helmuth von Moltke said, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” When your plan meets the real world, the real world wins. It was true my plans were for nothing.

Most people my age are just not taking human powered trike journeys, or to be rather blunt, dead. Therefore, on this trip I decided to take a four-legged partner who unfortunately happens to have only three legs, Miss Bunny the cat. She is riding in an expensive doggy basket which is produced in the Netherlands. It is waterproof and has internal harnesses. I bought an escape proof harness for her and she stays tied down in the basket as she does not know the danger of jumping out as I go down the road. I had to buy the escape proof harness as when we were doing dry runs in the garage with a standard harness she bailed over the side and slipped out of the harness, She looked at me like hey that could be dangerous. It’s my job to keep her safe as she really doesn’t know how badly she might be hurt bailing at the wrong time.

OKAY, NOW THE DAY BY DAY EXPERIENCES ON MY TRIKE

May 31, 2022

Drove from Casper Wyoming to Shoshoni in non-stop rain, not a good start. While sitting at the rest stop in Shoshone, I was thinking about who wants to ride to Thermopolis on such a day. Made some calls to the police department in Thermopolis who did me the favor of contacting the manager of the Hot Springs Park maintenance and they made arrangements for me to park my van in Thermopolis. I drove my van and my trike to Thermopolis. There were only three places on the road that were dry, which were the inside of the three tunnels you passed through when just entering the canyon. I planned to spend the day in Thermopolis and sleep in the van and then take off the next day for Worland. So now Thermopolis was to be my new starting point. I was walking and carrying my cat Bunny around in the hot springs area. I say carrying because after all she is a cat and when she’s done walking, she does the usual cat thing and just lays there like she’s dead. Hopefully by the end of this tour we will spend more time walking together rather than me carrying her.

Well now here is the second part of the plan which did not go right. I was walking on damp grass with slightly muddy ground and slipped near a concrete picnic table. Went down on my right side and hit the edge of the table on my lower rib which hurt some. Didn’t seem like anything serious but I did not sleep well that night as I could not put pressure on the right side and even breathing was causing some pain.

June 1, 2022

Got up the next morning and threw all the things I would be carrying out on the ground along with the trike and loaded up. Off I went to Worland but unfortunately about 20 miles outside of town I noticed somebody was pushing a large blade knife under my ribs on my right side and twisting it now and then. It hurts so bad it was bringing tears to my eyes and of course I was in a dead cell service area. I managed to struggle up the next hill and got some cell service and contacted the host who would put me up in Worland to let him know what happened and I was planning to call off the trip. I was seriously thinking maybe I cracked or broke a rib. The host suggested I come on in and give it some time to recover before giving up. He drove out to pick me up and took me back to Thermopolis and I then drove my van and trike to Worland to stay at his house. As long as I was not trying to breathe too hard or pushing pedals it didn’t seem to hurt too badly. My kind host had some pain medication called Tramadol HCL which I accepted from him to relieve the pain. Well, it relieved the pain it did for nearly 10 hours and gave me a nap I was not planning to take. Looked up this stuff on the internet and realized it is a mild opioid but like all opioids should not be abused or one faces the problem of figuring out how to give them up. Next morning felt pretty darn good but I took one more pill just for the ride that day and had no more problems with someone sticking a knife in my ribs. I can tell you I have now been riding for two days without using the painkiller so I guess I’m not addicted. :)) So now Worland Wyoming has become my starting place for the trip and my van is parked at the house of the kind person and his wife who took my pain away and put me up for the night.

June 2, 2022

This day was rather uneventful. I rode all day long without pain and my first major stop was Basin.  On the way to Basin I kept seeing this hawk that was following us. I first saw him sitting on a power pole along the road looking down at us. When I would pass the pole he would fly up and sit down on another pole about a ¼ of a mile away and be looking down at us. It was then I began to believe he might be looking at Bunny who was sightseeing as a future meal. With that in mind I zipped up the heavy-duty mesh on her basket and kept her out of sight until I lost sight of the hawk.

I had lunch in Basin and it was the only place on my trip where Bunny was not allowed into a restaurant. We needed to eat so I ordered and asked to be served outside. They were willing to do this, but I had to pay first as opposed to those sitting inside. This was the Copper Corner Café and I don’t plan to return. At Basin I turned west onto highway 30 and headed out to Burlington. I arrived in Burlington around 3:00  in the afternoon and had a very good pizza at a place called Burlington Place. My host in Worland told me these folks often put-up traveling bicycles in the backyard of their business. It was a large picnic area and they were kind enough to even make sure the timer was off on the sprinkler system so I did not take a morning shower even though I seriously needed one. It is an unfortunate truth but often many days go by before a bicyclist can find a place to get a shower and after a while you don’t smell yourself anymore but you make sure to keep some distance between you and people so as not to offend. Bunny spent the evening outside on her leash watching birds and every time she found one especially interesting, she would do that cat thing which sounds sort of like a stuttering chirping which I think means I’m frustrated that the bird is so far away.

