Jeff's Alaskan Bike Trip 2010

We left Pinedale for Grand Tetons National Park. It was to be an easy day of riding through the national parks. We looked like a three ring circus trying to get organized with our park passes and getting gas. The park has a couple road construction sites that have up to 30 minute delays. Riding amongst the mountains and lakes, experiencing the changes and temperatures and smelling the pines as they grew close to road was what the day was to be about.

We made a decision to camp at Grand Teton instead of going to Yellowstone. We knew it would put us behind schedule, but the weather looked bad. We barely got to the camp site when the rain started. We hustled up our tents and hankered down for one heck of a storm. The storm had lots of lightening and thunder. It clattered and rang amongst the mountains. The rain fell fast and loud on our tents. We sat in our tents until the rain had stopped. You can tell because the birds let you know by chirping it's ok. Waiting out a large thunderstorm like is actually very cool.

The park supervisors came by to tell us that just yesterday they had a bear encounter right where we had set up our tents. It appeared that some Japanese tourists got a little surprise from the bear. They said the bear was not afraid of the humans. The park rangers finally got the bear to leave. Every tree in our area had bear marks. GREAT. I think we all slept on pins and needles that night expecting something. Luckily, we had no bear sightings. At breakfast the next morning, our waitress told us about how the rangers had relocated bears from surrounding ranches to the area we camped in. No wonder sites were available late in the day.

They talk about how the mountains create their own weather. We entered the park in sunshine. We drove around the mountains to a storm. After the storm, we got a cold wind. The storm had cleared the skies and you could see lots of stars. I think everyone slept with all their clothes on to stay warm. We woke up to about 35 degrees and sunny skies. It looked like a long day was ahead of us.