August 14th
07:30-17:09
Bald Mountain, Wy to Madison Campground, Yellowstone Wy
137 Miles
Since I was only a few hours from Yellowstone, my next stop, I lazed about and finally broke camp at 07:30. Again I was breathing heavily due to the height. On the way out there was a group of cows milling around the campground sign. As I went by they were scared a bit, probably by the sound of the big cow going by.
Not far down the road I found the entrance to The Medicine Wheel (Alternate info site). One of the sites I really wanted to see. I’d read about it in several different places since the late 70’s and never visited. I didn’t really know where it was until I started planning the trip.
I drove up the gravel road until I got to the parking lot. I parked the bike and locked/covered things. Of the gear I was carrying the only thing of real importance were the pictures in the camera and I had that with me. The other things could walk without being too much of a hardship (well, I’d be annoyed at losing the MP3 player but what are you going to do).
It’s a 1.5 mile hike to the site. There’s a road but that’s only for handicapped folks and they have to stop 1/4 of a mile before the site. They ask that we don’t disturb anyone that may be meditating.
The info says that most of the tribes treat this as a special site and regularly use it for meditation. Some people spend up to a year preparing for the journey.
The Wheel is almost 10,000 feet up on the shoulder of a mountain. On the next ridge is a FAA post for monitoring of flights in the area.
The view from the ridge that leads to the Wheel is spectacular. You can see 10,000 feet into the Bighorn valley on the one side and into the forest on the other. The site is surrounded by a fence and the admonition to only walk around the site to the left and to leave the offerings alone. There were lots of colorful bits of cloth, scarves and some larger pieces of cloth tied to the rope as well as other items in the circle.
I left the site and headed back to the bike.
When I got there, I saw a pick-up with a Native-American dressed up. His pickup had a Lost Cherokee sticker on it and the state plate was Missouri.
I rolled out, stopping once to let a SUV go by. The road was a bit narrow.
I headed down Rt 14A again and headed for the twistys. I boogied on down enjoying the view and ride. A couple of BMW’s were on my tail for part of it but they fell farther and farther behind. Finally I reached the flatlands and headed out to Lovell. The BMW’s finally caught up and blew by me. I just waved.
After Lovell I got on the wrong road and headed north. It wasn’t until I passed Deaver and saw the Montana 5 miles sign ahead. I stopped, called Rita to chat and then turned around and headed back to 14A and Garland.
I went down until I got to Cody. I cruised around a little, grabbed some lunch and headed out to Yellowstone.
There were quite a few bikers rolling around town. On my way out I encountered another group heading my way. I stayed back a little, again out of respect. When one of them hit his emergancy lights and pulled over I stopped and asked if he was ok. Apparently he was waiting on someone else and waved me off with thanks.
A bit later I saw them coming up behind me. I slid over to the right and waved them through so they could rejoin their group and again hung back.
At the east entrance I fell in behind them and then had to wait until they got their payments worked out. Most of them had Wisconson tags but the straggler had New York tags.
I paid my money and rolled on in. There was a fire on the side of the mountain, trees were on fire. There were rangers who kept everyone moving. At one point I saw a helicopter fly overhead with a big bucket heading for the small lake. At the next turn was a lake that was quite low. I’m guessing they were using that lake before to quench fires. From looking at the paper, they had just opened the east entrance of Yellowstone that morning.
So I hit the general store at the other end of the lake. I picked up some deet and some snacks and a soda. I headed up to the Canyon camping area but they were full. They made a reservation for me at the Madison campground and I headed over there. On an amusing point, a couple of guys seemed to be racing me to the campground.
Anyway, on the way over I saw several herds of Bison including one lone guy that was calmly eating on the side of the road. Imagine encountering that on a dark night.
I pulled into Madison (the sign said the site was full) and went up to the window. For $18 I was able to camp. It was hot but I was ready to take a couple of hour break. I went over to my site and set up my tent. I put my cover over my bike and cinched it down.
I sat on the park bench and started reading my book. Weirdly enough while I was sitting there my nose started bleeding. I lay back on the bench and let it stop.
Later it started to rain a bit so I threw on the rain fly. Man, the problem with that is that you’re sealed in. There don’t appear to be any vents in that thing. I had all the zippers open in the tent and the flys spread out hoping to catch a breeze but I had also tied everything together so it didn’t blow off in the night.
Unfortunately it stopped raining later on and started getting a bit warm in the tent. Since it still looked like rain I left the fly on. Of course that meant a little restless sleeping since I don’t like being too hot.