Alright, Let’s Get Cracking!
September 28th, 2015
Facts about Paradise Valley
The Yellowstone River flows through the valley and is noted for world-class fly fishing in the river and nearby spring creeks such as DePuy Spring Creek. The valley hosts other natural wonders such as several natural hot springs, including Chico Hot Springs near Emigrant, Montana, La Duke Hot Springs near Gardiner, and Hunter’s Hot Springs near Livingston. Mount Cowen is the largest peak near the valley, at 11,212 feet in elevation. It is located in the southern portion of the valley on the eastern side of the river within the Absaroka mountain range.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Bozeman, Montana, United States of America
Destination: Carbella Rec Site (BLM), Montana, United States of America
81.9 km trip, 4:55 time, 46.6 km/h maximum speed, 16.6 km/h average speed
What happened…
Andrew writes: I’m often amazed at the level of trust the exists amongst the Warmshowers.org community. Several times I’ve been told by our hosts to just let ourselves in, make ourselves comfortable, lock up when we leave etc… I’m a homeless, jobless hobo, so shouldn’t these people be concerned that I’m going to rob them blind when they aren’t home?? Then again, I had a similar level of trust. And after all, it’s not like they can’t track me down within an hour in a car, using our satellite tracker to follow. Anyhow, this morning Leslie and Nick left for work, having said goodbyes last night, and Amanda and I took our time packing up and heading out from Bozeman.
Once we got on the road, Amanda took the lead since she had mapped out our route for the day. I love it when I just get to follow. I don’t have to think, I can just enjoy the scenery. Today, I finished listening to Bossypants, an audio book by Tina Fey. I had a few laugh out loud moments, but I don’t think I was Tina’s core audience.
Our travels today took us on the Interstate (gasp!), then a gravel road, and finally to a field in the middle of nowhere. I think this was our first time on a real, honest to goodness Interstate highway, since we started this trip. It wasn’t as intimidating as I thought it would be. Traffic was light, but then the shoulder wasn’t as wide as I had hoped. We cycled along for only 3 miles until we reached the Trail Creek Road exit, and after a short while, the paved road turned into gravel. Actually, it turned into gravel at just the right time. We had spent about 20 miles climbing, since we left Bozeman, and it turned to gravel just at the start of the downhill. Now, some of you may recall that Amanda had sworn off gravel roads after the Kettle Valley Railway part of our trip back in British Columbia. We were reminded why quite quickly.
Our top speed on the “downhill” was probably about the same as it had been on the uphill, due to the nature of the gravel. Every little twist and turn on the bike sent us surfing on top of the nubby surface. When the gravel began to thin out, it was due to some pretty bad wash board sections. So while our speed picked up, there were a few times where I felt like it was all I could do to hold on. I remember passing this one farm, going 30km/h, over washboard, thinking I was either going to get a flat tire, or worse, go over my handlebars. Finally, after 10 more miles, it was all over. The two of us had made it safely; half a dozen of our eggs unfortunately, did not.
We stopped in at the General Store in Emigrant, thinking about calling it a day as the sun was getting low on the horizon. This is one of the downfalls of starting every day around noon. With the shorter autumn days, by the time we ride our 5 hours, it’s getting dark. Still, the clerk at the store recommended a campground that was 20 miles further south down the road. Staying off Highway 86, we were able to ride a parallel road along the Yellowstone River. It was beautiful, still slightly downhill, and we had the wind at our backs. The miles peeled away like the skin of a grape. When I spotted a sign for the Carbella Rec Site, a Bureau of Land Management site, we decided to give it a shot (we found out the next morning that there was a real campground just a few more miles down the road).
Carbella is used by fishermen to launch their boats down the river. It had about 10 picnic table sites, spaced our widely. We setup our tent next to one of them and settled in. Everything was great! Maybe the only not so great part was some horny old elk who spent the whole night trying to attract female attention in the field just outside of our tent. They sound funny.
Amanda writes:
As Andrew said we left quite late, but I seem accustomed to that now and unfazed. I didn’t know the road was going to turn to gravel and it was not very enjoyable at all. The upside though was no traffic. I really enjoy cycling along deserted farm or mountain roads. We decided to push on the extra 20 miles to the next campground and I was glad we did. The campsite was great; nothing fancy and within a mile of the road. The moon was almost full and it was nice to look outside at the moonlight sky and surroundings even if the elk were being noisy. At one point during the night I felt like they were right beside us.