Day 17 Rest Day

We spent the day in West Yellowstone, Montana while following our recovery guidelines.

West Yellowstone was founded in 1908 when the railroad arrived in town. The photo above is the marker for the Union Pacific railroad. The railroad wanted one last advertisement before people ventured into Yellowstone Park.

As automobiles became the preferred mode of travel the railroad suffered and stopped service to West Yellowstone in 1960. The old railroad depot is now a museum. It is the oldest structure (built in 1908) in West Yellowstone.

Navigation

We are following Adventure Cycling’s routes. They were created especially for cyclists and use low traffic roads. Herb entered the route information into an app called Ride with GPS. He also entered the locations of convenience stores, grocery stores, etc. Here is an overview of tomorrow’s route in Ride with GPS.

Herb and Joe download this information into their Garmin’s. The Garmin is a bike specific computer that not only contains the map information but can also measure cadence, heart rate, power output, etc. Their Garmin’s beep when they approach a turn or get off route.

The Garmin is a relatively small device.

Chad downloads the map information into his Apple Watch. The app that he uses only beeps if he gets off route. He has to look at his watch for upcoming turns. He follows the purple line.

I use the Ride with GPS app on my cell phone. One advantage of using a phone is that the app announces upcoming turns. It also announces things that Herb has entered into the database. As a result, it will give me messages like this:

• “In 1/4 of a mile take notice”. Usually it is a convenience store or market.
• “In 14 miles danger”. This was the Oregon tunnel.
• “Danger, cattle guard, dismount, large gaps”. A cattle guard. Fortunately this guard was covered with concrete plates when we rode over it.
• “In 1/4 mile a McSubway”. In this case it was a McDonald’s and Subway located next to one another.

It took Herb an hour or more to enter all of the map and service data for one day’s ride into Ride with GPS. With 53 days of riding (and some alternate routes) he spent a lot of time on our routes. He also double checked everything so even more time was involved. Thank you Herb!