Alright, as I said yesterday, today we went to Craters of the Moon National Monument in the morning. Pretty interesting place, here are some photos:

Here’s Adrian being himself:

And here’s another shot:

Here’s a tree I thought would look cool in black & white:

And another I thought looked great as it was:

Then there was the cone we climbed:

Yep, that’s three people at the very top, starting their way back down. That’s where we’re headed!

Here’s a view from the top:

And another:

See all the smoke from the fires? And they’re over 50 miles away! And yet another shot, showing the cone from the side – if you use your imagination, you can see the people climbing it. It’s BIG!

That’s right, those tiny blips from a third of the way in from the left, to just right of the middle, are people climbing it.

After this we had lunch, so The Bear and I could go exploring for places to ride. Sun Valley is out, because it’s all burned up! A lot of the riding areas are what’s on fire. Well, we headed North toward the Challis Ranger Station to see what we could find. On the way up, we found another Ranger Station in Mackay, so we stopped there, got some direction, and then kept going. Interesting countryside. It’s all pretty much National Forest, but there are hardly any trees! How can it be a forest if it doesn’t have any trees? How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat? Get the reference? Anybody? I know Rob gets it!

In Challis, we also stopped at an Interpretive Center, where I saw this very Jules Verne-esque-looking thing:

Atomic power and a nineteenth century rocket! WOW! What a place!

Ok, we got maps, got a booklet, got a book. And basically got told that there is NO singletrack for us to ride, just roads, doubletrack, ATV trails, and motorcycle trails. Loverly. Oh, well, I guess tomorrow we try to figure out what we do.

Oh, yeah – another thing, just ’cause it’s bugging me. Anybody see a problem here?

Yeah, the door misses the toilet by about an inch. Almost EVERY KoA does this. I asked a maintenance guy at one of them (My beloved Yellowstone one – YES, that is sarcasm – I HATED the one in West Yellowstone – it had WiFi that was CRAP) and he said: “Well, this way you don’t accidentally hit someone when you open the door”. To which I replied: “Yes, and instead, you purposely hit EVERYONE who uses the toilet. Good design!” You can’t get in our out without doing the Lambada with that door. Genius! Pure freaking genius! I honestly think they never ask real people their opinion on these matters, because I can’t believe ANYONE would say “Oh, yeah, I LOVE doing the Lambada with the bathroom door every time I go in or out of there! Especially when I’m in a hurry!” Yeah, I bet LOTS of people think that … NOT! Ok, rant done. For now …

Ok, not really. There’s the showers. You’ve seen those nail beds in the cartoons? Well, that’s pretty much what they have you standing on while in the shower. Wear some footwear. BUT, at least you can fix that – what you can’t fix is the shower head. It sprays in a REALLY big circle, which means it sprays everything around you … but not YOU. Ok, you pull it down … and the top few streams will hit you, while the rest just spray everywhere else in the stall. Basically, you need to run around in circles to get wet. Ok, rant REALLY done. For now …

Ok, today we’re going to try something old, something new. Well, ok, TECHNICALLY, it’s something new, something old, but that doesn’t … never mind!

So, today, we’re going to leave camp, ride towards town about a mile where we drop off the highway onto one of the forest roads, we’ll take that out to the Continental Divide trail, which we will pick up further West than we went the other day, eventually hitting it where we DID go the other day, and returning pretty much as we did back then. Sounds like  plan!

The ride starts out well. Most all of our rides start out well, it’s always somewhat later that the wheels come off of it to some degree or another. This ride, it’s about two miles up the Forest Service Road, about three miles from the start. The trail on the map, the trail on the GPS, AND the trail we are actually on, all diverge. What to do, what to do? Well, in the case of The Bill and Barri Show, it usually involves a lot of screaming, gesturing, name-calling … there’s a reason it’s called “The Bill and Barri Show”, folks! It’s quite entertaining if you’re a spectator, or so I surmise.

Anyway, we come to an intersection where The Bear says “No way in HELL I’m going THAT way, so tell me the right way is the other trail”. And I say “Well, you know, as luck would have it, I do believe the trail we need IS the one you’d rather take”. Or something kind of along those lines. There were probably a lot more words, and most of those probably not fit for a family discussion, but we’ll just leave it where it is. So off we go! The trail actually starts to level off – did I forget to mention that these last two miles have been nothing but climbing? I mean  NOTHING but climbing! Kind of like this:

Yeah, I know, it doesn’t look too bad in the photo. It NEVER looks real bad in the photo!