June 3, 2022

Well, it would appear that this was going to be a mixed day. Left Burlington early in the morning and headed north to catch the road west to Cody. About 15 miles down the road I noticed I was having a hard time pushing the trike. The rear end of the trike felt a little mushy so I got off to look and found I had a flat tire.Guess where this old man had left his bicycle pump? That’s right it was in the bottom of one of the panniers. This meant that I could not just lean the trike over on the left side and release the wheel and pull it off for tube repair. So I spent 20 minutes offloading everything from the rear of the trike, also needing to be taken off was Bunny’s basket to set her alongside the road. Finally I opened my bags and found my bicycle pump and tire changing tools. (Note all tools needed for tire repair are no longer in the bags; they are in a location easy to access) Pulled out a new tube, checked the tire for thorns, placed the tube in it and pumped it up to 60 PSI. The trike was upside down so I replaced the wheel and tightened the quick release and turned it back over and spent 20 minutes repacking the rear of the trike with all the gear I carry. I placed Bunny’s basket back on the front of the boom, looked down to make sure everything was picked up and sat down on the trike. I pushed on the pedals and the chain spun, but the trike did not move. Got off the trike and looked under the right rear to see no problem. I was a bit frustrated so I walked off towards the fence line to collect my thoughts and then walked back to the edge of the road as a truck was approaching. I gave them the slow down arm wave and pointed at the trike. They pulled over in front of me and were pulling a lightweight trailer. Seems the guy and his wife were heading out to pick up an old Harley motorcycle. He lives in Worland and makes his living by refurbishing and restoring old motorcycles. He told me what made this old motorcycle so interesting was that it was badged from the factory as a Sturgis model and when restored would be valuable. These kind folks took me all the way into Cody to the bicycle shop which I visit every time I’m in town. I was very sure there was something wrong with the free wheel by the way it was acting, but it turned out I was way wrong and very stupid.

When I placed the rear tire back on the trike it was upside down and I failed to notice that I did not have the cog engaged on the drive side of the chain.

This means there’s only two ways to fix this problem, one is to take the wheel back off which would be about 40 minutes of work unpacking and repacking or unlink the chain quickly re-thread the chain. Now my readers get to guess where my chain unlinker was packed. Yes it was in the bottom of one of the panniers which meant unloading all the stuff on the back of the trike again to get the tool. At this point of the story, I would like to remind the readers that I mentioned I was nearly 70 years old and the old noggin seems to be some issues. The folks at the bicycle shop were kind enough to lend me the proper tool to unlink the chain so that it could be rethreaded around the rear cogs properly. As the chain had been squeaking for the last 30 miles, I decided to buy some oil so I would not have to listen to it for the rest of the trip and hopefully oiling it will prevent early wear and breakage. Considering my luck so far, I would not be surprised if that happened even though this is a relatively new chain with low mileage. If that happens I’m going to push it off into a ravine somewhere and collect the insurance. :))) The owner of the bicycle shop told me that a campground in town called Ponderosa Campgrounds let touring riders stay for free if using tents. I rode over to the campgrounds only to find out this was not true and the going charge for a tent was $45 a night. I politely declined and asked if they knew of some place where I could camp for 10 to $20. This lady looked up and said we can do $20 and during the process of signing in she looked at me and said all our small cabins are vacant. I can put you in one for the same price. Of course, it rained very hard that afternoon with thunder booming left and right and Bunny spent a lot of time under one of the beds, but we were high and dry and so was the trike. It turns out this campground is run by a family. The owner is this lady’s mother who is in her ’80s and the lady signing me in is in her mid-60s who happens to be the owner’s daughter. I’m not sure but I think this younger lady often gave bicyclists slack without her mom knowing. After settling in I went down to talk to her and she was very enamored by Bunny and my flute playing. We sat on a picnic bench at the office and talked and found out that we had a lot in common as she has traveled around the world extensively. She was even in Saudi Arabia as I was and we talked about life living there and the problems especially for women who must live in that society. So after my experience with her I’m pretty sure it is the daughter who helps out touring cyclists and maybe without her mom even knowing.

