Day 20 - Arrival To Yellowstone (June 21st, 2024)

City To City: Ennis - Madison Campground, Yellowstone

Miles: 85: 

Miles Total: 1,337

Video: https://youtu.be/Rg1lEhekQ-U?si=PAzQEw3gku93JoPH

Riding along Hebgen Lake

Our campsite at Madison Campground

My dad stretching on a table, not wanting to get mulch stuck on his pants

Kevin and Lisa made an omelet, a bagel, and a half for each of us which we quickly gulped down.  After Kevin dropped us off in town, we got a canister of bear spray, mounted our bike, and headed toward Yellowstone.  We stopped for lunch at Hebgen's visitor center and learned some history.  

An earthquake had gone off under Hebgen Lake, resulting in the faults on the mountains dropping.  And half of a mountain broke away and slid at one hundred mph up halfway on the opposite mountain.   The winds then picked up close to one hundred mph, and some of the people who were camping in the valley lost their lives.  Some got swept up by the winds into the black night, others drowned because the river was blocked, and some got crushed under boulders.

After the heavy history, we only had the ride's second half.  At West Yellowstone, we picked up groceries and headed into Yellowstone.

After arriving at Madison Campground, we met our fellow bikers and settled in.  At one campsite, an older guy was traveling by himself.  Our other neighbors were a couple from Canada who were in the process of moving from Vancouver to Toronto, and decided to travel by bike.

As we set everything up, my dad used an outdoor plug to charge his phone and left it hanging by the chord.  An employee later came around to our table and said that whoever was charging their phones had to sign a waiver saying that we wouldn't sue Yellowstone if anything happened to our phones.  And there was also a lot of confusion among rangers there if we were allowed to charge our phones on outside outlets or not.   In the end, one ranger straightened everything out by saying the waiver was more just to claim your phone after you handed it over so they could charge it for you inside the register station.  But it was a mess trying to figure out the phone rules.