I woke to the sound of constant rain, and so spent a leisurely morning in th etent. When the rain finally ended, I retrieved my food from the bear box, loaded up the bike, and set off. Again, I was pedaling familiar roads past familiar sights, and I quickly reached Flagg Ranch Campground, where I stopped for a drink.
While I was resting, I chatted with Mark, a biker from Montreal. Mark is riding the Great Divide mountain bike route -- though he had travelled off course to tour the parks. The Great Divide is an off-road route that follows, well, the continental divide. I've seen some of the roads the route takes, and they basically follow the roads. Seems like a strange way to tour the Rockies -- riding next to the road instead of on it.
I said goodbye and headed off, and within minutes I had entered Yellowstone, America's first national park.
Most of my ridiing in Yellowstone passed through the burned-out forests that once contained deep forests of Lodgepole Pine. The pine forests have a natural life cycle of about 80 years, after which the trees begin to dry out. This makes them more susceptible to fire and allows the forest to create a Phoenix-like renewal, with younger forest springing out of the burned out wasteland.
Unfortunately, the park system tried to prevent this natural cycle for many years, opting instead to preserve the older forests for the enjoyment of tourists. Eventually, Yellowstone's forests became quite dry, and an extremely dry summer in 1988 resulted in about 36% of the park burning. At first the park only fought manmade fires, but by the middle of the summer the situation had become so dire that firefighters began fighting all of the fires, including those caused by lightning.
Below are some pictures of Yellowstone. You'll notice that the trees that have sprung up in the fire's wake are very small, even after 13 years of growing. That's because Yellowstone's winters are so severe, and therefore the growing season for the park is very short.
The Lewis River
A road through a barren wasteland of burned-out pine
The day's ride ended with a climb over the continental divide -- this time at 7,988 feet. From there I enjoyed a gradual downhill to Grant Village, where I again secured a hiker/biker site for the night. I had dinner and called some friends, then hit the tent for another night of rain.