June 4, 2022

Short day only 29 miles after leaving Cody. Tried to have lunch at one of the few places open on the road to Yellowstone only to find out they were only doing breakfast and dinner because there was not enough business. Owner told me people were calling to cancel due to the increase in gas price which is not one of my problems. This restaurant did however fill me with sticky buns, yogurt and coffee, fuel to get down the road.

Stopped at 1:30 because the weatherman said we would rain around 3:00 and yesterday it did rain indeed at 3:00 p.m. Didn’t want the hassle of having to put up Bunny’s  rain bonnet and me riding in the rain soaking wet and then putting up a tent in the rain. Had enough of putting up the tents in the rain on my trip to Europe, especially in the Netherlands. So after finding a camp ground up went the tent. I spent some time inside of the tent watching a mosquito on the netting of the tent move around and randomly stick its proboscis through the netting hoping to hit something with blood. This was one of only two mosquitos I would see during the tour.

Well the weather man was wrong, as it had not started raining until around 5:00 p.m. which meant this young stud might have got another 10 or 15 miles farther down the road towards Yellowstone.

It is 8:30 p.m. and I usually send a message wishing Tiptida a good night, but I am once again in a dead cell area and have been for the last 15 mi. I decided to close the rain fly completely as it looked like it would rain during the night and it’s time to turn in as I’m starting to shiver a little bit with the drop in temperature sitting here in my light weight riding Jersey. Time to throw on my light jacket, play a couple of games of solitaire on the phone and call it a night.

June 5, 2022

My luck continues to hold. This morning I got up and had some breakfast and hit the road. About 2 miles down the road I pulled into an information station to ask about the park and camping. I was still 45 miles away from Fishing bridge and knew that I could not make it in one day and would have to camp at least one more time. I was told that after 10 miles up the road there would be no more tent camping allowed due to bears and only hard sided vehicles would be allowed to camp. I had to think about whether I was going to try to hitchhike in a pickup or turn around and go back to Cody. Decided to roll the trike out to the edge of the road and I flagged down the first pickup going my way. The couple driving it were going up to Firehole canyon in Yellowstone to fish and they carried me all the way to Fishing bridge. The sky was starting to look ugly so I went inside and bought some ham cheese and a summer sausage for something to eat and rode six miles to Marina campgrounds. Got in without much trouble but it was raining when I got there. Hoping for sunny weather tomorrow and if it does come I will push on for West thumb where I will find a shower and wash all of my clothing.

Right now the rain is on and off but mostly on just not too hard. It restricts Bunny and I to the tent. It also makes eating restrictive as it is not smart to eat inside the tent in this country and there’s no place outside dry to sit and eat as these campgrounds have no coverings over the picnic tables. So, at this time it is a quarter to five and we usually have light till 8:30. Hopefully sometime later we will both be able to get out of the tent and get something to eat and then go put all of our food in the bear boxes. She would have been nice if it was sunny but that’s not the way it goes and we have little refuge other than the tent. It would not be the first time I spent a few days in a tent only to then have a great week afterward. 6:00 p.m. and it is raining off and on in a strange way.  It rains hard as hell and then it stops for about two or three minutes and then it starts again which indicates the gods of thunder and clouds must be pushing the storm quite quickly through the area. My immediate small problem is I have a tent full of food which I must get into a bear box before dark and it’s still raining. I have no desire to get my clothes wet as I was planning on sleeping in them and at the moment, they are dry.

It is 9:15 p.m. and one can still walk about without a flashlight and it has stopped raining. I just took all of my food up to the bear box for the night. I’m now back in the tent in the sleeping bag warming up as it was quite chilly. I’m sleeping in my riding pants and I am wearing my riding jersey and fleece jacket and a small quilted jacket as a third layer. Don’t know if I’m going to need all three layers or not tonight and it is always easier to take it off than rummaging around the dark and cold to put it on if it should get colder.

June 6, 2022

Well our luck continues to hold as it has been raining since 3:00 p.m. yesterday and it is now 7:00 a.m. and still raining. At this point I’m not sure what I should do. We can sit around here and hope that sunshine will break through sooner or later, or I can pack up a wet camp ride 21 miles to West Thumb and visit the laundromat where all my stinky clothes can be washed and dried. I plan to do this either way, I just don’t know if I want to ride in the rain or wait here another day and hope for better weather. Biggest problem is there’s nowhere to get outside of the tent and go sit under a covering to eat and all of our food is in the bear box about 20 ft away.

So far it has not been extremely cold. Last night I had my 20 degree bag unzipped and just laying over me. Bunny was under the bag all night long next to me, as compared to all other nights when she was sleeping on top of the bag. I just heard the trailer next to me turn on their gas fire heater.