Ok, it levels off, and then … woohoo! We start descending! A long, long, FAST descent … about half way down, I start to get a bit of a knot in my stomach … any trail that goes down … has to go back up. ARGH!!! Ok, at the bottom, I catch Sonny, and ask him to take the map out of my Camelback. We start looking at it when I get a phone call. OMG! Is it the IRS? Oh, god! IT’S WORSE! It’s The Bear! “Stop! Barri, STOP where you are – Do NOT come down here” “No shit, Sherlock”, or some such answer, I don’t recall. Bottom line? Sonny and I have to climb back out (The Bear only had to go about a third of the way down to figure something was wrong and stop), and as we look at the map at the top of the hill, we hit a very hard realization – the route we need to take is the trail that The Bear absolutely, positively did NOT want to take. Oh well, she grins and BEARS it (pun fully intended), and heads on up that hill, on foot, bike in tow. We ALL walk it, it’s that bad. It looks like a riverbed, but of course, it can’t be, but it has all the rocks and ruts of a riverbed. Another mile, and it gets better, and then, at the top of the hill – WOOHOO! THE CDT!!!! The Continental Divide Trail! We made it! I was so happy, I took a photo:

The ride back is fairly uneventful, no huge climbs (or maybe we’re just used to them), and a lot of fun coasting downhill, especially the last mile, the one we did the other day. Here are a couple of shots of it:

And this one a bit later:

Today, we actually get on the highway like a real vehicle, and pedal our little hearts out down the mountain. I’m not sure how fast I was going down the hill, but when we got to the flat (which is still slightly downhill) I was doing 36 mph in my big chainring, my little feetsies going just as fast as they could! As it totally flattened out, so did my speed, dropping to 25, and then to 20, until we made it back to camp. WHEW! Another ride down!

LET’S GO TO THE SLIPPERY OTTER! Yup, a huge pizza and salad, a couple of Guinesses or more, and life is good again! And just to remind you what our new favorite place looks like:

Rest tonight, tomorrow is a travel day. We were planning on going to Sun Valley, but those plans have changed – it’s on fire! Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention? We smelled smoke all day today, as there are forest fires North of us, and the wind is blowing the smoke our way. I think they’re getting them under control, but Idaho still has some real issues. We may have to alter even more of our plans.

Today, we ride again! And we ride the same place we rode yesterday! We want to see the rest of this place, as yesterday was so much fun, we want to see what else there is. Here are some shots:

The ride was hard, but it was fun, and that is all that really counts. Of course, after the ride … what shall we do? Why, let’s find a good place to eat! The Barbecue place is out, as they are WAY too proud of their food, and surely some other place also has Guinness on tap. And some other place does – he Slippery Otter Pub! AND good food, well priced! Hit the damned trifecta here! Sonny and I have Fish and Chips, The Bear has a burger, and we all have a couple of brews. First I try something else, as does Sonny, but soon we realize that NOTHING else is a Guinness, so we mend our wicked ways and go to good old tried-and-true. Ahhh … NOTHING tastes as good as a good Guinness well poured! We eat lots and we eat late, so off to camp and bed it is, for tomorrow, another trail awaits! Oh yeah, here’s a photo of the Slippery Otter:

They’ve got burgers, Guinness on tap, pizza, Guinness on tap, salads, oh, and did I mention they have Guinness on tap? Yeah – they have Guinness on tap. Yet another favorite place!

Alright, today we ride again! We’re going to go out and try to find some trails we found on a map, the Cabin Creek Trail and the Cub Trail. They’re supposed to meet with each other , five miles each, as an out-and-back, so a possibility of doing twenty miles! Off we go!

Ok, it was interesting. First of all, Sonny (Junior was confusing, because that’s the truck’s name, so … sorry, Adrian, your nickname gets changed!) decided he wanted to ride into town, and then – why not – all the way out to the trailhead. Ok, no problem, we got some things squared away at camp and headed out. Caught Sonny about five miles out of town, with about 18 to go to the trailhead, so we just blasted past him with nary a wave, onward to find BOTH trailheads so we’d know the scoop on them. Found the first one, so we went hunting for the second … and hunting … and hunting. Well, we must not be very good hunters, ’cause we never found it, so back we went top get Sonny, but first I had to get past this guy:

