More Miles To Go

My Trans Am Bicycle Trip

(contd.)

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

The following day of the trip CJ and I were anxious to see Grand Teton Park and rode ahead of everyone else. The day's ride turned out to be the best of the entire trip for me. I saw beautiful buttes and a clear blue sky all along the climb to Togwotee Pass. My first view of the Tetons was three miles over the summit. They were breathtaking to see. They were all lined up side by side, each of them distinctive from the rest.

Patty and Janet ended up spending two days with a family they had just met who were vacationing at Jackson Hole. They all became fast friends, so much so that Janet and Patty babysat the family's children so the parents could go out to dinner that night. Their experience was typical of the generosity we gave and received throughout the trip. Meanwhile, I was so close to the mountains I could reach out and touch them. I would have stayed an entire week and explored every nook and cranny of the park. As it was, my hike up Cascade Canyon Trail would have to do.

Cascade Canyon Trail, Teton Park

Cascade Canyon Trail is 15 miles long, rises 2,000 ft. from start to finish, and runs from Jenny Lake to Lake Solitude, a small snow-fed lake, at the other end. Breathtaking sights run its entire length, from the creek and mountains shown in this picture, to Mt. Teton and other peaks that tower overhead. The hike, though tiring, was absolutely spectacular and I took lots of pictures of it. The best part of the hike, however, was at the end when I could see Togwotee Pass again, from 40 miles away. It was truly a moment revisited.

Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park

Yellowstone Park, the world's first national park, is only 20 miles from Teton Park and has something for everyone. I took two days off from the group and rode the entire park along a figure-8 route, from Yellowstone Lake to Mammoth Hot Springs at the northern end. The park was much more mountainous than I thought, with a challenging 10-mile climb from the Hot Springs, and lovely meadows and geyser basins on the way south to Old Faithful.

The extra riding also allowed me to see the northern part of the park, which bus trips didn't tour, and to help make up for the hitchhike I had gotten the day before. Before the trip, I had promised myself that I would bicycle the entire way across the United State. But in the spirit of fun that day, I got a ride up the road to Yellowstone. Halfway to the park, Janet and Patty suddenly pulled up in front of me in the back of a pickup truck. The family they had met in Jackson Hole was taking them there. Did I want to ride with them? I accepted, but it was the kind of decision that I facetiously wondered about later. Had I ruined my trip by being driven up to Yellowstone?

Cape Foulweather, Oregon

Cape Foulweather is the first place that Capt. James Cook, an earlier explorer, landed on the North American continent in 1778. Its winds were so strong (they're often clocked at 50 miles an hour), and its storms so severe, that his expedition almost ended at this point.

The Oregon Coastline

The trip was drawing to its end, and the ride up the Oregon coast was a fitting finish. Beautiful vistas of the coastline and waves breaking for miles were seen all along the way. We spent three days riding the Pacific Coast Highway to Astoria, with Portland our final destination. One of the things that made Oregon so great was the respect that was given to me on the roadways. Special traffic signs constantly alerted motorists to my presence. The state seemed to be looking out for my interests as I traveled there. It made me even more glad to be there.

Our farewell dinner at McMillan and Schmick's restaurant in Portland was the last time that I would see my riding partners until our ten-year reunion in 1996. I flew home a week later and returned to work without missing a beat, but with memories that would last a lifetime.

Our 1996 Reunion

(Pictured, back row, L to R: Mike Dunn, John Beins, Jeff Thayer, Steve Catanese, Katie Beins, Tom Pickard. Front row, L to R: CJ Hughes, Vince Montano, Patty Poffenbarger, Paula Alduino, Tom Beins.)

We hadn't seen each other in ten years and I didn't know if anybody was going to show up. Much to my surprise, and with great delight, nearly everyone I had ridden with was there. Only Janet Locke and Brenda Griffith unable to attend. It felt like yesterday! No one had changed a bitm and we all felt like picking up where we left off. Most are married now with families, and all of us are committed to doing this again. The reunion further underscored the significance of the trip.

Thanks go to many people for making my bike trip possible: Carol Hubsch, my former boss, who gave me the summer off to fulfill my dream; my riding partners who made it even more remarkable by being there with me; and my family who supported me throughout the undertaking. To all of them, I'm most grateful.

Thanks for viewing this page. I felt like a changed person after the trip, and I still do today. It's great to experience the United States as personally as I did. It' also broadens my thinking by telling me that there is no place that I cannot go. The world is a huge place, and all of it is worth exploring.

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