Day 46, July 30, Madison (Yellowstone, WY) to Gallatin NF, Montana

Waking up was a bit of a struggle, but necessary.

We said goodbye and goodluck to some of the other bikers at our campsite, ate some oatmeal that had survived another night without bear attack, and set off for our last 16 miles of Yellowstone. I don't think either of us thought we would be stopping, but we did, at least 4 times, along with about 40 cars who had just entered the park through the West Gate, to strain and stare to get glimpses of the bald eagles who were perching, swooping, and of course, eyeing.

Feeling more American by the minute and very satisfied to have seen this majestic US creature, we exited the park into West Yellowstone, Montana. Definitely a tourist town, we dropped A's bike off at the woman-run bike shop that served delicious coffee (certainly the best smelling bike shop we've ever entered- go chicks!), then headed to the library to do some research on ending our trip, got kicked off there pretty quick and went to an internet cafe of sorts, ate some tasty slow food lunch from Tubby's Bakery, hit the grocery, where we ran into 3 bicyclists (from New Hampshire and CO) that we had camped with the night before who were ending their trip there, then back to the bike shop. We found Jay there, sipping his coffee, and doing what we have often done, trying to cut miles off of the TransAm. He ultimately decided to skip Montana, and head across Idaho directly to Baker City so that he could eventually ride down to San Fran before his time was up. So we said our goodbyes (it is a little sad to leave the familiar on this trip) and headed off into our first Montana vistas.

The first 10 miles were slightly downhill, but soon we turned into the wind and the winds. Montana is probably the most accurately described state I have been through, and the beautiful lakes, fields of cattle, and vast low-lying (seemingly so) mountains make for a grand view. Our route took us by Hegben Lake which butts right up against the mountains, which began to interlock and overlap like finger joints as we approached the tip of this massive lake.

You start to see the juxtaposition of agriculture and tourism in the state even in these first few miles, sometimes they seem to be in harmony- everyone likes to fly fish, and sometimes they seem to butt heads.

We were pretty tired, so when we came upon a campsite with showers (it had been since Dubois) and a cafe for breakfast the following day, we decided to end our day even though we had only gone about 40 miles.

We camped right by the Madison River. I did some much needed yoga, Andy went down to the lake and did some writing, then we cooked our dinner of Chinese noodles, jiffy pop, bananas, and bagged pink salmon. Bed called out to us, so after exploring the banks of the river a bit with some ice cream (of course!) and showering, we said goodnight to all and to all a good night!