Day 23- Colter Bay

Today would be my semi rest day heading to Colter Bay which is only 17 miles away. No sense hurrying out of the comfort of our lodge early today. Ross and I went over to the main lodge to see what breakfast options were available. Yep, it was our lucky day with a buffet! Not as nice as what the Germans do, but good enough for us hungry bike packers. Marek wanted to finish off some of the food he had been carrying before driving off from Jackson to Denver to fly back home to Czech Republic.

Wyoming flag is on the bike

We finally set off around 11am after saying goodbye to Marek. I think he really enjoyed the company of fellow GDMBR bikers. He says that there are not many in his country that do bikepacking. He is going back home with mixed emotions.

Ross, me, and Marek

The ride to Colter Bay from Flagg Ranch was relatively easy, although there was a lot of traffic on the roads from all the tourists visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Luckily the roads in Teton park have a decent shoulder to ride on. Yellowstone is terrible, which I experienced 12 years ago when I rode the TransAm route from our home in N. Carolina to Puget Sound in upstate Washington.

Entering the park

Last time I rode through Yellowstone

Ross had decided to ride on past Colter Bay to wild camp somewhere outside the park. I wanted to stay in C.B. since I had stayed there before, and they have some good amenities. Besides I get a good discount with my “America the Beautiful” pass. Old age has some advantages.

Camped in Colter Bay in 2017 on TransAm

I set up my tent in the hiker/biker section they provide, unloaded all my “luggage”, and rode down to the restaurant near the lake. I had felt a bit guilty eating all that “junk” food so far on the trip, and ordered a Caesar salad. First green stuff in a long while. I started to compose some of the other blog posts before I forgot what happened that day. I was behind several days with that. Before long my server said that they were closing the restaurant before opening again for dinner, but that I was welcome to stay if I wanted. Great! One more beer please..🙏🏻

I was finishing up the last post of the blog, when a stream of dinner guests came into the restaurant. Boy, how time flies when you are typing this all in with one finger on my iPhone. I ran into Dave & Debra from Wisconsin having dinner, and Sean from Seattle. Dave was able to get his broken hub fixed in Butte, while Debra had a crash coming down Fleecer Ridge. She seemed ok. Sean, seemed to get lost a lot and blamed it all on his bike computer 😁.

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