Got sick and tired of stinking so I took a tent shower and changed clothes. A tent shower consists of wet wipes and baby powder, and I’m damn glad I remember to bring a plastic bag for dirty clothes as I would not want to put them in the same panniers with the clean clothes without them being bagged.

Starting to run out of power for the phone and the battery bank is almost empty also as there has been nowhere to recharge for the last 3 days. I keep the phone off to save the battery when I’m not doing this log as I have no service up here and no one will be able to contact me. Turns out the only halfway reliable cell service in Yellowstone is with Verizon.

Not a hint of sunshine anywhere. I began to think the best idea for getting out of the tent would be the following, put on my rain jacket and shoes and place Bunny in her basket with the rain cap on it and ride a quarter mile down to the marina grocery store. There I could feed and water her and get food for myself since I have not eaten since 6:00 p.m. yesterday.

So far, the tent is holding up as we are staying dry. The pine needle floor underneath the tent and the ground cloth have kept water from coming up through the floor. Right now the rather high humidity makes the air a little chilly but like I said not cold. It was a good assumption that the park might be cold therefore I have three light layers which I can use as needed and even one more layer in the bag if it should get even colder. Last night the rain turned to sleet for about an hour and this morning the tent fly was covered in it. As I am dictating this log the sky is getting lighter which must mean that the sun is coming up over the ridge above the trees. If the sun pops out I will take Bunny out on the leash and feed her.

The chipmunks here just drive her bananas and I don’t trust her to not take off after one of them if I take her off the leash even for a short time. Bunny is a house cat which has never been any further outside than the run on the back porch and yet her instinct says go catch that chipmunk is strong. I don’t think she would even know how to go about eating one unless she was really hungry.

Well the rain finally stopped at 9:30 in the morning. Packed up quickly and checked out and hit the road for West Thumb. Miss Bunny continues to be a hit and her picture must be in at least 1000 people’s cameras and she has probably been petted by at least 500. People come to talk about the trike, but the minute they see Bunny I become invisible.

It is only 21 miles to West Thumb. A few steep climbs but not very long. It was drizzling on and off just enough that I would have to stop once in a while and put up Bunny’s rain bonnet. A black car stopped in front of me at a pull-out and two Orientals got out and started walking towards me. Turns out they were a Chinese couple from New York and they wanted to do an interview about our little tour. There is a possibility I’m going to show up on somebody’s YouTube channel. We had the usual discussion about how far have you gone and how far do you plan to go and were you staying in hotels or camping. For people that don’t camp that is a legitimate question as they have no idea what’s involved in doing it and why I was carrying so much gear. They seemed either impressed or were thinking me a fool to camp in Yellowstone and not stay in hotels.

Not only does Yellowstone Park have very limited cell service, Verizon only, none of the campgrounds have any power outlets unlike Europe where almost every spot did. I told that to this young Chinese couple and said my phone was nearly dead and my power bank was nearly dead but it didn’t really matter as there was no real communication in the park via cell phone. I guess the young man was so impressed he gave me his battery bank fully charged and on the other side it actually has a small solar cell so I guess if you leave it out on a picnic table it can partially charge itself. Camping in Europe with regards to personal electronics was much easier as every campsite either had an electrical outlet you could use or they had locked boxes with charging ports on them which you could use. If they had lock boxes, they would give you a token so it’s like a bus station locker, put the token in, plug in all of your electronics, and take the key. Come back later when you figure they were charged.

Arrived at West Thumb finally and dismounted Bunny’s bag from the trike and went into the store with a grill and had a large hot dog and pulled pork sandwich with pickles and applesauce. I as hungry as not having eaten much for breakfast that day.

After lunch I went over to the campgrounds in West Thumb and checked in and to my surprise the lady checking me in must have hit an extra button so instead of $10.20 it turned out to be $5.10 for the night. They told me they were happy to talk to me and see the cat. Everybody came out of the office, about five people in all to see and pet Bunny and they told me that things were really slow. Now that I’m in the campground I can see what they meant as there’s nobody around me in this loop and since they usually fill the loops closest to the check-in first that most likely means the outer loops have even less campers. Well right now it’s a beautiful day of sunshine and warmth.  I put the tent up because I don’t trust Wyoming weather and sure enough here it is 5:30 and it’s overcast and I’m here with thunder booming off in the distance.

Fed Bunny her cat chow and gave her some fresh uncured ham which she really likes. The ham was bought at the campground store.  A summer sausage about 4 inches long, 8 slices of cheese and 8 slices of ham cost $27.83. After dinner she did her usual thing of sitting around and looking for chipmunks and chatter at them.

