I remember the first time I drove up (and over) Beartooth Pass, as my dad and I were on our way into the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park, through Lamar Valley. The highway is gorgeous... full of switchbacks... and seriously high. In fact, at 10,947 feet, it boasts the highest elevation of any "highway" in the Northern Rockies.
Coming from a month of training in Minnesota (and living in Chicago), I thought this would be a good early test... a sort of "can I hack it?" trial by fire. The road is about 30 miles to the top, full of switchbacks, beauty, and challenge. A perfect start to the trip.
So Kelly dropped me off in Red Lodge (with plans to meet up later), and off I went. The beginning of the ride is pretty flat, almost pleasant... then the climbing starts (before the switchbacks start). The grade starts to ratchet up to a respectable 4-7% in most places early on (actually not quite as steep as my "training" hill in MN, but that was only 150 feet of climb... and this will be pushing 6,000 feet of climb). After some (not much) climbing, I decided on a short break, and already wasn't feeling great.
I pulled over in a national forest campground, sat down on the curb, put my head in my hands, and waited to throw up (feeling inevitable). It never came, but I was feeling pretty miserable. Doubt crept in...
"What was I thinking? I'm not going to be able to do this... I'm not going to be able to do any of this... the next 2 weeks are gonna suck."
No, I can do this. I took some water, had a clif bar, and continued on. I think I was feeling some of the altitude, but it didn't really get worse than that, which was nice.
Then the switchbacks started.
 |
| switchbacks |
 |
| switchbacks |
I had been dreading this part... but really, it wasn't that bad. The grade stayed manageable, I took breaks at turnouts, and it was gorgeous. The toughest part was the wind. It was strong out of the South/Southwest. You can see from the map (above) that this made for some rather bi-polar switchbacks. One direction felt really really tough... one direction almost felt downhill. I'm so wide, that I'm basically a human sail. Tailwind is beautiful. Headwind is deathly.
I met Kelly a little past halfway up (at a rest area) for "lunch" - trail mix, beef jerky, and water refill (I was already out). By the way, Kelly was awesome... I don't think I could have done this ride without her. So supportive. What a champ.
 |
| lunch break |
After lunch, I was off again. Time to conquer this thing. The wind had picked up considerably. It was 15-25mph with gusts up to 40mph down in Red Lodge. At the top of a mountain... it was worse than that. A lot LOT worse. I didn't bring a device to measure the wind (weird, I know, I usually have one on me at all times), but I'd have to guess it was in that 30-50 range, with gusts even heavier. All I know for certain is that it was difficult to stand up near the top. Seriously.
Did I mention that I was riding DIRECTLY into this wind? It would be impossible for me to overemphasize the difficulty this added. I think Beartooth was pretty manageable... but with the wind, it wasn't.
Reactions varied at different times. More than once, I yelled at the wind. Sometimes just an unintelligible scream of fury (near the top of the first peak when the grade went over 10% and the wind was blowing so hard I was *literally* barely moving forward), other times something more specific: "I hate you!" or something to that extent. There may have even been some name-calling. I was stopping every mile or so. It was a struggle.
Once I sat down in a drainage ditch on the side of the road and tried to just get as low as possible, so I didn't have to feel the wind - if only for a while. I came to realize that I was literally laying down in a gutter. I hate wind.
Despite this difficulty the ride WAS beautiful...
 |
| there were lots of dramatic valleys and alpine lakes. pretty. |
 |
| wildflowers weren't as abundant as I had hoped, but there were still some nice spots... |
 |
| on this ride, you cross from montana to wyoming |
 |
| still a good amount of snow near the top... |
 |
| I made it! (frustratingly, there is no sign up there... but I promise, this is the top) |
 |
| cliche "bike-lift" photo - this was dangerous. wind almost blew me over. |
Kelly met me at the top. Supportive as always (and maybe just a smidge weary of driving around with no real point other than to make sure I'm still alive and biking horrendously slow). Also, it was windy at the top.
The ride down was... interesting. Certainly there were moments of total glorious downhill brilliance. But (if you'll note the map), I was still traveling into the wind, above treeline. It was windy. (I may have already mentioned this). Against the wind, it just wasn't as fast or as fun. But the downhill side also has switchbacks... and those were tough. Especially with the inclusion of traffic.
If you can imagine wind blowing sideways at a solid 40mph and leaning into it... so you're leaning at, I don't know, 10-15 degrees... the wind is holding you up. Slightly unnerving, but mostly fine. The problem is getting passed by a truck, and for less than a second, the wind that was holding you up stops (the truck is blocking it as it passes). You might swerve a bit, or just try to re-adjust your lean - back to straight up and down - but the problem is once that truck has passed - SLAM the wind hits you again, almost knocking you over, and certainly making you swerve. Also, you're on a curvy mountain road with no shoulders.
In short... the ride down was stressful at times.
 |
| snow removal equipment |
 |
| "top of the world" store. note the flags. guess which way I'm biking... yup. |
Anyway, I made it down. Kel picked me up near Cooke City, and we headed back to Red Lodge, attended a great cookout, went to a rodeo the next day (the 4th - yeehaw! America!) and just generally had a great quintessential Montana vacation (for, at least, this "leg" of vacation).
No comments:
Post a Comment