May 30, Day 24, West Yellowstone-70 miles

If you want to know anything about small town history you are obliged to visit the local cafe at 6:00 AM to speak with the elders  as they gather for their morning coffee and chat ritual. And so it was at the Ennis Cafe that I  took my spot at the breakfast bar, clearly separated from the preset coffee cups and newspapers that adorned the areas for the regulars. It was from them that I learned Ennis was named after William Ennis.

William left his home country in Ireland when he 14 and came to the US where he worked in the freight trade. After learning of a gold discovery in Alder Gulch, Ennis and his wife moved to the area like thousands of others and he later purchased a large piece of land which would later become the town of Ennis. He worked as the postmaster util his death in the late 1800's. There you have it.

Madison Valley

After respectfully parting from the elders, I mounted up and started my 71 mile jaunt to West Yellowstone. The ride was gradually uphill the whole way in order to gain the 2,000 feet necessary to get to W. Yellowstone. The first 45 miles was beautiful Madison Valley, with open pastures and waterways to the west and sharp steep snow covered mountains to the east. The next 15 miles or so provided a starkly different view as I made my way out of the valley and into a canyon with steep sides and where the Madison River raged along its rocky crags and crevices.

Climb out of Madison Valley

At the top the canyon opened up into beautiful "Earthquake Lake." named so because it was literally created by an earthquake. Farther along the road saddled up to Hebgen lake and 10 miles of lake side views. I had the misfortune of riding into unbelievably thick swarms of gnats along the shoreline and proudly displayed a few hundred of them to the waitress at the grill where I stopped for a late lunch. They got everywhere.

I eventually arrived at my day's destination, West Yellowstone, a typical tourist town lying right outside the west entrance to the park. Overpriced bar and grills, T-shirt  and souvenir shops, park tour companies and motels made up the lions share of businesses. i checked into my hotel and began feverously making phone calls. I was desperately looking for some place to stay inside the park the following day and it became more urgent when I found out that the campgrounds I had previously planned to stay were not even open for the season yet, even though the Yellowstone campground phone recording said that they were.

Ram tough!

After two hours of being placed on hold or listening to voice mail after voice mail I gave up and figured that I was for the most part screwed. My only option was to ride completely through the entire park, exit the other side at the south entrance and hope that the campgrounds there were open and available. That meant roughly 84 to 90 miles of riding, with three peaks over 8,000 feet, forecasted storms and no guarantees. Not good.

While belly aching to my wife through text messages, I called one last place in the Grand Teton National Park called Colter Bay Village and a real human answered the phone! To my great relief they had an open cabin and I reserved it on the spot.

So there it was.....The following day I had quite a challenge ahead. Just under 90 miles to the cabin, three peaks to get over and a significant weather system moving in that was scheduled to bring heavy rain, hail and thunderstorms. I went to a bar and grill to eat and was overjoyed with the prospect of killing myself the next day. So much so that I didn't realize I had mindlessly walked into a lesbian bar! and not the feminine ones.  Whatever! The food tasted fine and I shared a few jokes with the staff and bartender. I wanted to get an early start the next day so I went back to the hotel room to write this blog but the WiFi that the staff was so darned proud of when I checked in didn't work a lick. They told me they were, "working on it." Too late to wait so I went night night. Big day tomorrow.