DAY 15

Tower Falls, Wyoming to West Yellowstone, Wyoming

Newsflash: Headwinds are the bane of a cyclists existance. We had a fierce one, all day, for 100kms. It took us 7 hours to complete. The toughest day of the trip by far. One climb took 2 hours alone, taking us to 2700m above sea-level. We ran out of water for a bit. It was hot. The traffic was noticably busy. We couldn't even roll on some downhills. We had to stop for 10 minutes down one particularly windy strech, it was too dangerous to ride. To top it off the civilized bed/shower/meal/warmth we'd envisaged after a week of camping wasn't forthcoming: West Yellowstone is super-touristy and the dozen cheezy motels we tried first were all full. Sun setting. Familiar dreaded feeling. Ada pulled us out of it: She asked a bike-shop who pointed us to a hostel which despite its no vacancy sign Ada still sussed it out and to cut a long and boring story a bit shorter we ended up in gender-segregated dorm rooms with communal everything. Oh well. A depressing dinner and a much much needed laundry later we were able to smile and look on the positives: We rode really well together, with encouragement and wind-drafting and general positiveness, and we saw Canyon Falls, which were bloody awesome.