Jared left his heart in Wyoming

So I believe we left off with our pleasant visit with laurel. Since we have been through Jackson hole and Grand Teton National Park. We have crossed the great divide three times, gone through five thousand foot elevation changes and been dumped on by snow. We cut across all of Wyoming with strain, drama, shenanigans and a healthy dose of weather and wind. We would ride from national forest to painted desert to flat emptiness in a matter of 40 miles. This state taught us a lot about patience and team work and that a town on a map does not mean there is an actual town. Thank you Jeffery City… We learned how to conserve a little more and got less picky about where we slept. Some nights somebody would give us a place to stay, others we improvised and made something for our own. For instance, we rolled up to this gas station at the muddy gap at 10:30 at night and made spaghetti and slept on some dirt next to the little store that was closed. Jared made some lady friends at a Subway, I’ll leave the divulging to him. We also met Aaron who was randomly on tour in Rawlings, caught up with him for a bit and the bartender took us around town, and got some random tweakers to give us their camper for the night.


The ride into Colorado was smooth and an immediate change in scenery, we had 5 people offer us a place to stay in Fort Collins and ended up with this nice vegan couple right near CSU. We went to a pot luck with them and then in the morning we toured the incredible new Belgium brewery (Fat Tire). FREE might I add, plus we got some bonus brews for being bikers, there is an awesome biking story behind the founding of the company. Anywho, we say our goodbyes and head to Boulder slightly buzzed and beat down. Once in town I tried to find Becka’s place off of memory and led Derek and Jared around town for a bit, but I still maintain it was beautiful and well worth the extra ride. Heh. Becka made us an awesome meal complimented with some cold beverages and many laughs to go around. Then Mr. Gruber and Miss Phillipson stopped by and amped up the entertainment; a good night to say the least. It was followed by another wonderful day exploring the town and checking out the bars and getting to know her roommates a little better. Jared and Derek probably got rufied and we ended the night with another interesting story. Today Gatsby and I went for a hike in the flatirons and tomorrow we part ways and make toward Ft. Worth, to visit some relatives. Lessons learned… Subway girls aren’t what they seem, don’t stay in Rawlings, and rubber gloves and plastic bags make terrible snow clothing.

Mountains and Montana?

It turns out that the town of missoula is a black hole of sorts in that it kept drawing us back in with strange characters and bike problems galore. Day 1 we rolled in at night and sprung for a motel 6, day 2 we stayed at some commune in the boonies, and day 3 Jared's bike had chain issues and we crashed on some lesbians lawn (we weren't sure if they knew we were there or not), and long behold on the fourth day my back wheel had to be trued because it was wobbling all over the place. It took us a while, but we made it out and went from missoula to drummen, then drummen to butte and butte to ennis and ennis to west Yellowstone. Each day would rapidly switch from freezing to hot and push winds on and off. We had a couple days of off and on showers and from Drummen to Butte we had thunderstorms follow us the whole way. There was this moment where Jared pops his tire in the middle of this storm, I am up ahead and turn around to see derek being pushed all over the road and waving like a mad man that jared needed repairs. So we both head back towards Jared and the winds are so strong we are practically riding at a 45 degree angle to stay balanced while being pounded by rain and lightning is striking in the distance. We come up to Jared and he is standing by his bike somehow smoking in pouring rain and insane winds... he made zero prep for the tire to be changed and he is just standing there. So when we arrive he starts opening his panniers to look for tubes and its at the bottom of the bag. Finally the wheel is off and the tube is the most stubborn tube I have ever changed and we all start laughing and thinking about how good food sounds. Then Derek says his new subway slogan " When shit can't get any worse, Subway."
Anyways we made it out of there and got to Butte and slept in a dugout of some baseball field and then the next morning we wake to this happy Bum named Billy standing at the edge of the dugout who had the most ridiculous hi pitched voice (like Hanky the christmas poo hi)and asked us if we were backpackers and then wandered off to his dugout after slipping in an awkward invitation for us to join.

Well interesting characters aside, Wolf, Jeff, Billy, Harry and a couple others we spent every night in the chilly frontier of Montana and meandered through to yellowstone to meet the Lauerl who gave us a ride to Rexberg to hang out and get our bikes fixed. We get dropped off back in Yellowstone tomorrow after some site seeing and we are on our way to the great divide and Becka's place.

