T H E   G R A N D   T E T O N S

Sunday, August 15, 2004

After a good night's sleep in Lindsay's driveway, while preparing for my departure, she greets me with a homemade fruit shake. How thoughtful of her. Before leaving I give her the nickel tour of my website from my laptop, then we exchange contact information since I'll be in Washington D.C. (her hometown) in a month or so. We make tentative plans to tour the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History together. She's toured the museum before and having a Social Anthropology Degree from Harvard, she'll certainly prove to be an excellent tour guide I'm sure.

Today will be another biking day, this time I'm up for a road bike ride. Last night Lindsay told me about a ride she did earlier in the week to Signal Mountain. It sounds interesting and scenic enough so I decide to give it a whirl myself. The ride will take me alongside the Grand Tetons, what better way to experience the Tetons than by bike.

I hit the road late-morning for a short drive to a tourist center near Moose, WY.

I park the van and make preparations for my departure. The day is cool, cloudy, and there's some potential for rain. My ride for the day will be just shy of 50 miles on mostly flat terrain. It will be an out-and-back kinda ride with only 1,200 feet elevation gain. The only tough part of the ride will be its mid-point at Signal Mountain, where practically all of my elevation gain will happen there. But I am looking most forward to the down-hill run down the mountain, it will be a lot of fun!

Click here to get more detail (and pictures) of my out-and-back ride of Signal Mountain.

I finish the ride feeling a bit wiped-out, I'm hungry and in dire need of some good, hearty food. Since today's driving route takes me back into Yellowstone, I decide to go to Canyon Village for dinner. Previously I went there after touring the Park's Canyon Area and had a marvelous roast turkey dinner. I hope to duplicate that past experience.

I arrive to Canyon Village and encounter throngs of people in the cafeteria, all waiting in the chow line for dinner. I feel like I'm in Japan because 3 tour buses have just unloaded oodles of Japanese tourists. Additionally, there are many other foreigners here for dinner as well. It's interesting, all these people from different places. I find myself wishing I could speak their individual tongues so I could communicate and learn more about them.