Day 15 (Friday, 11-4-2011): Wyoming border to Falls Campground

Teton Pass looking down to Jackson

Wow – what a way to start the day. A good, hour and fifteen minute long climb to 8431' at the top of Teton Pass with a max gradient of 10%! These climbs keep getting higher and harder! The descents keep getting better too... I hit a max of 48.1mph in about as aero of a position as I could get on a full loaded touring bike. I descended down into Jackson Hole, the valley made famous by the yearly world economic forum that takes place here in a resort (I guess skiers would say it's made famous by it's world class ski slopes but I can't vouch for that having only been downhill skiing once). The city of Jackson itself was definitely a bit of a tourist and resort town and was pretty bustling.

Ansel Adams, or Brett Kielick?

Ansel Adams, or Brett Kielick?

I continued on through Teton National Forest along the side of the highway (the bike path that parallels it which was perfectly useable is closed down for seven months of the year for some unknown reason with no trespassing signs at every entrance). A lot of spectacular views of the 'les Trois Tétons ' as the French-Candadian trappers originally called the Cathedral Group. Hopefully my pictures do them justice. Certainly not Ansel Adams quality that's for sure, but I did get a picture from near where he took one of his famous black and white photos overlooking the Snake River. Can you tell which one is a film masterpiece and which one is a Photoshop hack job? Hahaha!!!

Elk 'jump'

Another interesting feature along the highway was a high fence meant to keep elk safe from traffic (and vice-versa). Specially built 'elk jumps' are placed on the highway side every so often to provide migrating elk the opportunity to get into the wildlife reservation for the winter, but not back out again.

As I approached Togwotee Pass, the highest point that I anticipate climbing on my trip at over 9500', I stopped at a ranger station to see if there were any campgrounds along the way. The ranger that I spoke with was very friendly and gave me a map and pointed me to two different campgrounds, one eight miles away and the other twenty-two. As it was only around 4:45 when I left, I decided to push on to the further one as he said it might have working power outlets even though it was technically closed for the season. It also had a nice scenic overlook of a waterfall. Although at a very high elevation, the climbing was a very gradual two or three percent grade most of the way. Construction was going on for a few miles of the road, and like before, they were working on the whole width of the road at once. This entailed a five or ten minute wait along with a (short) string of cars looking to go over the pass while a group of cars came the other direction. I got a ride in a construction worker's pickup through the construction zone (which wasn't bad and I could have ridden it easily and safely). It was about a three mile detour and the with the time I spent waiting I probably didn't really gain or lose any time.

Once I started biking again, my progress was pretty slow as not only was I fighting gravity, a pretty steady and stiff headwind was blowing against me. Frustrated that I would have to bike yet again in the dark to make my destination and resigned to the fact, I gave up fighting the wind and soft-pedaled the remaining mileage at a sub-four mile an hour pace – slower than I biked up some of the 7%+ grades earlier in the trip. I arrived at the campground and scouted out the RV site but the electricity was turned off on that side. On the camping side, there was only one electrical junction which was turned off but I found the main circuit breaker nearby which was unlocked and I turned it on. The spot near the junction wasn't tent-suitable (it had some high brush and grasses surrounding it) so I pitched my tent nearby. At the recommendation of the ranger, I placed my food and scented personal items (toothpaste, toothbrush, deoderant) in a steel bear box several camp sites away. It was a bit of a hassle to get stuff from it, but better than getting visited by a thousand pound hungry grizzly bear (Montana, small portions of Washington and Idaho, and Yellowstone/Grand Teton national parks being the only places in the lower 48 where grizzlies are found) in the middle of the night! The forecast for the night called for an inch or two of snow with snow and/or rain on Sunday. When I went to bed, my thought was to call tomorrow a snow/rest day, especially as I had electrical access.