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Day 8: Pahaska Tepee to Yellowstone The road into Yellowstone over Sylvan Pass (8700 ft.) is closed from 8pm to 8am. But several folks who had come from Yellowstone to Pahaska yesterday reported pretty heavy snow. With gray skies that morning we were not really sure we were going to be able to ride over the pass. But we figured we'd get on the bikes and go the mile or so up to the ranger station at the Park entrance and enquire about the conditions.
The ranger seemed pretty blase and said "if you don't mind the cold you can make it over the pass." So we decided to go for it. The tiniest of snowflakes were beginning to fall, but that might actually be preferrable to rain. |
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About halfway up the pass we encountered a long line of vehicles stopped at the flagman. They're two years into a seven year project to rebuild this road and there's a stretch of about 3 miles that's broken and muddy and impassable on a bike. So we waited for the pilot car (a small pickup) and got ferried to the summit with our bikes in the back. We must admit, it beat riding up that hill in this freezing weather.
Even in a car, at 5 mph it took a long time to navigate that 3-mile stretch. When our chauffeur Ruby dropped us off, we stopped to shoot some photos, and bundled ourselves up for a nice ride down the otherside to Lake Yellowstone 700 ft, below at about 8,000 ft. elevation. |
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while looking down on Lake Yellowstone |
We stopped about halfway down to take in the view of Lake Yellowstone and decided to get out the cellphones to see if we had any coverage. We hadn't talked to Dei or JoAn for about 36 hours and were kind of concerned that they might be worried about us (what with all this talk of grizzly bears).
Amazingly we got a dial-tone and were both able to phone home. As I said, cellphone coverage, and Verizon in particular, was very good all over the route except for in Pahaska where we really could have used it. |
| When we reached the lake the weather had really improved. We had about 30 miles to cover around the perimeter of the lake, past geysers and herds of bison. We could really feel the difference between cycling at sea level and at the 8000 ft. altitude where we were. But a beautiful ride nonetheless. |
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After checking into our room at the Grants Village Lodge on Lake Yellowstone we took a little hike down to the lake and finally saw our elusive grizzly. At a nice safe distance of about 300 yards our friend was gnawing on a fish along the shoreline. About the only thing that alluded us today was a television on which to watch the game. You just can't find a TV in Yellowstone National Park. Makes you wonder what this world is coming to... Next