June 14 (Can you get frostbite from wind chill?)

I woke early today, not that it ended up mattering. I wanted to sit in the gas station/grocery place charging my phone and battery backup for a while so I could record today's ride – yesterday had sapped all my energy. So I read for a while while they charged ... slowly. It got so late I amended my plans:  I wouldn't ride all the way to West Yellowstone; I'd stop at a WarmShowers en route. Travis Waters had no problem hosting with such short notice, and even offered to buy me any bike parts I needed! (Provided I pay him back, of course.)

Now my bike chain was mostly worn out, so I asked him for a replacement. Travis wanted to make sure he got the right one, do he asked me to call ahead to the shop and get it set aside. So I did, and I was put on hold for ... 45 minutes. Eventually I hung up and tried again and was only on hold for another 25 minutes. Eventually I got through and specified the chain ... but it was 2 pm by that point.

The ride itself was trying at the beginning. Rough roads, uphill, gravel. I won't belabor it; the main point here is it was extremely slow going.

Along the way, I saw another sign you hate to see.

So around 9 pm the sun set, and the temperature dropped precipitously. Perfect timing too, I had just started the day's descent! Given that I had no cold weather gloves, I lost feeling in my fingers in minutes. And the ride never seemed to end. I think I was stopping every mile or so to blow some heat back into my hands, not that it seemed to help. To make matters worse my light was on its last legs power-wise, so I was riding practically in the dark. I think the only thing that kept me going was the idea of a hot shower.

Eventually I arrived at what appeared to be the shop's area, though I couldn't see well enough to be sure. After calling Travis again to verify, his neighbor gave me specific directions to the 'shop' ... which was locked. Shiiiiiiit!

Fortunately, the aforementioned neighbor allowed me to stay on his couch, so this story doesn't end with the police finding a frozen corpse.

Seriously though, never again.

Color commentary from the editorial assistant...

Somehow, seeing Bill's description of this ride doesn't do justice to the event.  No way it was just "practically in the dark" while he was making this ride...

Imagine, if you will, Bill and I are sound asleep when the phone rings on Friday night.  (The wee hours of Saturday morning, if we're being accurate...)  No one else would be calling us at this hour, so Bill answers the phone with, "What's wrong?"  There's a bit of a pause and I hear, "Billy, it's 1:30 in the morning!"  Now, I can only hear one side of the conversation, which is punctuated with pauses and becomes more and more frustrated.  "What?  What?!  Particle board?  Billy – it's 1:30 in the morning! Particle board?  It looks like plywood..."

Bill hangs up the phone and tells me that Billy is lost and trying to find a house that's covered with particle board, where he's supposed to turn left.  

Ann:  It's 11:30 where he is – he's still on his bike?

Bill:  Apparently.

Ann:  Where is he?

Bill:  Some place called Island Park.

Ann whips out Droid and checks weather in Island Park, Idaho – which, as you can see on the map for this post, is right outside Yellowstone National Park, with an elevation of about 6,300 ft.

Ann:  It's 34 degrees, it's 11:30 and he's lost?

Bill:  I can't go to sleep now.  Can you?

Now, we know Bill has a tent with him.  But we also know that he wasn't a Boy Scout and doesn't have a lot of experience pitching a tent.  Not sure how well he'll do in the pitch dark  with frozen fingers.  So we nervously wait 45 minutes until he calls to say he is settled in to sleep on the neighbor's sofa.  

He's not kidding that must have been frozen!