Day 16 Jackson to Dubois, Wyoming 88 miles with 5000' of climbing.

Today started out cool and a slight north wind.  The temperature was 43 and we left town at 0700 and headed out of town to the north so we were right into the 10MPH headwind for 32.1 miles.  After leaving the Motel we went by the National Elk range where all the elk winter.  Then we continued on and went into Grand Teton National Park.  And we continued on this road until we hit mile 32.  The scenery was magnificent with the Grand Teton Mountains on our left the entire time.  There are pictures below and they look good, but you really have to see them to realized how grand they are.  The shortest mountain in this range is 10,800 something and the highest is 13,000 something.  They stick up and with the snow on the highest peaks they can be seen for miles.  There were a few clouds and it remained cool.

I wore my knee warmers, wind jacket and long sleeve gloves and I was still cool even after pedaling for 1 hour.  After we continued on we came to our turn in the road that took us to Dubois.  The fork in the road to the left was the route to Yellowstone Park and we were 38 miles from it when we turned Southeast.  Our rest stop was at mile 34.2 which is outside the Teton National Park as our tour company got a ticket for not having a permit a few years back and they wanted the tour leader to gather up all the cyclists and take them by van out of the park.  Mike Munk (our tour leader) said that by the time he would have gotten everyone rounded up they would all be out of the park.  There is not a gate and it is a public road through there.  They finally the next year had to write their congressman and there is not an issue anymore, but they do not allow any company to set up any thing in the park, which included our rest stop.

After getting something to eat and filling the bottles we had to start the climb of the day which was 17 miles at 6% until we topped out at 9658 at Togwotee Pass.  The climb was difficult for all as yesterday took a toll on the legs.  I was breathing more deeply today than yesterday but my heart rate was in my cruise control zone so I made it to the top.  They said that there was road construction and we would have to be shuttled part of the way.  Well their shuttle vehicle was a Ford Ranger pickup which held 2 people and 2 bikes.  We were shuttled about 2 miles and the lady said that was it and we got out and had to ride on gravel 3 miles to the summit.  By this time the wind was blowing out of the South at a steady 20-25 MPH and it was still really cold.  Everyone was wishing they had more cloths with them, but when  you load your luggage you have everything you an get until the end of the day when the luggage is unloaded.

At the top we were told to wait as they were supposed to shuttle us again  due to construction  on the downhill side of the pass.  So we waited for 40 minutes and they said we could ride down from there but there was another wait below.  There were 6 of us that took off and began the decent.  After riding about 3 miles we once again had to wait and they said it would be a long wait as they could only take 2 at a time. I was 3rd in line to go.  After the 2 groups ahead of us went, another truck came by from above with 2 bikes and 2 riders in it and the lady said they did not have enough trucks to shuttle everyone so we were to follow her pilot car and ride down.  by this time the wind was at a steady 30MPH and it was really cold.  On the decent we looked at our Que sheet for the day and saw that there was a store and cage at mile 67.6 and  we all said we were stopping as they were supposed to have soup and chili.  By this time we had 10 from our group and 4 riders self contained that were riding from Banff Alberta to Denver and they stopped at the cafe to warm up and get something to eat also.

I had a big bowl of Chili 2 pieces of corn bread and 2 cups of hot coffee.  I usually do not drink coffee after my breakfast, but with the cold temperatures today it hit the spot.

After we finished eating we had 20 miles to go direct into the strong wind.  It was really a struggle for many and we took turns taking a turn up front.  The group split and myself and Margo ended up sharing the load, until she became tired and I was getting stronger from the food and pulled her and another rider we picked up along the way into town and the motel.

I guess the wind god took revenge on us today after having so many days with the wind at our back, and we all said that at some point this would happen and today was it.

Tomorrow is scheduled for another 80 something mile day and it will be another tough day if the winds continue to blow directly out of the south as we are heading to Riverton.

That is it for today.