Sketchy weather + big mountains = Call Avis

Monday 6/27 :  Cody to Ucross
Thunderstorms predicted, and Bighorn Mountains with a 5500 ft. vertical, done in 10% grade for 10 miles made me decide to skip this part of the trip.  I picked up a car at the Cody airport, with the intention of dropping it in Sheridan.   When I got to the Sheridan airport, the sky looked like this:

Sketchy weather in Sheridan

so I got the car for an extra day, to take me all the way to Gillette.

Tues 6/28 :  The Inn at Ucross to Gillette, WY

Riding tall

My guide

The Inn at Ucross

Gillette is the coal mining capitol of the US, in the center of Wyoming's Power River Valley coal mining.  This provide 35% of the nation's coal.   Gillette only 3580 people in 1960.  Now there are over 37,000.  Over the past decade, Gillette expanded significantly.  Now, however, with world energy prices down and coal in decline, the hotels are now running below 30% occupancy.  The same thing that happened in Williston, ND, the epicenter of the Bakken shale oil activity.

A fine rotisserie lunch at the Coop in Gillette

Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Cody WY

Sat. 6/24:  Grand Teton National Park

40 miles from Jackson to Grand Teton / Coulter Bay village.  Nice, laid-back cabins.  Plenty of Mosquitoes.

Snake River level is very high.  Snowpack in WY was about 200% of normal.

Grand Tetons

Jackson Lake

Sun. 6/25:  Yellowstone - Grant Village

40 miles to Grant Village, 2100 ft vertical

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Lewis River canyon from Rt 191.

Mon. 6/26:  Yellowstone Lake to Wapiti (near Cody), WY

86 miles.  The first 40 are up-and-down around Yellowstone Lake, followed by a 1500 ft climb .   miles to Grant Village, totaling 2400 ft vertical.  This was followed by 4650 ft over the next 45 miles.

Bison warming himself next to hot spring (see steam on the right)

Roadside grazing

Forrest die-off - climate change effect

One of many snow-melt waterfalls near Sylvan Pass

Ups and Downs

Fri. 6/23:   Made it to Jackson WY.   ...  A lot of mountains out here. 
Yesterday's ride from Idaho Falls to Victor had 3356 vertical feet, but lesser grades, and spread out over 68 miles of up and down.

A lot of fields of Yellow flowers about 30 miles outside of Idaho Falls... Don't know what they are.

Last pass before Victor

This morning's ride from Victor had about 4 miles of 10% grade (2300 ft) climbing over Teton Pass (WY 22).  The descent was decent.  Also 10% grade for almost 4 miles.  Got up to 50 MPH!!
At the top there was still a little snow on the side of the road.

Teton Pass:  8,431 ft.

The rivers and streams are very full from all the snow melt.

My own private Idaho

Sun 06/18 :  Mountain Home to Fairfield
3200 ft of climbing.  Most of if occurring in the first 1/2 of the ride.

At the top of a climb from Little Camas Lake

Had Fish and Chips at the Cliff bar and grill.  I was the only one in the place.  The owner is a female fisherman from Alaska, so she imports fish from Kodiak.  Really good fish and chips in an out of the way town.

Mon. 06/19 :  Fairfield to Bellevue

I think this is an ex-eagle.   Sad

Bellevue is about 15 miles south of Sun Valley ski resort.

Tue. 06/20 :  Bellevue to Arco
About 10 miles after heading West on US 20, the landscape abruptly changed from typical desert scrub to this:

Craters of the Moon 

This kind of chunky lava rock formation was the dominant landscape for the next 40 miles of the 65 mile ride to Arco.  

Arco's nuclear power plant began operating in 1955.  First in the world.

Wed. 06/21 :  Arco to Idaho Falls
Warm and very windy day... but got to Idaho Falls in time to get to Dave's bicycle shop. They cleaned up the chain for me, and sold me a new tire to replace my cut-up (glass) rear tire.
Excellent dinner (grilled salmon, a welcome change to all the burgers / steaks in these tiny towns) at Jaker's Bar and Grill.

Yes... Idaho Falls has falls!

Toto, I think we're not in Kansas anymore.

Fellow Travelers and mushrooms

On the climb out of  Prineville to Mitchell, I heard a bicycle bell behind me.   John, a young engineer from Boston, started his trip near Astoria and is riding home, following an Adventure Cycling route.

John Connolly from Boston

We rode together for the next few days.

See John's blog (https://gumponwheels.wordpress.com/)
I stayed at the Oregon Hotel ...

Oregon Hotel.  Built 1904.

John stayed at the Hostel (in a church), which probably was a better choice.  While I had a private bath, there was no shower, only a claw-foot bath tub.  Mitchell is tiny, but very friendly.

Tue 6/13 Mitchell to John Day:

After the climb out of Mitchell OR

After a long day (2850 ft of vertical) we arrived in John Day.  Had a really nice dinner at the Snaffle Bit Dinner House.  

It's legal in Oregon!

