At just before 10 am on Friday, I left Quake Lake. I wanted to try to get to Old Faithful in Yellowstone, because I was expecting general delivery there.
At 1:30 I made it to West Yellowstone (or “West,” as the locals called it). I was a tourist, so I tried the local tourist food — Buffalo burger (made from Genuine Buffalo!) It was what you would expect of hamburger with not more than 2% fat. From West Yellowstone, or ‘West,’ as the locals called it, I had thirty miles to Old Faithful. Thirty miles. Three hours till the probable closing of the post office. Ten miles an hour. Hilly.
How I wished that I had someone to draft. All I could do was tuck and spin. I didn’t look up at the geysers — I knew I could do that later. At 4:27 PM, I reached the Old Faithful post office. It had closed at 4:00 PM. There were no rooms available there, so I had to bike back to Madison Junction Campground.
On the way to the campground, I met Brian Gillette, a UC Davis student. Just as we reached the campground it started to rain cats and dogs. In our campsite, we raced to set up our tents.
