Monday night, August 11, 2003
Now that we had gas, it was 10:00 p.m. and we turned south to head back to Jackson. The sky to the east was glowing a hellish red from a forest fire. The roads were dark & winding, so Julie and I followed Andy's Saturn to give us a better chance if we hit something. There were animals everywhere. We kept seeing large white asses of deer bounding through the brush. A wolf crossed the road right in front of us, and later a fox did the same. Moose were lumbering around, and of course, buffalo. Smaller creature's eyes lit up along the roadside like marbles. The moon was strong, and it cast silver light on the steam venting out of the ground. There were strange noises everywhere. You could hear the hissing of steam, along with the bubbling mud and wild animal calls. I was beginning to understand why there were hardly any other vehicles on the road. But the Harley rumbled along. We never exceeded thirty miles per hour, and we were on the edge of our seats the whole time. The temperature dropped and added a chill to the night.
We slowed down even more for flashing lights ahead. A moose lay in the dead in the road next to a medium sized car that was totally wrecked. We could see the silhouettes of some kids were standing in front of the police car's headlights. It seems that many more moose than buffalo get hit by cars, even thought the buffalo are more abundant.
We were able to pick up a little more speed heading out of Yellowstone and going past the Tetons . Now you could really see glow from the fires to the east of the mountains.
It was around 2:00 a.m. when we rolled back into Jackson. We'd all had a great day and a night ride I hope I will never forget.
Tuesday August 12th, 2003
243 miles
Alas, all good things must end. We had now reached the point in our trip where we had to start heading back, so we got a slow start in the morning. The Harley's odometer showed that we had traveled 2663 miles since we left Eau Claire. The return journey did promise some adventure, however. We visited Ray's place and then loaded out.
Andy was staying in Jackson to work for the rest of the summer. Julie and I loaded up the Harley for our return journey. Paco and the girls flew back to Wisconsin and we saw them off at the airport.
Then we headed back north through Yellowstone, and around Yellowstone Lake to head towards Cody. On the way out of Yellowstone, we had to weave between more buffalo.
I was glad my bike didn't look like this one, from Sturgis. If one of those bulls fell in love with the bike, it could be an uncomfortable situation for all participants.
As we left Yellowstone, we stopped to watch firefighters in a helicopter scooping water out of a lake and dumping it on the fire. The amount of water they dumped looked like a teaspoon compared to the size of the fire. We drove on some more, and finally the long days and nights caught up with me. When I start feeling exhausted, I like to get off the road and have a snooze. Julie said some people stopped while I was asleep and asked if I was dead.
Before we reached Cody, we passed the Wild Bill Reservoir on the Shoshone River. There were pelicans in the water, and not a person in sight. The road went through a tunnel carved in the mountain. On that stretch, we got 56.7 miles per gallon! Of course, it had been downhill all the way since we left Jackson that morning.
As we headed east of Cody, there was a vast expanse of flatland with nothing but rocks, scrub, and sagebrush. The bike seemed to be losing power. I had to give it more and more gas to keep going. We could see the Bighorn mountains up ahead. I was a little worried because I didn't want to breakdown out here. We hadn't seen a car for hours. Eventually I realized that we were going uphill. When we got close to the Bighorns, I could see a flash of concrete at an impossible height on the mountain. That was the road! We shifted into low gear and climbed the Medicine Wheel Pass. When we got to the top, we watched a beautiful sunset from the plateau.
There was water bubbling out of the ground, but I didn't drink any because I didn't know if it was any good. Later I was told that the water was so good, the locals travel there to get some. The Bighorn Mountains have a huge (at least 30 miles) grassland plateau at the top. Even though the speed limit was 65, we went about 40 miles per hour due to the darkness. At one point, a huge buck with a non-typical rack stepped right in front of us. We stopped and looked at each other. He stood still and looked majestic in the bike's headlights, then he walked away. We thought about camping but we were also thinking about beer & pizza. After about fifteen miles of pure darkness, we saw a neon beer sign in the trees! It was called the Bear Lodge, and it was like a rustic paradise up in God's country. We got a room for the night and hung out in the bar, talking to the friendly patrons and enjoying beer and pizza. It was a wonderful evening and further proof of my theory that some of the best times are completely unplanned.