This year, we decided to start at my mom's house in Frisco, Colorado and ride to Yellowstone National Park. Compared to other trips in the Midewest, Ireland, and Eastern Europe, there are few secondary roads in this part of the country and few towns with hotels and restaurants. Each day, we had to ride a full 60 miles (100km) without many stops in between. Still, the scenery was more beautiful than expected and it was great to have the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks as our goal. Plus, as a bonus, we found-out that we were riding the old TransAm Bicycle Trail, so we saw a few riders every day who were stopping in the same towns. Like last year, we rode about 700 miles, but this time we averaged 2000 feet of climbing per day... four times as much as the route from Chicago to Buffalo. |