The easiest 73-mile ride ever

WED 7/21 -- West Yellowstone MT to Ennis MT (73)
It was COLD this morning when we got up -- the Weather Channel said 32
degrees. I kind of doubt that it was quite that cold where we were --
I didn't see any frost anywhere -- but I can attest that it was finger-
numbing cold. West Yellowstone registered the coldest temp in the
lower 48 last Sunday -- 34 -- so it clearly can be a pretty cold place
in the early morning in mid-July. It was cold for the first couple of
hours of riding, too, but gradually over the course of the morning I
shed the thermal undershirt, the skull cap, the glove liners, and
eventually the jacket, and just rode naked. (No, not really; even
after removing all that stuff I still had plenty on. Plus, you can't
ride naked on an Adventure Cycling tour -- you always have to wear a
helmet.)

Today's ride was an almost-totally downhill jaunt through the
beautiful Madison Valley, mostly along the Madison River and its major
man-made lake, Hebgen Lake. The river is a gorgeous rushing thing
surrounded by high mountains, and from the look of it (and the number
of fly fishermen, and fly-fishing-related businesses) is prime trout
water. That seems to be one of the main things, if not THE main thing,
that draws people to the area.

Hebgen lake, though, was the first main feature of the day -- we
basically rode for about 20 miles along its eastern and northern
shores. Mountains all around -- beautiful. At the far NW end of the
lake was the dam that forms it, after which the road plunged down for
a mile or so, hard by the river. At the bottom was a sign for a cafe,
touting its breakfast offerings, and I said to myself, "Jeff, you've
been feeling a bit peckish lately, and not quite yourself, and a
little achy and run-down, what with the achilles tendon thing and all
-- maybe you're just not getting enough pie in your life." The cafe
was picture-perfect, with a wall of windows facing the rushing river
(Kath was there before me and had claimed a prime table), and the pie
(blueberry, warmed, avec ice cream (of course!)) and coffee extremely
tasty and very medicinal, I'm sure.

The entire Madison Valley is an earthquake area (see photo), and a big
one (R 7.5) in 1959 created Quake Lake (see photo) just a couple miles
past the dam, through the complete collapse of the side of a mountain
into the river (see photo). Pretty cool place to see; very glad I
wasn't there when it happened.

From that point on the ride just hugged the Madison River or its
tributaries, and we coasted (or could have) all the way into Ennis.
Easy, as, pie. (Mmmmmmmm........ pie.........)

Robin and I were the cooks for the day. He and Lucille were likely to
arrive in camp quite a bit later than me, so we had already arranged
that I would take the lead. Robin sous chef'd, Lucille and Steve
assisted. Cooking was outdoors, in the rain, but we caught a HUGE
break in that the RV park/campground we were in had a big garage with
a roof extending 8-10 feet off one side. A leaky roof, but a roof. So
we hunkered down there to prep and cook, and eventually the whole
group gathered there to eat, on a couple of commandered picnic tables.
The menu was a veggie-intensive (broccoli, carrots, snow peas, spring
onions) soy sauce chicken, over white rice (I had carefully prepared
Michael the day before -- white rice, not brown; he took it like a
man), with egg rolls (frozen) on the side and a very simple salad;
pudding was angelfood cake with fresh berries (black, blue, straw, and
rasp) and vanilla yogurt. It played to good reviews, both verbal and
non -- i.e., at the end everything was gone.