Day 22- Flagg Ranch

I got up early again and immediately went to see if my Choco milks were still in the river. Phew, they were still there.. 😅. I fished them out as if prized trout.

I then went through my routine of getting packed up, when suddenly behind a bush near my tent what looked to be a young skunk showed itself. I backed away slowly as if it was a grizzly bear. I didn’t want it to get upset and spray my tent. That would end the trip for sure! The skunk just quietly went back in the bush, only to reappear near Marek’s tent. Marek still seemed asleep, but was thrashing around a bit in his tent. I didn’t want to yell: “Marek, skunk!”, in fear that the skunk would get alarmed and fire off its defense mechanism 😷. Marek eventually did get up and I mentioned the skunk nearby somewhere. He laughed and said he had seen skunks as a kid on American cartoons. Apparently there are no skunks in Czech Republic or anywhere else in Europe. I kindly informed him that a spraying skunk would be no laughing matter. He then kept looking near his tent if he could see it. The camp host later informed us that the skunk was well known, and simply looking for an easy breakfast, scaring folks to quickly run away and drop their plate of food. He must have realized it was slim pickings at a bikers spot, and went for easier and more lucrative pray somewhere else.

Marek would be ending his trip as planned anyway in Jackson in a couple days where he would be renting a car to drive to Denver airport to fly back home. He said his wife and three teenage boys would want him to be home. He had been fun to be around, and I suspect I would still see him before then…

I left the campground with my ceremonial wave to Ciaran, Peter, and Ross as I left. I was planning to go to Colter Bay CG today, which was much harder than I initially thought. There was a good climb for several miles immediately after leaving the campground. I hate that it doesn’t give you much of an opportunity to gently warm up to that. Today’s route would be mainly on rough gravel/sand, unlike yesterday. It was a grind with many twists and turns through the forest. You really couldn’t tell if there would an uphill or downhill behind each corner. Montana was much more transparent in the wide open spaces. It seemed that the uphills had a winning advantage. There was a long stretch of freshly strewn gravel where you could not find a good line through. It seemed twice as hard going through that.

I finally noticed a small “Entering Wyoming” sign. Nothing like: “Welcome to Wyoming, we are glad you are here” sign! Ok, there is another preconceived impression of mine about anther state. Ok, I will remain positive 🤐. The recreational 4x4’s and adventure motorcycles grew in numbers, and at one time I was passed by five trucks pulling large horse trailers. They were going slow, probably not for me, but the comfort of the horses traveling in the trailers. These were rough and dusty roads!

This was a tiring day and ended hike-a-biking up more uphills than I normally would have. It was pretty hot as well which didn’t help things. Peter passed me when I predicted, and Ciaran wasn’t too far behind. Lots of “Bloody route” in both Irish and Scottish accents. Ross came up a bit later and wasn’t having the best of time either. We both stopped at the dam of a large lake to have lunch. I really wasn’t that hungry, but I thought that my general lack of energy was due to not getting enough calories today. I did have a relatively light breakfast. I forced myself to make a PB and Nutella tortilla, and munch it down. Ross left a bit earlier from lunch, while I waited to digest more of what I ate. A fact: dams are typically lower, thus leaving a dam usually involves a good climb to get out 🥵.

The last section was on the Rockefeller parkway, which should have been renamed to the “Rockefeller washboard experience”. I am really glad what he did to donate so much land to conservation and creation of Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP. But surely he could have created a trust to maintain that road a bit better, right? I am sure Trump will fix that 🤭.

I finally came up on Flagg Ranch which is about 17 miles before Colter Bay. I couldn’t resist riding to the main building and checking on what options are there to stay a night, or to at least get a cold chocolate milk for the last push to Colter Bay. Ross was sitting in a comfortable leather chair in the lobby with a large chocolate milk in his hand. He said that Ciaran just got a ride to Jackson to get a rack replacement for the one that had broken earlier on the trip. We had all told him much earlier that he should have replaced it in Helena or Butte when he had the chance. Not sure it was stubbornness or lack of funds that he didn’t. Now he has to go to one of the most expensive towns in the West to find a solution.

I went to check the front desk for lodging options. Yes, they have lodges available to rent for the night. I thought about it for about a minute and pulled the trigger, also to give me a pseudo rest day tomorrow with a short ride to Colter Bay. It was week three and I had yet to take a rest day, and I was feeling it.

I told Ross of my plan and offered him to take the other queen sized bed if he wanted to. It didn’t take long for him to see the brilliance of my plan and he agreed. Right then, who would show up in the lobby but Marek. He said that he had a small wipeout in the loose gravel about a mile away. Knowing that he has been doing this trip on a budget, I offered him the floor of our lodge to lay his mat and sleeping bag on. Again, this was an offer hard to refuse. He hadn’t had a shower in many days, and I figured he would make a better presence at the Avis rental car counter in Jackson not smelling like a skunk 😇.

It was nice to all have a shower and do some laundry in the bathtub. One thing that I also needed to take care of was a slow leak in my mattress. I woke up in the middle of the night at Warm River with the mattress going a bit too soft. It is not a good experience since your mind is not in a state to make rational decisions on whether to ignore it and sleep on harder ground, or get up to blow more air in. I gave in and put more air in, only to have the same thing happen at 5:30am. It was almost time get up anyway, so I just laid on my back, and literally “pulled the plug” at 6:00am to get up. Obviously, I could not have this happen the rest of the trip, or I would go crazy. Thus my mission was to find this tiny leak while I had the facilities to do so. The bathtub seemed a logical way by submerging that naughty mattress till little bubbles would appear. It took several attempts, but I did find a place where tiny bubbles would appear when the mattress was oriented a certain way. I patched that place , and now hope there were no other holes. What a pain!

Ross, Marek, and I had a good dinner at the lodge. I picked up the tab under the guise of a farewell to Marek. I could see he was not really comfortable going in the restaurant. He says his mother is an Internet spy any knows exactly what he does, where he is, and much he spends everywhere. Kind of like a Czech KGB agent. Although the Czech are like Ukrainians and hate the Russians.

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