Anyway, I got past that guy and headed back. Sonny had just left the first trailhead towards the second, and we stopped him at the highway, to go back and start the ride. The trail looked as though it had never seen a bike, so we got a little hesitant and asked Sonny to go have a look. He came back in about ten minutes with the verdict – it’s a hiking trail, not a bike trail, and it’s narrow, with a steep drop-off – I’M OUTA HERE! The decision was made to go back towards town and investigate the trail situation. Besides, this is REALLY bear country, as a couple of weeks ago a pop-up trailer (like ours) was ravaged by a bear looking for food. Not really the place to hang out. Don’t believe me? Here’s the sign:

We headed back to the ranger station to get some maps – they were gone to lunch. Ok, good idea, let’s US go to lunch. On the way in to town, we saw a place advertising Tapas and Paella – Mmmmmm! Let’s GO! Yeah, but they’re closed … until five. Ok, we’ll be back at five. Had a quick bite at a pizza place, and noticed the place across the street had Guinness on tap – always something to look out for. We will be back there later! Went to the ranger station to get maps and advice, talked to some VERY nice rangers who gave us all sorts of info, and who talked us into trying the local ski trails, as they are much flatter thn everything else out here. It’s called the Rendezvous Trail, and it’s a series of loops that are used for cross-country skiing in the winter. Pretty cool, and VERY nice! I wish we’d known about these the whole time! GREAT training loops! So, we did a couple of loops and decided to go back to Beartooth Barbecue for that Guinness! Great brew after a ride, and we finished up … just before five! Let’s go have Spanish food! No, that’s not a euphemism for Mexican food, REAL Spanish food!

The place is called Cafe Madriz, and it is owned by a rather young Spanish lass, who is VERY hospitable. They ask first if you have a reservation, but we got seated even though we did not. We ordered a pitcher of Sangria, a meat and cheese sampler, and the Paella for two. Yes, there were three of us, but we’d just had a hydraulic sandwich (the Guinness), and we were also having the sampler platter. Great choices, it was definitely enough food. The menu tells you it’s going to take 30 minutes for you to get your food, because there is no pre-prep. It is all made after you order it, the way it should be. We did not mind the wait, the sampler platter came out fairly fast (it’s not hard to slice up meats and cheeses), as did the sangria, and then, a half hour later, the Paella! I have a photo I will post. Ok, I’m somewhere where the WiFi works, so here it is:

This is some of the best, if not THE best Paella I have ever had! Ohhhhh…. and then of course dessert – Sonny and The Bear had a Tarta de Santiago, a sort of cupcake made with almond flour, and I had the Crema Catalana, which is sort of a Creme Brulee. Oohhhhh … EXCELLENT! Here’s the photo of those … well … I remembered AFTER we’d bit into them … a bit … quite … a … bit:

Absolutely excellent! Everything was excellent! If ever I return, I hope they are still here, because it’s number one on my list! If you are ever here, make SURE you make it part of your visit. Very well worth the trip! Damned near orgasmic, it is! Best. Food. Ever. Or really, really close!

Another cold night:

BUT – the heater worked! Not REALLY well, but it was probably 45 or maybe even 50 when we awoke! Beats yesterday! Today, the boys were still out, though they were kind of trying to dig in. Never got that cold, so life is good!

Today, another day of sightseeing, this time the upper loop! We saw a few animals, but not that many … I’m starting to wonder if maybe they only have a few they trot out for the tourists!

I’ll post the photos later, this KoA (West Yellowstone) is crap for WiFi, it’s all I can do to post text, and I want to keep this up to date as much as possible.

Ok, it’s now Monday, and we’re at a KoA in Arco, Idaho that has REAL WiFi, that really works, so here go the photos!

Here is Gibbon Falls close up:

And here’s another shot of them, with a wider view:

And here is a view of the valley below the falls:

Yes, very nice views! Here’s a different angle:

A bit after this, we saw some elk:

This boy is like me – hasn’t missed any meals, check out that gut!

A bit later, we saw some weird landscape:

Those were at the Norris Geyser Field.

Ran into some road construction – I’ll spare you the photos, it looks just like any other road construction, but while waiting for Sonny (yeah, I’m referencing a later post … don’t you hate when people do that?), I got a shot of these bison in a wallow, with one of them actually wallowing:

He looked like he was having a grand old time!

That was pretty much it for the Upper Loop.

Have you ever heard a guy say something like “It was sooooo cold, I like to froze my ‘nads off!”

Yeah … NO. When it gets cold, those babies go for warmth, and the only place resembling warmth, if it’s REALLY cold, is UP. Those babies retract like the landing gear on a 747! How do I know that? Because this morning, it’s 34 degrees outside the trailer, and MAYBE 35 degrees INSIDE. Where is the heater? Doesn’t have one! BUT – Willy is clever – he brought an electric one! And it is nice and safe inside one of the cabinets! Where are MY ‘nads? Yeah. Not even a crow bar will bring those babies out today, at least not until the temperature rises a couple dozen degrees. Damn! It’s COLD! I think my voice has risen an octave or two, as well. That should return when the boys do.

