Location: - West Yellowstone MT Miles = 49, Ave MPH = 10.0 Cum. Miles = 1399

Friday August 8

Quote of the Day:  "Things just have a way of  working out sometimes."

I had to say goodbye to my very comfortable sleeping quarters. Honestly there was no smell as I have been challenged on that by several people:):):) However, I got out just in time as 2 campers from nearby were there at 6:30 to use my "sleeping quarters":

Just some flowers that I found nearby:

What was this tree thinking?? The apparent impossible location of this tree in the middle of the Madison River was explained several miles up the road:

This is the Earthquake Lake Center that explains about an earthquake on August 17, 1959 that created a new lake by the dam that was created as the mountain slid into the gorge:

This is the model that shows what happened. The brown area in the middle depicts the area that came off of the mountain during a 7.5R quake:

One of the areas that slid away:

One of the displays that tells of the aftermath. 250 campers were in the area of which there were 28 fatalities - 19 bodies are still entombed in the slide. Smokejumpers parachuted in to assist with rescue efforts:

This is the resulting lake - Earthquake Lake

This view in the opposite direction gives a clue as to the strangeness of the tree in the river that I had seen earlier. One of the results of the earthquake was the rerouting of the river to an area that had previously had mature trees on it just as the trees seen here in the lake:

I took a hike down this track  to see some of the cabin remains as seen in the next photo:

Upon reflection I realized that if my previous day hadn't been cut short by the thunderstorm I would have seen and understood nothing about Earthquake Lake as I would have been passing through in mostly darkness. Things just have a way of working out:

A westbounder Cory from Maryland:

This is the next lake up from Earthquake Lake - Lake Hebgen. As I came down and this lake came in view the Kenny Chesney song "55th and 3rd" was playing on the iPod. What a hauntingly beautiful song to hear looking out across such utter beauty. I played it 4 more times as I rounded the lake:):)

I was very fortunate to get to West Yellowstone and take cover just before another afternoon of thunder showers hit:

Another fortunate thing that happened was that the Yellowstone Bicycle Shop was very close by so I could take cover and make some modifications to my bike and work on blogging. This is Gay the very congenial owner:

When the rain stopped I knew that I could make it to Madison which is inside Yellowstone. But Madison only had rustic camping meaning no showers, and getting a shower had become a priority at that point. Gay tried to help me find a motel to stay at but no luck so she recommended the Grizzly RV park.  What a great recommendation! Beautiful accommodations and only $11.

The Usual Disclaimer: 

  
And finally please remember the cause -   soldiersbestfriend.org  I will go into this in more detail and perhaps some level of haranguing later on, but for now here is the link .... and an additional link for donation   SoldiersBestFriend - Donate Please :):)   Oh and I would be a lot more comfortable if you use the "honorarium" option vs the "memoriam" option - you'll understand when you click on the link:):).   

As you donate please enter my name in the "In Honor of Spot" so the folks at SBF can tally the results to encourage me and let me know WE are getting something done TOGETHER. I recognize we are really trying to honor the Vets but this is the only way SBF can tally the results of this drive (tour).

  I will be inserting this call-to-action in all of my blogs so I hope you don't mind.