Day 10: Hot Springs

18.2 miles

We had a shorter day today due to having to go further than expected yesterday because of lodging. 

Mike wants to note how peacefully I sleep with the rain fly on.

We went to gather our food out of the bear storage area and hit the road. We saw a couple more deer as we left the campground. I am quite glad that was the only wildlife we saw nearby. 

We also had to go up our last huge climb on map 1 today, but the reward was wonderful: hot springs!

I had been talking about these hot springs for days now, and they were finally here!

The climb was steep, 7-8% grade for many miles. We got a nice view at the top.  One other tourist was very impressed by us and took photos of us climbing. We both realized signs you never want to see while biking say 'passing lanes ahead'. Passing lanes mean big long climbs. The worst was over and we got to the pass, but our passing lanes had not yet disappeared. I was not fooled by the tourist telling us the climb was over. Seriously, never tell someone the climb is over when it isn't. We saw another bear on the top of the mountain right next to the cement barrier on the side of the road. Then finally, the magical sign...passing lanes ending in 2km!  We made it over our last mountain on this set of maps! We whizzed down the mountain (this side was much steeper and longer than the side we came up) and saw another bear.  We climbed over 2000ft and descended 3500ft. 

Black bear, black bear, what do you see?  I see two bikers looking at me. 

Then to the hot springs. They were so relaxing.  There was a hot pool and a cool pool that we switched between.  Once we had our fill we finished our descent into town.  It was so weird to be leaving the National parks after being in them for so many days, but our wallets sure were happy.  We grabbed some lunch, and my first ice cream of the trip. It really hadn't been warm enough up in the mountains to crave it. I was happy though. It was well earned!

We checked in to our motel. Which was really a B&B motel mix.  It was awesome. I took a nap, while Mike looked into our next destination. We walked around town a bit, and grabbed some dinner were we could watch USA beat China in the World Cup match.

On our walk we spotted a herd of bighorn sheep in town.  They were panting hard. It was quite hot out. 

 I think I was a bit dehydrated from the climb, heat, and hot springs, so I downed lots of liquids.  We stopped by a grocery store to replenish our supply of snacks and off to bed.