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Beartooth
5 Year Anniversary Ride The Ultimate Challenge |
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| The Brothers: Larry, Les, Len, Bert | |
| Day 1 - Left Jackson Hole Wyoming after an overnight stay at the Virginian Lodge and a trip to the famous Cowboy Bar for traditional beers. Entered Grand Teton National Park - stopped at Jenny Lake after six mile steep ride up Signal Mountain. Hiked around lake for 2-1/2 hours - waterfalls and wildlife - rode on to Coulter Bay - great dinner and rustic cabins at the Grand Teton Lodge - 40 miles. | |
| Day 2 - 60 mile ride, Coulter to Lake Yellowstone. Entered Yellowstone Park - rode through Lewis River Canyon and climbed to Continental Divide at 8000 feet. Days Highlights: Moose (up close) deer and buffalo - up and down terrain with some difficult climbs - sulfur pits - waterfalls - dinner at Yellowstone Hotel with chamber music in lobby. We stayed in yellow "Stalag 17” style cabins. | |
| Day 3 - Lake Yellowstone to Cody, Wyoming - 75 miles. Our first of many days of horrible head winds. Long day that finished at 6:00 p.m. - 10 hours of riding, but we made it in time to attend the local rodeo - first time experience for all of us - great evening! | |
| Day 4 - 80 miles - Cody, Wyoming to Red Lodge Montana - 11 hour ride - crossed the desert - major head winds - 3 mile climb - 8 degree grade in a driving rainstorm. Arrived exhausted at Rock Creek Resort - first class accommodations with the best dinner of the trip. Rained in the evening with a double rainbow. Sleeping by 11:00 p.m. in preparation for the "The Beartooth Climb". | |
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Day 5 - 65
miles - The Beartooth is considered the most beautiful road in
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| Day 6 - 55 miles - fabulous day - went into Yellowstone Park again, biked through Lamar Valley - vast picturesque rolling hills on one side - mountains on the other. Boulder fields - lakes, rivers, herds of Buffalo. One actually crossed the road in front of us, quite a sight - Lunch at Teddy Roosevelt Lodge. | |
| Day 7 - We experienced wind gusts up to 35 miles per hour that almost knocked us off our bikes. Great last stop at the Midway Geyser Basin. We finally arrived exhausted after a 12 hour day at Old Faithful Inn at 7:15 p.m. The Inn was built in 1904 - log cabin style - great dinner. Saw Old Faithful at 10:30 p.m. and then the next morning before we left. | |
| Day 8 - Old Faithful to Jackson Lake Lodge - 60 miles - another day of strong head winds that seemed to follow us no matter what direction we went!! We passed over the Continental Divide (8400 feet) on three different occasions (long climbs followed by some great down hills). We made it into Jackson Lodge at 4:00 p.m. (an all time early arrival time for us). Beautiful Lodge facing the Grand Teton Mountain Range. Enjoyed our final dinner before our return to reality. | |
| Special Comments: Thanks from Larry to Les for the bike mirror - too bad Larry fell off his bike in the parking lot and broke it on day 3!!! | |
| Les' Father-in-Law passed away on Friday. Les flew back one night early (took three connections and midnight special back to Cleveland for the funeral). | |
| Les thought he lost his wallet on Friday at breakfast and spent 1/2 hour in the garbage. Len found it on his bike - a disturbing day for Les due to the news he had earlier received, but he carried on the rest of the day. | |
| The group - this was our smallest group ever - 9 total - the 4 Janis Brothers and 4 other guys and 1 girl. Three were marathon runners and 1 triathathlete. We were the 4 oldest, but we also had the most fun. | |
| Most raisins consumed (after a 3 day total abstinence) Larry easily overtook Lenny for the championship - 5th year in a row. | |
| Food consumption per day - unbelievable - average breakfast - 4 slices of French toast, fruit, cinnamon rolls, eggs, etc, etc. Average dinners - beer, appetizers, main course, large desserts. In between - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, figs, cookies, bananas, cliff bars, energy bars, granola bars, etc. etc. | |
| Most Advil - Larry - 12 a day - no contest. | |
| Most significant change in one year - Les went from the warmest to the coldest!! Either male menopause or he should gain back the 10 lbs. he lost!! | |
| Most pages read of a novel over 9 nights - Les - 8 pages. | |
| Most wildlife seen on any of our other 4 trips - Pica, Ground Squirrels, Buffalo, Elk, Moose, Mule Deer, Coyote, Trumpeter Swan, and one Jackalope. | |
| Best Conditioned - Bert and Lenny as usual - Les was in his best shape ever - The important fact: We all finished every mile on our bikes. | |
| Special Thanks: | |
| Lenny - once again provided us with fabulous gortex, light weight, rain jackets. A special surprise was the four matching shirts with our pictures on the back from last year's Alaska trip. | |
| Bert - thanks again for taking all the pictures of our trip. They've always been spectacular and very much appreciated. | |
| Lenny - another great job of video taking - lots of shooting while riding this year. | |
| Barb and Paulina (our support team) took pictures of the four of us once again. We were promised the cover of next year's Timberline edition!! | |
| Larry - discontinued all stress drugs other than Advil - did not call into voice mail for seven straight days - best he has felt since Alaska. | |
| Major Complaints: | |
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Len - "I can't ride behind Larry; he weaves too much, shifts too often, and has an erratic pace". |
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Bert - "The lighting is not right for a camera shot". |
| Les - "It's too cold." | |
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Larry - See lengthy supplement issue to follow. |
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Beer expert - Bert - knows
every micro brewery in
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| This was our most difficult bike trip ever - 500 miles of riding with no rest days and the hardest climbs that we ever will do again. The scenery was magnificent and the days were more than challenging. Most of all, we enjoyed each others companionship and a special spirit that each of these trips generates between us. | |
| Wherever we go - we all promised to be together again next year. | |