There seems to be fewer foreign young people working in the park this year. Most of the weight staff seem to be 70 plus Americans. They seem to have a lot of trouble running the cash registers and keeping things straight such as whose order is who’s. At the grill I could see what the problem was. They had three cash registers but only one pickup point so the people preparing the meals would turn around and often have no idea where to put the meal. People were wandering around trying to find where their order was located. The person who was running the cash register seemed totally confused by how it worked.  I think it is due to poor management training of new hires.  The young kids working cash registers were just zipping right through it.  This only leads me to believe that the older folks’ problems with the registers and my ability to plan and store my tools in the proper place is just part of the reduction in cognitive abilities as we age.

Every place I stop tells me they are having trouble finding people to work.  I don’t understand how so many can not be working.  Everyone has bills and rent to pay.  If people are not working, where is the money coming from for daily expenses?  So all businesses are asking patience with the extra time it is taking to have food orders finished and even getting another glass of water. I did see an interesting sign at a place where I ate. We are short staffed “Please be patient with the people who did come to work”.

Four years ago, when I rode through Yellowstone from the south entrance up to Canyon Village it was hard to stay out of the way of all the tour bus’s bringing in Chinese tourists. I have not seen one bus full of Chinese people so far on this trip and there are hardly any Chinese anywhere in the park. I guess we are cross threaded with the Chinese government bad enough that their government is telling them not to visit the United States.

I am also seeing very few of the really large rental motorhomes, the “Cruise America” motorhomes. It seems the smaller Ford, Mercedes and Ram vans are what people are renting and bringing into the park now and the major reason of course is the better mileage than those big humongous square box motorhomes. This was advantageous to me as the smaller units give me more room on the road.  Many people driving large rented motorhomes have no idea of the width of their vehicle and when it is safe to pass, how far to move over and especially when it is safe to move back.  All in all the traffic in Yellowstone was polite and sedate.  I figured it was due to the fact no one had to race from place to place to find a camping spot with so few in the park while I was there.

Just got the air mattress blown up and the sleeping bag rolled out and the air pillow inflated. (Note to self next time I want to travel with a cat and bring a short hair one). Now it’s 6:30 p.m. starting to lose a little light due to overcast skies, but it won’t get dark until about 9:30 but I’m likely to nod off and forget to put the food in the bear box so I better do it now. I swear I can smell the cat food in their double plastic bags on the picnic table 10 ft away. Since the nearest bear box is right near the outhouse or toilet it seems very convenient that I need to put the food away as I also need to visit the outhouse, long drop, dunny, stinkbox. I think I will wait just a little bit longer until my bladder complains a little more to make the trip worthwhile.

I remember back in the late 60s you could fish in Yellowstone for free. I believe at one time you could fish in the park if you had a Wyoming license, but now you need to buy a license just for the park. The southern border of the park is 29 miles away and about a 70/30 downhill/uphill run to get there. Going out of the southern entrance is the 70% part.  There will be a long slow climb up to the continental divide around 7,900 feet and then a very long high speed run down to Flag Ranch. Once outside of the park boundaries I will start looking for small lakes or creeks to fish.

One of the park attendants that helped check me in to the campgrounds in West Thumb seems to think my arrival is auspicious. He noted I rode in on a three-wheel tricycle, with a three-legged cat and was staying at campground space number three.

For the last hour I have been looking at a humongous Ford motorhome. It has to be 30 feet long if it’s an inch. I am not sure how high the numbers on the e-series go but this must be something like an e700. Maybe tomorrow I can take a look at the badge if they don’t leave before I get up. No one has moved inside it or outside of it. There are three shovels leaning against a tree outside, one with a red handle and red spade, one with a blue handle and blue spade and one with the green handle and the green spade. Can’t figure out why they would want to color code their shovels.

It is nearly dark and many people have returned to their motorhomes after touring for the day. I just heard two people walking in the campground say the following.   “Hey is that the red trike the attendant was telling us about? “Yes and I hear he came in with a three-legged cat as his riding companion”

June 7, 2022

We had been in the tent for about 1 hour last night when suddenly the wind came up and there was a lightning strike the longest I have ever experienced. The thunder sounded like somebody had dropped six or seven rounds of artillery shells on us.

I would have thought bunny would have been in a total panic but she was calm as could be, but that was because she was inside the sleeping bag down at the foot and I guess she feels secure there.

