Cody to Jackson, Wyoming

Yellowstone!

My ride from Cody to Jackson was to be my first pass through the Yellowstone National Park. After I left my motel and filled up with fuel there were 2 things I was worried about:

1. Running out of fuel
2. Bears

The first one was because I saw the distance to Jackson was very close to the maximum range of my bike. What if there were a lot of hills? Then I'd be stranded in the middle of nowhere. 

Which bought me to point #2; if I'm stranded in Yellowstone, how long would it take for a bear to find that cinnamon scroll I stole from my motel's breakfast? Should I buy some bear spray? What happens if I see a bear? Play dead? Stand my ground? Take photos? Kick him the nuts? Fuck me I should have done a bit of research last night. I'm like one of those dumb-ass tourists in Queensland who go swimming in the crocodile infested waters, or travels across the outback with fuck-all water and food.

Motherfucking Buffalo.

Luckily, right after after getting my 5 day Yellowstone pass at the toll booth, there appeared a service station. I asked one of the ubiquitous Harley riders what his range was on that thing. It was way less than mine, so how will he reach the other side? Turns out there a heaps of petrol stations throughout Yellowstone, I'd have no issues with fuel, I just pay through the nose for it.

I then found some bear spray in the local store. $50? Fuck that I'll just take my chances. Mind you it might come in handy in the dodgy areas of NYC... Oh by the way, for ignorant people like I was, bear spray isn't like "bear repellent" (which is pretty fucking funny), it's just really powerful pepper spray.

One of the many falls in Yellowstone.

The start of the ride was actually pretty damn cold, but luckily for me I remembered that my awesome bike has built-in hand warmers! It did to start to warm up later on however.

What happens in Yellowstone is that you follow a massive glut of tourist traffic going at a super slow speed through some very pretty areas. Eventually you get the shits and overtake 10 cars at a time (what's better than Yellowstone scenery - seeing Yellowstone scenery at the speed limit!), but you have to be careful, there are rangers everywhere. 

Every now and then there will be cars randomly parked all over the place, and the traffic slows down to 0.01 miles per hour. This happens when some well-sighted tourist spots some wildlife. But the great thing is that you can use everyone else's eyes to find the allusive Yellowstone fauna!

Gawkers waiting to see
Old Faithful go off.

Rather than going all the way to Jackson, I took a detour to go see the "Old Faithful" geyser; possibly the most famous geyser in the world. The thing goes off every 45 minutes or so. I found the surrounding area is pretty crazy though, there is a huge infrastructure around a tiny little hole that explodes water every now and then. There is a massive carpark, cafeterias, lodges etc. And it is needed, there were a lot of people there - took me quite a while to find a place for my bike. 

I walked down the the geyser where I saw hundreds of people just sitting around waiting. Surely there must be some schedule, right? Well anyway one of the rangers was talking about the thing so I went and listened in. Apparently Yellowstone is one of these weird geological anomalies where there is volcanic activity but the area is not near a fault (like Japan or Hawaii). These areas are called "hotspots". When the volcano eventually goes off in Yellowstone it'll be epic. But the most useful part of the talk: The geyser goes off in 45 minutes, plus or minus 10. Off to lunch!

I came back to the viewing stands at t-minus 10 minutes to the famous geographical ejaculation. It went off pretty much on time, and at that point there were hundreds more people than before. And it went pretty high I guess, maybe 30 feet?

Old Faithful's all like: "Eurrrruglllllaahhh"

Once Old Faithful had finished I headed to Jackson.

Not before getting very tired photo of myself near some waterfall!

Once I hit Jackson I rang Fay (someone I met in Laramie) to determine where I was staying that night. Apparently she was pretty sick, but luckily my super friendly couch surfing host for the next night was available to put me up a night earlier.

More Yellowstone to break up the text!

April was my first host that obviously did this sort of thing a lot. She had a printed sheet answering all the possible questions of surfers, had a big basket of towels and already had a surfer in the top room. April had a job where she would be away for a few days, so I only got to chat with her for a 20 minutes or so before she left. 

That night I went and had a few beers with Chris; April's temporary housemate. We did ask the other surfer if she wanted to come out too - but she was only 20. I realized then how much it must suck to travel in America between the ages of 18-20, no going to bars! We went to a dive bar or sorts (again, dive bars are pretty nice over in the US) where you eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. Chris and I played a few games of pool - which he flogged me at - then we headed back home.

A long fucking day that one!