Day 56: 3,000 miles and still going

Day 56

West Yellowstone to Ennis 71miles

Had a bit of a lie in today, so set off on the road about 9am. Its definitely a bit cooler in this part of the country and that, coupled with what looked like a mainly downhill ride today, meant I didnt feel the need to get out super early.

After leaving the tackiness of West Yellowstone, I soon entered a much nicer area. The first part of my day took me passed Hebgen Lake. This was a particularly pretty place, with a big lake surrounded on the far side by mountains. Certainly made for some nice scenery.

And after about 15miles, I hit the 3k mark. Certainly the most scenic surroundings of the 3 1,000mile milestones I have hit so far. It took me 21 days to do my first 1,000miles, 18 to do the second and this last one has come up in 17 days. The next 1,000miles might take a little longer, simply because I can afford to slow up a bit as I reach the finish. Currently around 6.5 days ahead of schedule so can afford to take it a little easy on the run in.

The ride round the lake was great, and then I started on a long, gradual downhill. After a while I caught up with Leo and Sandy, the couple I had seen yesterday. I was a bit faster than them, so after a bit of a chat I left them. We had discussed the idea of splitting a motel room tonight, and I would likely be the first one to our destination, it would be up to me to find one!

The rest of the ride went by without any real events. I stopped at the tiny town of Cameron (no sign of David) to post some postcards, and then shortly after arrived in the town of Ennis (no sign of Jessica), which was my stop for the night. Managed to find a nice room which had two beds in separate rooms within the same unit. So took that and waited for Leo and Sandy.

Spent the afternoon relaxing, cleaning my bike and doing some laundry. Today I cut up one of my t-shirts to use as fresh rags for cleaning my bike. My bike was pretty filthy after coming through the parks – they were quite dusty environments. Tomorrow begins with what looks like a pretty horrible 2,000ft climb, so I figure any weight I can shed is a good thing! It does now only leave me with one t-shirt for wearing out in the evenings, so I might buy another one at some point soon!

But overall it was a pretty easy days riding. Im slowly coming down out of the really high mountains. I think my elevation in Ennis is the first time I've got anywhere near being down around 1mile above sea level since somewhere in the middle of Colorado. And passing 3,000miles was really nice. It's starting to feel like I'm slowly making towards the finish, although there is still around 1,300miles left!