Wed 6/14 John Day to Unity:

My ride was only 60 miles and 3500 vertical   John's route went North at Austin to Baker City, an 80 mile trek with 4400 ft of vertical.  He's approaching Yellowstone from the NorthWest corner after passing through Missoula.  A long way around.  My route enters Yellowstone through Jackson and the Grand Tetons.   We'll probably cross paths again somewhere in Yellowstone, although I'll probably be out of Yellowstone while he's just getting there.

Unity has only one motel, which consists of 10 rooms with an RV park, and they had no rooms, but they had a "cabin" with no bathroom.  It was really dumpy.  The common bathroom and showers were used by mushroom pickers that camp out in the mountains and get filthy, then come down every few days to clean up and sell their mushrooms.

one of several mushroom buyers in Unity

 Unity is a very popular destination for mushroom pickers.  Most of the pickers are from Cambodia or Laos.  There was a big fire in 2016, and mushrooms like to grow in burn areas.  Kathy, the owner of the Burnt River RV park/Motel where I stayed, carries a gun... a sign of how difficult it can get with all of these different people coming to pick the mushrooms.  She seemed pretty overwhelmed.

Shivak and son. - Cambodian mushroom buyers

According to Shivak, a "good" (not lazy) mushroom picker can bring in between $250-350 / day.

Thu 6/15 Unity to Ontario:

Pretty easy 84-mile ride, mostly downhill.with mild tailwinds.   Lots of irrigated farmland.

Fri 6/16 Ontario to Boise:

A lot of rolling hills near Ontario, flattening out as I got closer to Boise.  My hotel, Oxford Suites, was really nice.  It was near the interstates, and surrounded by big box and chain restaurants.  

Dinner at Goodwood BBQ

I spent most of the evening re-arranging my hotel reservations using the hotel's business center computer.  Hotels/Motels are pretty booked up as the summer tourist season is now in full swing.

Sat. 6/17 Boise to Mountain Home:

Foolishly, I followed Google Maps on its recommended bicycle route.  About 15 miles southwest of Boise, the road I was on turned to dirt and rock.  I hitchhiked and was lucky enough to catch a ride with Tom, a retired IBM project manager from Boise who had a pickup truck with 2 dogs.  He drove me most of the way to Mountain Home.  It turns out that I-84 is the only reasonable through road from Boise to Mountain Home.

Tough Days, and some rough weather

Chester to Fall River Mills (Tue 06/06):  
Well... Google Maps bicycle routing through Lassen National Park / Forest claimed 68 miles and 2,359 ft vertical... but it uses forest roads (unpaved).  Routing on all paved roads is 93 miles and 2700 ft vertical.  Not an easy day.  Fall River is a sleepy little town, but the pizza at the end of the ride was passable.
Fall River Mills to Alturas (Wed 06/07):  
75 miles, 2700 vertical

Climbing out of Fall River Mills, some great views of Mt. Shasta.  It's about 55 miles away in this picture.

A little Road Art

Things get flatter.  A lot of marshes, a lot of mosquitoes.

Alturas to Lakeview (Thu 06/08):  
Weather forecast is for rain for the next 3 days, and turning much colder.  The desk clerk (Bailey)'s boyfriend is driving from Alturas to Lakeview, and gave me a ride :) and I gave him some $$ for his trouble.
Lakeview to Summer Lake (Fri 06/09):  
Tried to do this ride, but got caught in freezing rain about 2/3 of the way to Summer Lake, near Paisley.  Asked around town, and found someone who took me the last 22 miles in his pickup .
Summer Lake to La Pine (Sat 06/10):  
Rain forecast.  Travelled to La Pine by pick-up truck again.  Spent some time at the La Pine library, waiting for a break in the rain, then biked from La Pine to Bend to have a shorter ride the next day.   It was really cold (about 45°) .
Bend to  Prineville (Sun 06/11):  
Scattered thunderstorms forecast.  Still pretty cold.  Pretty short ride, mostly flat  to Prineville. Weather should be clear for the next week or so.

Onward and upward

June 1: Breakfast at Buck's in Redwood City with Alexandra. Then an uneventful ride up to SF B&B in the Richmond via Sawyer Camp Trail and Skyline. Got to see the Warriors crush the Cadavers at a local bar. Friday morning started with
 
at Ariscault .  Then a mad dash to the Vallejo ferry.

and a ride to Davis to take Janine out for Sushi.  Finally settled for the night in Woodlands.

Saturday, a warm ride to Oroville on orchard-flanked farm roads.

Sunday, rode up the Feather River canyon.  

View of Feather River from CA 70 about 1 mile after the first summit after Oroville

Initial climb from Oroville gains about 2400 ft, then drops about 1400, then had to reclimb all of that to get to Belden. 

Beautiful scenery.  Lots of small waterfalls and streams going into the Feather River.  Settled into cabin at Caribou Crossroads.  Total 3800 ft vertical.for the day.

Continued Monday, following the Feather River along CA 70, then branched off to CA 89 to Chester.  Another hard ride with > 3000 ft vertical.