Teton Pass

Just a quick update before we try to beat the sun.  It took us 3 months to reach summer but we finally did it!  It was 89 yesterday when we reached Idaho Falls.  Our hottest day!  

We had a second pass to summit after crossing the Continental Divide.  That pass was rather easy since the grade was only 6%.  

Teton Pass was about 1000 feet lower at around 8600 ft.  The fantastic part of that pass is that we were able to use the Old Pass Road.  This road is for bicyclists and hikers only!  We saw a couple of mountain bikers and several hikers but otherwise had the road to ourselves.  The grade to this summit is 10% and Cedar had a headache from the altitude.  He claims that I did most of the work up the pass but it was so beautiful that I didn't notice. 

We had a fantastic view of Jackson and ate lunch at the top.  Our ride down was even better because there was road construction.  The man in charge of letting people through let us pass since we fit by the equipment.  Because of this, we had no traffic for at least 10 miles of downhill.  

Yesterday we entered wheat country.  They are harvesting now and I am only guessing that it is a spring white wheat.  

I'll try to write more later but we are entering more desolate areas.  We will be riding through the Idaho National Laboratories.  There are 51 nuclear reactors there but only 3 are functioning at the moment.  I think we will pass Atomic City today.  66 miles of nothingness.