When we woke up and poked our heads out, Dave and Colin were already packed up and about to push off for the day.... Ziven and I dawdled around for a while before we were ready to go, stopping to get breakfast at the lodge because we were feeling fancy. We then backtracked to the route and started climbing out of the valley we had entered the evening before. The climb got a little steep sometimes and we had to dodge some speedy ATVs as they zoomed past, but we made steady progress. After a bit of descending, we paused for some Swedish Fish and other snacks, offering some to a Tour Divide racer who paused to ask how close he was to the top. He accepted gratefully and was discouraged to hear he had quite a bit of climbing left. We happily descended the opposite direction and soon popped out onto a small highway. Continuing on, we joined the traffic headed towards the Grand Tetons and pulled over for a quick stop at a restaurant/store on the side of the road. We spotted Kitson and Jolly Rancher’s bikes parked outside and found them eating breakfast on the restaurant side. We did not find any bars but paid for our sodas that we would lug around all day until the perfect moment to enjoy. The owner said we were doing great by going on adventures while we were young and bragged about being the only one brave enough to jump into the water with sharks when she was on a boat tour many years ago. We bid goodbye to the others, who were all heading for Grand Teton National Park that night, and we continued down the road, eventually turning off onto the gravel.

We passed an older French couple who had started months before and slowly had been picking their way through snow on this trip of a lifetime. They asked about a campground ahead and I tried to combine my limited French with their limited English to convey that we didn’t know if there were spots open but they could ask the campground manager at the gate. We wound up into the forest, surrounded by stunning pointy mountains on either side and I honed my single-handed-bike-riding-while-taking-pictures skills. We stopped for a snack along a river and doused our shirts in the cold water after finishing our treats. Snaking through the valley, we passed beautiful lakes with cabins all around and a ranch with gorgeous horses at the base of some very pointy mountains. Finishing the climb, we descended on a slightly rutted road and bumped around until we popped out onto a parking area on the side of the highway we had abandoned miles earlier where people sat fishing in a stunning lake reflecting jagged peaks. Ziven recognized the lake as being another one of the main pictures used in the Bikepacking.com page on the Great Divide and was surprised that what seemed like such a remote picture was actually taken feet away from a busy highway. With the knowledge that the internet isn't’ reality reinforced, we continued along the highway, soon passing signs that warned “Bear Country. Do not stop for photos.” With this warning flashing at me from traffic signs, I decided it was time for us to make our bear spray more accessible and we strapped them to our front sleeping bag rolls for the time being. We tried to enjoy the long downhill on road that we had worked all day to get, but a BRUTAL headwind required us to pedal hard even as we passed warning signs telling trucks to gear down on steep grades. At the bottom of this heartbreaking descent, we turned yet again onto gravel and wound our way along a valley, testing out bear calls as we went, cementing “Go Bears” as an homage to our alma mater. The gravel turned into a single lane asphalt road lined with aspens on either side and we enjoyed the fairly flat afternoon traversing the valley. Eventually the trees thinned and we emerged into a much bigger valley filled with a giant winding river and clear views of the stunning Tetons. We took a pit stop at a small cafe/store where Ziven bought lavender lemonade mix as a souvenir for his mother and we got chocolate milk and refilled our water bottles. Pushing off again for the final stretch, we soon rejoined the main highway into the national park and Ziven flashed his fancy parks pass that allowed us to avoid the $25 fee to pass through on the route. We located the Colter Bay campground and stopped at the general store to try to figure out how to reserve a bike campsite. We easily spotted Dave and Colin, who had already showered and were enjoying some chips and beers on the picnic tables and who seemed a bit annoyed that we were making the same progress as them despite waking up an hour and a half later than them. They told us to talk to the people who checked campsite reservations and they would be able to arrange a bike campsite for us and we were relieved, as many signs indicated that the campsite was full. We eventually ironed out the details with a nice lady who worked for the park but had to have us follow her on her golf cart back to the registration office to officially get us signed in. We then biked to our site, choosing one across from the many familiar faces, including Kitson who rolled in after us and the British couple from the day before. Highly anticipating our shower, we pitched our tent and dropped all of our gear except a towel to bike back to the general store which was located right next to the showers. Inside it was chaos and I watched our bikes and charged phones while Ziven paid and went first. We then switched and I had to wait to be called like at a doctor’s office before one of the employees pointed out my shower stall. Of course it was located at the end of the water line and my water pressure was nonexistent, taking me double time to wash the soap off of myself and my hair. Nonetheless refreshed, we returned our materials to the campsite before biking back a bit later to patronize the restaurant before it closed, ordering ourselves a cheese pizza and huckleberry milkshake to share while I kept an eye on the bikes through the restaurant windows. After dinner we jubilantly biked on our super light rigs through the dark woods back to camp, whooping all the way like little kids. We bid our neighbors goodbye after huddling around their fire for a few minutes chatting and zipped off to bed.