August 19, 2009
What an amazing feeling waking up inside my tent in Yellowstone National Park. This was why I had ridden almost 1500 miles with just the bare necessities strapped to my motorcycle. It’s one thing to hit the road on a ‘credit card camping’ multi-day motorcycle trip with only a backpack, which I have done, but it’s an entirely different experience when you carry everything needed on the bike.
I could tell that after more than three months on the road Ralf was more than just used to this. I also noticed he didn’t mind not knowing where he would sleep at night but what’s more is that this was the expectation of the day. For me though, this was something relatively new. Knowing I’d be inside a tent wasn’t reassuring enough for me as I have been much more accustomed to knowing where I’d be sleeping, or in this case, pitching my tent. So, I took solace in the fact that no matter where we ended up the sun would rise the next day and truth be told the bit of uncertainty was part of the adventure.
So, this morning I unpacked the Jetboil and within minutes the smell of a breakfast of champions filled the air! Ralf used his old school tried and trusted vertical cylinder camping stove to boil water and it was a dead heat race, pun intended, as we tried to gauge who’s mass of H2O would turn to gaseous form first. Ralf won the first round since about 1 minute after I started up the Jetboil the fuel canister had emptied. I hadn’t changed the canister from my last camping trip; good thing I packed a second one huh? Anyway, said breakfast of champions this morning consisted of scrambled eggs with bacon, a tasty portion of blueberry oatmeal complimented with fresh mint tea. And most importantly, since we were in bear country having dehydrated backpacking food came in very handy. Did you actually think we packed fresh eggs and bacon, oatmeal on our bikes? Even though our breakfast was being re-hydrated by master motorcyclists, we were still impressed with the taste. I think I even heard a ‘not bad’ from Ralf in regards to my excellent re-hydration techniques. Since our motorcycles had bear proof storage containers (our panniers); we still had to take the necessary precautions with food storage plus quite literally anything that had any scent or aroma had to be properly stored. Improper storage was the only true worry regarding bears.
After breakfast we tore down our campsite and began repacking the bikes. I told Ralf earlier that morning that if the camp host questions why we made camp in the disabled spot that he was to feign being the disabled one. I think Ralf understood this quite clearly because someone who is suave and debonair can’t really feign a disability. Sure enough, a little while later the camp host drove by, probably to ensure we had paid the camping fee. He made some small talk with Ralf and there was no fuss regarding us taking up the penultimate disabled spot.
As we were readying to depart I noticed that my R1100s sometimes takes on human characteristics. Over the course of the night the temps dropped and it went well below 7 degrees Celsius (around 42f or so). Like most people, it didn’t like the cold and after I cranked the engine over it clicked, popped… muttered a couple ‘words’ in my general direction then promptly died again. It took three more tries until she woke up and stayed up. Hmmm… who else does that remind me of?
Well, the ride out the campground to our first stop of the day, Steamboat Geyser, was only about 5 minutes in duration so I could tell my bike had some sort of premonitional powers. I think it may have whispered something along the lines of… ‘You woke me up for this?’. Steamboat Geyser was pretty active even though a sign said eruptions are sporadic, from 4 days to 50 years in between. I was more than content to see the minor eruptions but a major eruption would have been pretty impressive to witness. It’s known to shoot water as high as 400ft! That’s about 4 to 5 times taller than Old Faithful (our next stop… though the traffic to get there was horrendous).
After spending about 2+ hours getting to the Old Faithful parking lot we saw throngs of people walking away from the viewing area. Obviously it had just erupted so we killed some time by grabbing lunch. The anticipation was building as we waited for the geyser to go off. Eventually it did and Ralf wasn’t that impressed. I’d seen it almost 20 years ago so I knew what to expect. Ralf came up with a brilliant idea so I had to comply.
Our next stop was the Midway Geyser Basin which contains an example of a mud pot, some smaller thermal pools, the amazing Excelsior Geyser Crater and the most impressive part of all which is the Grand Prismatic Spring. 
This photo showing the Grand Prismatic Spring from above was taken after we hiked up a small ‘hill’. You really can’t appreciate the size of this pool when up close since it’s just too massive. The water inside the pool is around 170f+ thus there are vapor clouds rising over its surface year round. Since it was a sunny day the light reflects from the ground back into the vapor cloud. The deep orange comes from bacteria growing around the spring and blue hues from the water. We spent quite a while walking around the area taking dozens of photos along the way. I’d never actually seen this basin; must have missed it the first time I came to Yellowstone.
We departed Yellowstone with plenty of sunlight left in the day. Our next stop was the Grand Tetons just a few hours ride south. As luck would have it there was more road construction. By now I was ecstatic with these non-paved roads. Ralf was on dual sport tires and as such my super sport tires weren’t the best for this type of riding but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter how much throttle I gave the S… Ralf just pushed his GS further and it didn’t faze him nor the bike one bit. At one point we came across a bridge that had only one lane for all traffic. The sentries controlling traffic did a fine job letting us by… right behind a full sized pickup truck hauling a camper-trailer. As soon as we crossed the bridge I passed the camper/truck and waiting on the other side obviously was the oncoming traffic waiting to cross the same single lane bridge. Several people had gotten out of their cars and were watching a bear not more than 10 yards away from the side of the road. As it turns out, not only are bison Ducati fans, but bears are as well because as soon as he heard my exhaust he took off running back to the forest. I got a very sour look from one of the bear gazers but honestly I couldn’t care less. It’s my opinion that bears shouldn’t get used to human presence.
Just a few miles after the asphalt started again we came upon our next campground. We were in Colter Bay Village just off Jackson Lake. We obviously hadn’t left bear country but this campsite offered up dedicated bearproof storage containers. They were so secure, even I had a hard time opening and closing the latching mechanism. Unlike the previous night, we had plenty of daylight to setup our camp. 
After I pitched my tent Ralf commented not liking the berry bushes in our campsite. I hadn’t noticed them and sure enough, right between our tents were these outcrops of bushes with a few spatterings of bright red berries. Just our luck, we setup camp in the middle of a bear berry buffet! I picked off the berries and tossed them into the firepit.
Since we were just a stone’s throw from the village, we rode into town to see what the place had to offer. There were several restaurants to choose from so we decided to dine on fresh food instead of re-hydrated backpacking meals. After we ate dinner Ralf checked out the local laundromat and showers since I decided to shove my knee into the TPS while mounting my motorcycle. Needless to say the TPS sensor won and my knee was in severe pain. We made our way back to camp and Ralf got to writing. After more than three months on the road he had written tens of thousands of words… eventually they’ll find their way into a book at an Amazon website near you! I was pretty tired so I retired to the luxurious accomodations in my tent. I learned the night before that by stuffing my 85 degree sleeping bag into my 30 degree sleeping bag I could make it through a 40 degree night and not be cold.
I love day 4’s post, especially the part about your attempt at “waking up” the motorcycle
She does like to get her “beauty” sleep!