Lolo is loco

So we just made our first mountain pass through the 12, we took three days on the 220 mile pass and climbed 4000 feet over one pass. Things really got cold on the third day and it began to rain for a bit. We met a few tourers and camped with them one night and caught rumor of an awesome hot spring in the mountains. It was a long day and climbing into the clear hot water made every muscle relax and every thought of biking float into a distant memory. We met this crazy Canadian and his girlfriend up there and we talked till nightfall. Another day camping in the bushes on rocks and Jared tumbling on Derek and I in the tent. The route went along the clear water river and we were surrounded by massive pines and evergreens along rolling cliffs. So, we end the three day stretch a little more weary of the mountains and the many chipmunks that live there. We also may of taken 30 cups of hot chocolate from some rangers on the lolo pass. The old man there gave us the stink eye and we rolled on down to the town of Missoula. Trying to leave out details for when I talk to people in person. Staring at the path ahead is as daunting a thing as one can imagine at this point. Next stop Yellowstone... Supposed to drop below freezing at night, should be an interesting test of our gear.

Where Idaho meets Mr. Washington

So we are a good five days in on the trip, covered 55 the first day, 52 the second, 48 the third, 90 the fourth and 80 the fifth. Slowly warming up to the idea of tugging a ton of extra weight made for an interesting few days. Every big meal seems to be as amazing as the next and camping each night is half the battle. We stayed in spider infested bushes in the desert, a couple state parks, and in someones backyard for a night... Puttering through you can meet some interesting people willing to lend an extra hand. Some places it was firewood and others it was a place to sleep and free drinks. These quarky little towns draw out some strange folk, but that is the fun of it. Oregon took a while to burn through, random weather, random people and plenty of tom foolery to go around. Washington blew by in a couple days and we are walking distance from the Idaho border leading to Lewiston right now. We have the 12 ahead of us and 218 miles of absolute nothingness till Missoula Montana. We are making our way to Yellow Stone from there, but we are climbing some elevation from here on out. Looking forward to the ride, locals say it is pretty nice. Had a cool car show last night too. Derek and Jared got a couple pitchers of beer on the house and we are forecasted rain for the next couple days. Wish us luck.

The Oregon Experiment

Every great adventure has its lead players, each needs to play off the others differences and it somehow needs to jumble together into a progressive moving mass that takes them somewhere. Our team seems to assemble some interesting qualities, each of us have our vices and problems and we each are going into this looking to get something different out of it. Derek and I have known one another since Kindergarten and Jared I have known each other since middle school; so knowing each other this well enables the best kind of constructive criticism as well as the inherent ability to crush the others spirit at any moment. Lets face it, when you know someone long enough, you know how to make them hurt. So all that aside we have great potential for success and utter failure, which seems promising enough.
So the trip starts with its challenges, 25 hours straight of driving in a position where you cannot fall asleep. Also getting lost somewhere on the one past the golden gate bridge and harassing some AAA agencies for maps. Needless to say we made it to crater lake just in time to catch the sunrise and it did not disappoint. The deep orange streaks spread from the distance and with every passing moment the water grew from the ultra still dark black to a blue that borders on crystal clear. The cliffs gave the area this unapproachable reverence that made the prospect of hiking down a dark shot in hell and as soon as we soaked in the magnificence of the scene we passed out next to some lookout point on a trail .
Derek and I were walking on no sleep, but Jared somehow found a way to sleep in the most awkward of positions, Jared is an awkward guy though so it makes sense. We took the rest of that day looking for a good camp site along the 138; every quarter mile seemed to present a more incredible camp ground, completely vacant and teeming with towering waterfalls and dense forest. We nestled in along the shore of some river and relaxed under the trees for the night, we even found some logs laying around so when the night passed we roasted some wieners and played some bridge by the fire. Oh, and got pretty drunk.

We finally made it to Portland and my cousins welcomed us with a place to hang out and plenty of food, later my Aunt and Uncle completely spoil us with their amazing cooking and hospitality. Then pasta and beer rained in from the heavens and for the next couple days we strolled the gorgeous streets of Portland and enjoyed the company of good family. We also owe Greg and Suzi a huge debt for all they threw in for us in preparation for this crazy endeavor. Greg had some awesome stories and helped us map our route and gave us some good survival tips. Also took us out on the town and got us some gear and beer, go together pretty well i think and tomorrow he leads us out of the city by bike and the insanity is close to beginning.


Didn't have time to fix spelling and speech so deez with it