Wednesday, August 19, 2009

August 16: Jackson to Signal Mountain, 41 miles











It was 31 degrees this morning when we set out from Jackson. First stop: the grocery store where Steve, Dianne and I shopped for supper, breakfast and lunch tonight and tomorrow and Eli and Brian shopped for Tuesday night/Wednesday's meals. Our budget is $180 per day for food. We were in there an hour but came in under budget. Very nice.

I dressed for a 60 degree day as predicted, but it did not warm up until we reached the campground... I was a bit chilly all day. Our route out of Jackson was the same one we rode on Friday, past Teton Village and down to Moose. No Moose along the road this time, but LOTS of traffic. Free admission to all national parks this weekend.

I stopped for a ghost bike photo at the memorial for the bike trail we rode part of the way. I had already read about Gabriella Axelrad, who was killed while riding her bike. Be careful out there!

We stopped at Jenny Lake to eat our sandwiches; a light rain started as we were finishing our lunch. We got back on the bikes, knowing we had to cook that evening's meal. We were the first in to the campground, a very nice place, running water but no showers. We are now at 7,731 feet above sea level. So far so good for altitude acclimation--no headache even though we are 1500 feet above where we started this morning. There are lots of bear awareness signs, and a bear box on my campsite. Yikes.

Our dinner was well received--we had pasta primavera, tilapia, broccoli and salad, and brownies for dessert. We forgot to buy drinks, so we all had lemonade made from the canister in the Adventure Cycling storage bin. A park ranger came around and gave a talk about bears. Yikes again!

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