Day 49: Over Togwotee, into Jackson (72 miles) Day 50-52: Siesta/Fiesta in Jackson
I wrote about this some back when we climbed Hoosier Pass, but one of the things that we do on a regular basis is convince ourselves that we're up to the task at hand. Normally, this is pretty easy because we're in pretty awesome bike shape. In the case of today, we woke up and looked at the weather forecast. It looked like it was going to rain a little bit, but that we'd be at the top or over by then, so we would have a leisurely brunch waiting out the storm, then roll downhill into Jackson. Easy... we are some awesome!
Well, of course, verily this did not come to pass. Our climb up Togowotee was going pretty well for the first 12 or so miles... a bit colder, but no problem. Then it started to flurry a little. No problem we thought, we saw this when we climbed Hoosier Pass and it made for great photo ops with snowmen and stuff and made us feel even tougher. Then, it started to snow alot, to the point that we could barely see the road and definitely couldn't see anything on the horizon. Jon and I didn't even realized that we had reached the top of the mountain... only that we found ourselves suddenly going downhill and being really cold.
Snow/slush started to collect and freeze on our bodies and bikes. Now, I live in Wisconsin and I'm pretty used to cold and wind. I snowboard too. But, the difference with these things are that I'm somewhat prepared for them. This time around, I was wearing all the clothes I had and some crappy 99 cent gloves, going downhill made things even worse. I didn't have goggles; my sunglasses blocked some of the snow but then they got crap all over them and I couldn't see. When I took them off, the snow just hit me right in the eyes. My feet were slowly start to lose feelings, then my hands. This made squeezing the brakes hard.
Now, I knew I wasn't going to freeze to death... but I knew that things were getting bad quickly. All types of Boy Scout stuff flew through my mind as I debated the merits of pulling over and hopping into my sleeping bag if we didn't see an inside place soon. I thought about that story "To Build a Fire" where the dude lights all of his matches, then the tree dumps snow on his fire and he dies as a metaphor for the fact that Nature > Man. I thought about alot of things in the slowest downhill 9 miles ever until we finally hit a lodge. We rolled in and dried ourselves out in the lobby of a fancier type hotel, which I imagine must have been a sight to see me removing wet socks and shivering like a fiend. After about an hour of snacking and buying wool socks, we kept rolling downhill, where the storm had passed the the temperatures were pleasant again. Onward we were to Jackson.
Earlier I talked some about the cool connection we had made through warmshowers, and we found that we'd be staying through our earlier Jackson vacation with Molly, a cool biking fanatic who was happy to take us in. We arrived in Jackson and showered and had a tasty dinner of venison bolognase and pasta. We played with Molly's adorable puppy Amos.
We talked about life and travelling (Molly's been to alot of cool places, like Cuba and India) and what the next big things were for everyone. I particularly adore the office of Molly's house, which she has committed to life brainstorming.
The next day, after a good sleep in a real bed, Molly left for Idaho for a mountain bike race. I rented a mountain bike and road through some of the trails around Snow King. We grilled NY Strip steaks and ate pasta. We watched the US National Team play sitting next to some drunks and a gallery employee who was psyched to be out for the first time in 2 weeks. We ate some curry at the adequately named "Thai Me Up". The boredom of the rest days is starting to grind on, but I'm happy to be biking again soon.
Well, of course, verily this did not come to pass. Our climb up Togowotee was going pretty well for the first 12 or so miles... a bit colder, but no problem. Then it started to flurry a little. No problem we thought, we saw this when we climbed Hoosier Pass and it made for great photo ops with snowmen and stuff and made us feel even tougher. Then, it started to snow alot, to the point that we could barely see the road and definitely couldn't see anything on the horizon. Jon and I didn't even realized that we had reached the top of the mountain... only that we found ourselves suddenly going downhill and being really cold.
Awesome!
Snow/slush started to collect and freeze on our bodies and bikes. Now, I live in Wisconsin and I'm pretty used to cold and wind. I snowboard too. But, the difference with these things are that I'm somewhat prepared for them. This time around, I was wearing all the clothes I had and some crappy 99 cent gloves, going downhill made things even worse. I didn't have goggles; my sunglasses blocked some of the snow but then they got crap all over them and I couldn't see. When I took them off, the snow just hit me right in the eyes. My feet were slowly start to lose feelings, then my hands. This made squeezing the brakes hard.
I decided to take a self-portrait of myself too.
Now, I knew I wasn't going to freeze to death... but I knew that things were getting bad quickly. All types of Boy Scout stuff flew through my mind as I debated the merits of pulling over and hopping into my sleeping bag if we didn't see an inside place soon. I thought about that story "To Build a Fire" where the dude lights all of his matches, then the tree dumps snow on his fire and he dies as a metaphor for the fact that Nature > Man. I thought about alot of things in the slowest downhill 9 miles ever until we finally hit a lodge. We rolled in and dried ourselves out in the lobby of a fancier type hotel, which I imagine must have been a sight to see me removing wet socks and shivering like a fiend. After about an hour of snacking and buying wool socks, we kept rolling downhill, where the storm had passed the the temperatures were pleasant again. Onward we were to Jackson.
Earlier I talked some about the cool connection we had made through warmshowers, and we found that we'd be staying through our earlier Jackson vacation with Molly, a cool biking fanatic who was happy to take us in. We arrived in Jackson and showered and had a tasty dinner of venison bolognase and pasta. We played with Molly's adorable puppy Amos.
Amos just wants to hang out
This is a really good idea, though I think Jim would shoot me if I did this to my room at home.Maybe we'll try something less extreme.
The next day, after a good sleep in a real bed, Molly left for Idaho for a mountain bike race. I rented a mountain bike and road through some of the trails around Snow King. We grilled NY Strip steaks and ate pasta. We watched the US National Team play sitting next to some drunks and a gallery employee who was psyched to be out for the first time in 2 weeks. We ate some curry at the adequately named "Thai Me Up". The boredom of the rest days is starting to grind on, but I'm happy to be biking again soon.
Glad you survived the snowy ride. :)
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