5/17
Well after spending all night freezing my ass off I finally decided to get up around 9:00. As I was laying there I was happy to hear that I couldnt hear rain on the outside of the tent. Well as I unzipped the tent and stuck my peepers out I couldnt believe my eyes, IT WAS FUCKING SNOWING. Hello did someone not get the message that I was doing a motorcycle trip and well this snow really wasnt in my agenda. Hello Allah, JC, Budda, one of you guys I didnt order this type of weather. Well not to be discouraged I quickly packed up camp and got on the road. First thing I noticed I was almost out of gas and it was 26 miles to the next gas station in Canyon Village or I could back track 14 miles to West Yellowstone. Well it wasnt much of decision, on to Canyon Village. With the temperature at a balmy 33 F (according to my new thermometer), snow building up on my visor, and a low fuel light blinking in my gauge cluster; off I went. First thing I realized is that my gloves hadnt dried from the night before and were now causing frost bite on my poor little digits. After stopping twice and warming up my blue fingers (no joke they were turning blue) I finally made it to the gas station ( I never doubted that I would run out of gas, ok maybe once or twice). After drinking a cup of hot chocolate, I needed to figure out how I was going to dry my gloves, as fate would have it the bathroom had a hand drier instead of paper towels. So after about 20 minutes of sticking my gloves over the blower they were almost dry, just a little longer and they would be dry. When the machine started making a funny noise I pulled the glove off the blower and all of sudden a 3 inch flame shot out, I quickly looked around, gathered up my almost dry gloves, and stepped out of the mens restroom. I guess it wasnt the industrial style hand drier.
I decided I better get some rubber gloves to put over my leather gloves, the guy at the store gave me a pair of surgical rubber gloves to use. With out those rubber gloves there would have been no way I would have made it very far, because the weather just kept getting worse.
Well with my gear all in order and my heated vest turned on I was on the road again. At one point there was almost an inch of snow on the road and the temperature was hanging around 35 F not including wind chill factor. As I worked my way out of the park and the elevation started to drop the snow turned to rain and it warmed up to about 45 F.
I decided I would power through as long as I could before stopping for the night. I had an inner battle, tent or hotel, well after a couple more hours of riding in the rain and cold it was pretty easy to talk myself into a cheap hotel.
Todays Specs
Weather: Fucking Cold(33F - 45F), Snow and Rain
Distance: 210 miles, Madison Junction Yellowstone Park to Worland, Wy.
Elevation: 8200ft - 4000ft