Of course, it began to rain and sleet which continued all night long off and on and on and on. The morning was foggy and we also had ice hanging on the seat of the trike. Right now it’s not too cold but it is chilly at about 40°. I am laying on my side dictating this on top of the air mattress and Miss Bunny is cuddled up behind my knees. Right now it is 10 minutes to 8 and I’m going to wait a few minutes before starting to break camp and hope to be on the road by 9:00 a.m. or at least at the grill where I can get something hot to eat. Turns out all the grill has only pulled pork and hot dogs nothing else, not even hamburgers and of course they’re understaffed and the staffing they have can’t seem to run the cash registers which is a bit of a mystery if they only have two entrees, sodas and ice cream to sell. Like I said old age and cognitive functions, right?

Well made it to Flagg Ranch and the campground is almost full but they had one left for $47 but I got it for $27 because I’m an old gray hair guy. Some gal in a small camper van needed a place so I told her she could share with me if it was okay with them so it went down to about $15 for the night. I really don’t understand the pricing as all these campgrounds are national campgrounds. My first night was $10, my second night was $5.12 and this one the best rate I could get was $27.20.

Bunny seems quite content as this afternoon and it has been partially cloudy and sunny. The inside of the tent is warm.  She is dozing in the tent and not even the siren call of the chipmunks can wake her up.  I went over to get some water and Gatorade and came back and she was laying down in front of the door on her side and not moving at all even after I unzipped the fly and made quite a lot of noise. All I could think was damn I killed the cat somehow. It turned out she was just deeply asleep.

The escape proof harness in the cross harness inside of the basket might have saved Bunnies life today. She was stretching out in the basket putting both legs out teasing me wanting me to reach out and scratch her head but I was busy with a downhill run and had to focus on the road. Next thing I know she was up on her back leg and throwing herself around to try to reach and she launched herself completely out of the basket. She was hanging by the safety straps and the escape proof harness. I started braking as fast as I could and got down to about 15 miles an hour where I could control the trike with one hand picked her up with the other and dropped her back in the basket without ceremony, I then zipped up the netting so she couldn’t get out and she kind of gave me the cold stare for the next 20 miles like how dare you? Most people don’t understand that a trike is very unstable at speed when you sit up and move your center of gravity pas the cross bars of the front wheel.  To bend forward at speed is to invite a high-speed accident. This is why I had to brake first before reaching forward to grab Bunny and put her back in the basket. It was the very next day sitting still in front of a store with a crowd of people standing around when she did the very same thing just after some asking “does she just sit in the basket without trouble”?  I was sitting in the trike and she was hanging from the safety harness and straps again over the side of the basket. One older man remarked “I guess that helps keep her from jumping out”.  I think he missed the point as it doesn’t keep her from jumping out it keeps her from being shredded by the front chain ring or being run over by me and the trike.

We are buddies again now, especially since she’s warm cozy in the tent. Hopefully this will be the first night since the beginning of the trip it will not rain and it will not be too cold. I was just told that if I went over to the restaurant you could sit in the lounge and piggy back on their Wi-Fi so I’m going to do that because I have been out of communication now for almost 7 days. I have been able to leave two messages for Tiptida as I called twice using the park attendants phone. I wonder how much Verizon had to pay for exclusive rights in the park? I hate to say it but it was easier to call out of the park 20 years ago when all of the regular phones worked. Now none of the phone’s work and most have been taken out and to me that’s just a backward step for the park no questions about it.

26 miles to Moran junction tomorrow. Don’t know if I’ll stop there or head on up towards Togwotee pass. Will have to deal with if I have any kind of cell service or not so I can try to find camping.

June 8, 2022

I met another rider named John.  He was on a much longer tour than me.  We went to have some pizza and later a mulberry margarita.  He had been stuck in Jackson Lake campground waiting on new tent poles.  Somehow the wind had managed to break a critical pole.  The first pole they sent him was the wrong size and the second had not yet shown up.  He had made his way to our meeting place from Jackson Hole with his ultimate goal being Bozeman.

June 9, 2022

Rode down to Jackson Lake Lodge and stopped in for an early lunch.  It is a grand place. The view of the Tetons from the central sitting area is grand.  No problems with Bunny being inside with me in the lunch room as it seems all pets are welcomed.

Pedaled on down to Moran junction and turned east.   Talked with a “Bear Ambassador” who told me there was a forest service camping up the road about ten miles.  Go to the camp ground and put up the tent then road back about 300 yards to Hatchel resort and restaurant.  Had a really good burger and fries.  This place also gave me no problems with Bunny being in the restaurant.  After dinner it was back to the tent and a good night’s sleep.

