The Rise Up Ride: Day 37, Up and Into Yellowstone and Bears
Date: 29 May 2021
Start Location: Clearwater NFS Campground
End Location: Canyon Campground, Yellowstone
Distance: 76 km
Time: 4:24
Total elapsed: 7:41
Elevation: 572 m
Remind me not to ride a bicycle in Yellowstone National Park during Memorial Day weekend, if ever again. The place was designed for vehicles. The National Park Service should prioritize all of their locations for visitors on two wheels, two feet, or four hoofs. I'm sick and tired of drivers who think that they need to bring an RV-full of their things and require five meters of road width to experience nature. Rant over. I've arrived at the Canyon Campground and will stay for three nights to explore, rest, and wait until Tuesday to ride out of the Park when the roads are safer.
With my bear spray strapped across my chest, I ascended Sylvan Pass early. Near the top, the wonderful bear photographer and campground host, Walt, pulled over and offered me a lift to near the summit. Because of the distance between "softsided" campgrounds, today was going to be a really long dash into the Canyon Campground near the center of the Park. They call these people "trail angels" for a reason.
Walt knows all the grizzlies and told me about Snow, Rasberry's cub last year. I spotted her on the hillside near Yellowstone Lake and got a good shot of her running from her dangerous boar of a father who wants to kill and eat her. Teenagers and their fathers!
All the campsites in Yellowstone were grabbed up months ago online, unless you hike in or roll up on a bicycle. Pedaling past the "CAMPGROUND FULL" sign I flashed my Senior Golden NPS card and scored a lovely site for $5 a night in the "hiker/biker" section, all by myself. The downside is that the showers are closed due to COVID, but I found an open wifi signal in the nearby lodge and am, in all aspects, a "happy camper."
I'll plan my next destination tomorrow and will probably head out the South Entrance in one long ride, rather than taking two days on the longer loop due to the lack of bear-safe campgrounds this early in the season. Eating, writing and resting in the pines is heavenly.
