The camping begins
Tonight is the first night of real camping. We're sitting next to a fire, at Nelson Creek campground on the banks of the Shoshone River (probably misspelled -- I don't have the spelling in front of me) around 20 miles outside of Yellowstone. A moose walked within 20 yards of our tent.
A quick shower passed over us. It wasn't enough to put the fire out so we're devoting the last of our scrounged (and now slightly damp) firewood to re-stoke it in the dimming light as the sun heads over the ridge beyond the river.
Today was a fun day. We started off packing up our gear and having a breakfast burrito at the Cam-Plex where the rally was. After that was a pretty uneventful ride up Buffalo, WY on I-90. It started off through the ranches that we had grown accustomed to, then moved on to mountainous high desert, which is beautiful in its own way. It's not the sand that you envision when you think desert, but a soft sage-green scrub.
From there we went off-roadin'. We had a lead from a few months back about Crazy Woman Canyon Road. We decided to ride up it. It was almost beyond what I could handle. Not enough to dump the bike though, thanks to the training from Cornerspin. Nothing quite like slippin' and slidin' in and out of ruts on dirt and gravel with Crazy Woman Creek just off to the side to get your blood flowin'. All's well that end well, eh? Overall we gained around 3000 feet of altitude in around 5 miles of dirt and switchbacks. This is very likely the most technical terrain we'll encounter this trip.
You have to understand that the Canyon Road was unbelievably beautiful. We stopped a couple of times to let the poor engine cool off a bit (low speeds, low gear, up hill...) and got to truly take in the fresh mountain air, the gently babbling creek, the brilliantly colored wild flowers, the towering colorful walls of rock... This was the kind of thing I was hoping to see. The approach was even breathtaking. We curved along flat gravel roads through sprawling ranch after ranch surrounded by snowy mountain peaks. We even saw some antelope and mule deer along the way. Oh, and a friendly 3-legged dog, his brother, and his people.
After we had our fill of dirt for the day, we headed into Cody the pointed the bike towards Yellowstone. We figured we wouldn't get a good campsite in Yellowstone proper, so we stopped about 20 miles short. Which is where we're writing this up. With a roaring fire in the background and the sound of the river behind us. Sipping some scotch.
Life is good.