Eventually we make it out, mostly because nature calls, and, even though wetting yourself sounds like a welcome proposition right now (well, it WOULD warm us up a bit, though VERY temporarily, and then it would be even worse!), it just doesn’t appeal as an option, so throw on the warmest clothes we brought (not much – it’s summer!) and grin and bear it. Later – FIX THE HEATER! Oh, because I forgot to mention – it works, but it makes noise, so will need “adjusting”.

Anyway, we decide to go for a ride at a very nearby trail – the Continental Divide Trail, which is just up the road from camp – three miles by highway, and then off-road! Woohoo! Except they’re working on the highway, right outside our camp. Well, they’re off-road bikes, so I take off down the side of the road, paralleling the highway, past the workmen, then get up on the closed section of road the rest of the way, until the end where there are more workers, and we hit the weeds again. Finally get to the top of the hill on the highway, the Continental Divide, and see a dirt road going off on both sides … we go right, mostly because that’s the side of the road we’re on. And we climb. And we climb. And we … did I mention we climbed? Do these people just not know how to follow contour lines? Really! Here’s a shot of what we had just come up:

Yes, we came up from that valley, and that was only about five miles ago, starting at camp! And three of those miles were highway! Ok, probably a third to half of the climb was also highway, but we still had to climb it! We got to the top … sort of … there WAS a downhill section, followed by a VERY steep uphill section, see?

Yeah, we sent Junior ahead to check it out, and the verdict was it just kept climbing, so we chickened out and rode back down. The downhill was almost fun, but this was very sandy soil, so you never really knew what the bike was going to do … kind of precarious riding, not really a lot of fun, though it WAS better than pedaling up the hill!

Ok, so we get to the bottom, and decide to check out the other side of the trail, across the highway. GREAT IDEA! We have singletrack! Of course, what does it do? It goes up. And up. And … ok, so you get the drift. It goes up. A lot. Maybe another couple of miles, but at this altitude (started at 6,500 and went to almost 8,000), it really hurts, but it was fun, and on this side, the downhill was a blast! Here is a shot of Junior at the top of the trail:

Ok, not really the top-top, but that was less than 100 yards from here, so this picture counts!

A great day of riding, if not that much distance. The road ride back was less exciting, though it did go a lot faster, being all downhill.

So, that was pretty much it for the day! No … wait … there was actually something else. We went into town to look around, and stumbled across a place called Big Gun Fun. They let you shoot all kinds of guns, and they kind of have them also set up as themes, like James Bond package lets you shoot several of the types of guns featured in various Bond films. What they also have, is machine guns! I’ve fired a machine gun before – actually a machine pistol (a Mac 10 in 9mm Luger, back when I was living in Austin in around 1975), but it was so long ago I hardly remember the event. Anyway … I’ve always been a fan of the Uzi, having come pretty close to buying one back in the 70s, but had never actually even touched one. Ok, for 50 bucks, I could actually put two magazines worth of ammo through one, 40 whole rounds, either semi-auto or full-auto, my choice. Truly an offer I could not pass up! So … here I am, getting ready:

And by the way, a funny thing here – I’m wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and it just so happens this particular gun was the one used by Don Johnson in Miami Vice! I thought it was a funny coincidence!

So, how did I do? You tell me – First magazine is the lower group, three shots in semi-auto, then four bursts of between three and five rounds. Second magazine was the top group, done full-auto, all in one burst, no stopping. I think it’s pretty good!

Ok, it’s official – rest day. Well, ok, not for Junior, but he’s on steroids. Or does he have hemorrhoids? I can’t remember – it’s either one of those, or neither. Regardless, he’s going to ride, and more power to him.

He was gone for a few hours, and ended up doing the trail we should have done, in the direction we SHOULD have done it. How was it? EASY, at least by comparison. It figures. And another thing that figures – he spoke with a few locals, and described what we had done the other day. Yeah, that’s right – NOBODY rides it that way, because it HURTS to do that. it’s MONGO impossible to ride it that way. Yeah, did I remember to tell you that NONE of the locals ride it that way? ‘Cause it’s HARD. And we KNEW not to ride it counter-clockwise. Yup, the clock is wise, we are not. Lesson learned. Until the next trail, that is!

Day done. The Bear and I went grocery shopping, and that was that.