September Number 2010 16 Official Publication of The Yellowstone Trail Association “A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound” Part One: Getting Biking the Yellowstone Started by Jim Marx. Contents Trail Coast-to-Coast Once I made a decision Biking the Yellowstone Trail-- 1 to do a cross-country History Corner ------------------ 3 Introduction by Mark Mowbray bicycle ride, the next A Word from Mark ------------- 4 One night last winter I got a call question was which Trail-O-Grams Part 1 ---------- 4 from a friend of the past forty route to take. Biking YT Travel Reports -------------- 5 years, Jim Marx. The reason for across the country What’s On My Bookshelf? --- 6 his call, he said, was that his provided many routes Trail-O-Grams Part 2 ----------- 7 Peace Corps plans were on hold, available; Route 66, the Membership and Notices ------ 8 so he was thinking of riding his Lincoln Hi-way, Hwy bicycle across the United States. 10 or Hwy 2 came to He wondered if following the mind. I also recalled a Yellowstone Trail would be a booklet Mark Mowbray shared with me a few years ago about good choice. I assured him that it the Yellowstone Trail. I called Mark, who is now the Executive was a great idea and that the Director of the Yellowstone Trail Association, and discussed the YTA would provide him with possibilities of biking the Yellowstone Trail. Mark told me that maps, contacts, and would assist there are maps of the route available state-by-state, but informed him in any way we could. me that there are sections which are now not drivable, or have Jim was always physically fit. been built over by the interstate hi-ways, and that some sections But, a couple of years ago he was have changed over the years. Mark termed it “a ride on the Jim Marx Yellowstone Trail corridor”. I checked out the maps and decided diagnosed with a serious heart On the YellowstoneTrail condition that was not treatable. it was doable. I would plot routes from city to city along the The heart specialist basically told Yellowstone Trail, following the original route from Plymouth Jim to go home and sit in his rocking chair. Rock to Puget Sound as close as possible. But, Jim went for a walk and felt better, so he walked some more, eventually climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, hiking the full length of the Appalachian Trail, and many other healthy adventures. Therefore, a 3,700 mile bike ride was a challenge to him, but not beyond his ability. Besides, his heart condition has disappeared, much to the puzzlement of his heart specialist. Jim was not puzzled. He knew that the exercise was the reason. Near the western terminus of the Yellowstone Trail, Seattle. I planned on using my 1982 Peugeot bicycle. It has served me well over the years. I biked the weeklong SAAGBRAW in Wisconsin on it, and have already been on 100-mile days with it. Everyone I talked to thought I was nuts, but I had confidence in my bike, it was not until I broke a spoke while on a training ride that I decided to get a new bike. Based on recommendations, I bought a Trek 520 touring bike; it worked great for me. In hindsight, I don’t think my antique Peugeot would have made it out of Washington State over the back roads and dirt trails I took AMTRAK from Michigan to Seattle with the bicycle in a box. as part of the Yellowstone Trail route. Con’t next page Biking the Auto Road - Continued I did not spend a lot of time training for the ride. I was already accustomed to regular 32-mile bike rides. I decided to start with an easy 30 miles per day for the first week, then increase to 40 miles a day for the second week, 50 miles per day in the third week, and peaking at 60 miles per day for the rest of the ride. However, it was on a training ride heading into a stiff westerly wind that I decided to reverse the traditional course of Yellowstone Trail travel and begin my ride in Seattle and bike east toward Plymouth Rock in hopes of using the prevailing westerly winds to my advantage. I did spend a lot of time researching and procuring equipment for the ride as well as researching the route. What started out as just an interest in identifying which roads to take, became an infatuation with the Yellowstone Trail and its history. I got About six miles east of Kirkland the YT followed the Red Brick Road. Now 196th Ave NE. All packed up and ready to leave Seattle, from the ferry dock on Puget Sound. During Trail days, the autoist drove Madison St. from here to Lake Washington and took the ferry to Kirklland. The beautiful Snoqualmie River near Fall City, Washington, the first night “on the Trail.” excited about riding along the same route, over the same roads in some cases, that early cars used to cross the continent nearly 100 years ago. Maybe I would even stay in the same hotel, or camp COMING IN FUTURE INSTALLMENTS at the same site as they did. Jim will report more about his 3,657 miles and 65 days on the To get to Seattle, I took the Amtrak Empire Builder train from Yellowstone Trail in coming issues of the Arrow. Chicago. This turned out to be a good choice as I got a preview Arrow #17 Jim tackles the Rocky Mountains, crosses the of the terrain I would be biking back across in the next couple Continental Divide, gets rained on a lot, and is missed (barely) months; the Midwest, the High Plains, the Rockies and the by a tornado in Billings, MT. Cascade Mountains. The plains looked like long stretches of openness, and the mountains long stretches of constant uphill Arrow #18 After a long and hard ride across the Dakotas riding. I knew I was starting at sea level at Puget Sound and and Minnesota, Jim follows a section of the original ending at sea level at Plymouth Rock, so for every uphill climb, I Yellowstone Trail route...by boat! would have a downhill coast. Arrow #19 His home state of Wisconsin (and some fun On Sunday morning, May 23, I began my Yellowstone Trail times) behind him, Jim blasts through the "windy city" and cross-country ride at the ferry dock in Seattle on Puget Sound. pushes hard to Plymouth Rock. The highlight that day was riding on the red brick road east of Arrow #20 Jim's wrap-up and future plans. Redmond. I could just picture Models T’s driving on the road still paved with the original bricks from 1912. After 30 miles of biking, I spent my first night at a B&B in Fall City knowing that biking across the U.S.A. on the Yellowstone Trail was going to be a great experience. 2 History Corner The author of this article, Dave Habura, was just named Western Hills and Radiators by Dave Habura Regional Correspondent to the Unless you drive an 18 wheeler, you probably don’t pay much attention to how steep the YTA. He introduced himself: grade you are climbing may be. About the only response is a little more pressure on the My long time interest in road trips throttle. But at one time it was a serious matter on the Yellowstone Trail and other early and road maps began when I was highways. family navigator for our auto trips in On any grade of consequence in the summer, drivers on the Yellowstone Trail were seen the 1940's and 50's. My old road parked by the roadside waiting outside their overheated vehicles for nature to map and road ephemera collection intervene....unless there was a source of water nearby. may be the largest in the northwest, Steep grades meant going slower. Less air passing through the radiator meant two things, so my interest in the Yellowstone boiling water and vapor lock. Radiators boiled over, and fuel lines got so hot that the Trail comes naturally. gasoline vaporized in the lines and stopped flowing to the About ten years ago I found carburetor. The solution was cool water added to the Introducing the Yellowstone Trail by radiator judiciously so that a sudden drop in temperature John and Alice Ridge, an excellent didn’t crack the engine block, and water poured over the work which helped focus my Trail hot fuel lines to cool them. Or you could sit by the road interest. I remain in awe at what with the hood open and wait for things to cool down, they have accomplished. More which could take some time on a hot day. recently my "discovery" of the Highway departments and volunteers built fountains on National Parks Highway has added many grades where a spring or small creek offered a to my interest in the Yellowstone source of the cooling fluid. Like vistas and overlooks, Trail because the two are intertwined water fountains were a gathering place for weary travelers, in many ways who quenched their thirst as well as that of their automobiles. The water meant there might My lovely wife and oft time road be shade trees to languish under for a few minutes while the children filled their cheeks trip companion, Sheila, and I live in with water and squirted one another, or splashed each other with water from the trough. Olympia, Washington.