June 10, 2022

Got up early and packed up for the ride over Togwotee pass. It was not an hour into the ride before I realized that I had bitten off more than I could chew. I was moving at an average speed of about 1.5 to 2 miles per hour which meant it was going to be about 10 hours of long hard pedaling.   I, not having much pride at my age, decided it was best to beg for a ride. Stopped and waited on cars or more to the point pickups.  For whatever reason there seemed to be very few that day.  A few did pass me, not willing to slow down for some fool parked on a steep pass until finally a guy going over to Dubois for logs stopped and loaded up my trike and took me over to the Tie Hack Memorial about twenty miles outside of Dubois.  He thought me more than a little crazy attempting the pass at my age and with the weight I was carrying.  After telling me what he thought about my ambitions he turned out to be a great guy and we talked about his 27 years of building log cabins for rich people.  He too complained about finding good help and how he had to put up with workers he would have fired 3 years ago.  After dropping me off it was more or less downhill to Dubois and with a strong tail wind.  I think there might have been 10 miles where I didn’t pedal at all.  Stopped at the Cowboy Café and was thinking about lunch but breakfast was still sitting heavy with me so it was just ice cream and tea.  Bunny did her usual thing of sitting in her basket caging petting from passing people. Left Dubois and started off for Crowheart.  On the way I met a man from Austria.  He was coming up the canyon against the wind.  He remarked that the wind was so strong he had to pedal downhill to keep moving.  He wanted to know what it was like coming from Dubois and the only thing I could tell him was it was mostly uphill and against a strong wind.  He didn’t seem happy to hear that but he thanked me for the information and was on his way.

I finally made it to Crowheart and I was tired from the heat.  I pulled into the shade, watered Bunny and just sat there trying to cool down. Finally I poured some water over my head and that helped.  Went into the store, the first time since being in Wyoming and found it rather well stocked.  Bought a cold Pepsi, had some sweet buns and a hot dog for lunch.  Oh side note.  After coming down with Covid in January of 2020 I also came down with Type 2 diabetes for no reason other than I “was getting old or Covid was the culprit”.  I read a study that indicated if someone was over the age of 60, had been treated with steroids for breathing issue and had Covid the changes of developing Type 2 diabetes. Here is a related webpage talking about Covid and the link to type 2 diabetes. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00912-y

So why am I writing about eating sticky buns and drinking Pepsi while traveling.  Well it would seem pedaling all day long keeps my blood glucose within normal ranges.  I never drank Pepsi before going to bed as I knew I was not going to be burning blood glucose and didn’t want an abnormal reading in the morning when I test my BG.  So if you have type 2 diabetes and are able to pedal 8-10 hours per day you most likely won’t have to worry about your blood glucose.

After having cooled down and eating lunch I went inside to enquire about camping.  I would have been happy if they let me stay next to the port-a-potty, but the owner of the store said I was welcome to stay behind the Crowheart Fire Department building across the street.  It turns out they had grass and a barbeque in the back and the camping was rather pleasant as both Bunny and I listened to cows gently bellowing most of the night.  It was also handy in that there was a large extension cord running next to the building which I think was used for an electric weed eater.  This meant all my discharged batteries and phone were charged that night.  Just before bed I heard someone making gentle coughing noises.  I looked out the tent thinking someone from the store might be approaching the tent, only to see another person who I thought might be a female touring.  She didn’t stay long enough for me to secure Bunny and by the time I got out of the tent again she was gone.  Most likely she was looking for a camping spot, but thought maybe I didn’t want to be disturbed and moved on.  Hope she found a safe place to camp that night as it was nearly dark.

June 11, 2022

Woke up very early and since the tent was bone dry packed up and rolled on down the road towards Riverton.  Now the folks that know might ask why I didn’t take the Pavilion turn off and the answer is I wanted to stop at the Thai restaurant. This day would turn out to be a long and hot day.  Just short of Riverton I ran out of water for both me and Bunny.  Decided to stop at the weather radar building outside of Riverton.  The place was locked down like they were expecting an invasion.  Finally someone came to the door and opened it just enough for me to push my water bottle through and went to get me water.  He came back, but the bottle was not full being about 2 inches from the top.  I figured it wasn’t worth asking him again so I said thanks and went out and sat in the shade to cool down. The whole time I was sitting in the shade I had a strange sense the people in the building were watching me with outside cameras.  Can’t prove that feeling in any way, but the whole vibe of the building was that we are locked down, we don’t trust visitors and act in accordance.  Most likely just my mental state at the moment as I was very overheated.  Reminds me of the time I was riding through Guernsey many years ago.  It was July and hot.  I was struggling with the heat and downing water faster than I could find it.  I pulled into a small campground to sit in the shade.  An old man came out and asked all the usual questions about the trike. After asking he said “Are you touched in the head”?  I asked what he meant.  He said it was 108 degrees and I must be “touched” to be riding.  I looked at the gauge over the door to the campground store and it said 107, but I wasn’t going to argue with him over that one degree.  Thankfully it dropped back down into the low 90s the next day and I made it to Torrington without too many problems.

