Back in the saddle

Today's ride from Dubois to Jackson was a success. It was a beautiful day and I was worried about getting up the mountain on our route but as it turned out we didn't have to climb much of it because they are doing construction so we had to ride up in the back of a pickup truck. We had some very nice views of the Tetons on our decent and I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open the entire way down in awe of what I was seeing. It's remarkable that I didn't swallow a bunch of bugs. For the rest of the afternoon we biked toward the Tetons and they got bigger and bigger until we were pretty much right next to them. I felt like the view was wasted on all the people zooming past in cars not even bothering to stop and take it in. I really like being on my bike because I feel like I get so much more time to see things.

Yesterday we had a shake down ride in preparation for today. I had replaced my tires so I was riding brand new Gatorskins. 7 miles into the ride my rear tire exploded. The sidewall had blown out. I'm going to send it back to the company since it really must have been a manufacturing defect. This is at least the fourth Gatorskin that has has the sidewall fail on this trip and it has always been on nearly new tires. I loved my old set of Gatorskins because I hadn't had a single flat on them yet, which would lead you to ask why I replaced them at all and to that I have no good answer. I even thought I would get a flat with the new ones because so many other people had had problems with them. I should have just saved myself the trouble and not bothered replacing them until I actually got a flat. I've learned my lesson although the new tire on the front is holding up just fine so far. Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself by saying that.

Tomorrow we tackle Teton pass which apparently has up to a 13% grade. I'm a little intimidated and my only real goal is to make it to the top even if I have to walk a little.

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Location:Seneca Ln,Jackson,United States