After having a very nice dinner at the “Thai Kitchen #2” I went over to buy a new inflatable pillow.  Mine had decided to stop staying inflated and I find it hard to sleep without a pillow.  It turned out they had only one and it was a Klymit Pillow X teal model. It was rather expensive at $31.  So far I have been very happy with the pillow.  The X pattern helps keep your head on the pillow and it packs down to about 25% of the size of one I had been using to date.  I have found them on Amazon for about half price.  It comes with a couple thousand very positive reviews.

Went on down the Owl Creek campground and found no one there to deal with.  I picked out a campground and about an hour or so later a lady came around to collect fees.  It turned out to be the most expensive fee for camping so far at $23.  They did have a lot of shade trees and a nice clean, but old bathroom with showers.  Lady strongly suggested I keep Bunny close to me especially at night as the area was known for having several very large owls living close by.  Told me the story of a feral cat that had a litter of 8 kittens for about a week, but they went missing one or two every night until there were none.  I figured a three legged cat would be at a disadvantage in dodging an owl even if she heard or saw it coming so she said inside the tent and I did not let her out that night at all even on the leash.

June 12, 2022

Pushed off for Shoshoni early the next morning.  Finally got to the store at the intersection and went to get some Headed north towards the Thermopolis canyon and stopped at the lower campgrounds.  Might just go there someday and try my hand at fishing as I understand that stretch of water is just outside of the reservation. I make this judgement based upon seeing down the road about a ¼ of a mile a sign saying “Reservation boundary”.  Might be wrong so some checking before fishing would be in order.

After resting in the shade, I continued down the canyon toward Thermopolis. This section of the ride is more or less up and down, mostly down.  Had no real problems and enjoyed the view.  Arrived in town to stop at Pizza Hut.  Ordered a small Hawaiian pizza and it took nearly 30 minutes to get it.  I was the only one in the shop.  Pizza arrived and it was on whole wheat which is OK if they had not baked it into a hockey puck.   Asked for a packet of peppers to give it some flavor and was told I had to buy a pepper shaker of pepper as they no longer offered packets.  Ask for some hot sauce and their reply was we don’t have any.  Well it would appear Pizza Hut has gone down hill.  So still being hungry I pedaled down to the local Mexican restaurant and had a fine meal.  Nice people, some of whom did not speak English, but nice just the same.   Found out the host who would be putting me up the next day were coming home from Lander where they were partaking in the yearly FART ride.  Had them stop and bought them dinner.  After dinner rode down to Eagle Campground and stayed on grass for the night at the modest charge of $10.   Best price in town and again nice people.  The man who showed me where to camp never came around to collect and the next morning I was leaving so early they were not up, so I dropped the money in an envelope and placed it in the key drop.

Off I went to Worland.  I kept seeing all the same places I had ridden the first day until I finally reached the place where I was going to throw in the towel.  After that everything was new and made it to the intersection of 20 and 433. From the intersection there was another four miles to my host’s house.  Of course, it was now raining hard again.  Pulled into an unfinished gas station at the intersection and ducked under an overhang to keep both myself and Miss Bunny dry.  I was thinking any moment now the law would show up as the entire area was taped off with signs saying closed no trespassing.  Had a lunch appointment with my hosts so I called and said I didn’t know when I might be in. The husband asked if I wanted a ride to their house so I suggested he bring down my van and we loaded the trike up and went back to his house where I got a shower and they fed me lunch. These people are really nice and they are special in the Warm Showers community.  I hope they continue to host travelers in the future.

After lunch I took off for Casper in the van. As my legs were aching, I decided to stop at the hot springs for a soak.  I think I might have stayed in the outside pool longer this time than any time before.  Went back to the van stinking of sulfur and drove to Casper.

So that is the story of Miss Bunny’s tour of Wyoming.  It was her first outing and we hope to do more.  At least I think she hopes to do more.   Somewhere between Riverton and Thermopolis a strange rattling was being heard in the back of the trike on any bump. I stopped to check the rack to see if there were any loose bolts other than the one sitting in the seat and found nothing. The morning of the last day’s ride I looked down at the rear fender while strapping things on and found the rear fender had broken into two pieces still being held more or less in place by the stays. Only 12 years and the fender is already broken.  Last time I went out for a long trip heavily loaded my rack suffered some rubbing damage.  I need to check it again this time when I am removing the rear fender.

bpetnoi1 at gmail dot com