July 30, Tuesday

We left our beautiful streamside campsite and began climbing.  The road had a surprising amount of traffic, mostly horse trailers. There were a couple of people picking huckleberries,  but after that and a couple of turn offs, the road deteriorated and traffic ceased (can you say "direct correlation"?) Later traffic picked up again from the other side, but there was a section of road too rough for most vehicles. We met the cyclist we saw from afar yesterday. His name was Pascal and he was riding something similar to a Surly Disc- trucker, a royad bike, outfitted with disc brakes and suspension fork, but with 1.5 inch tires. He towed a 2 wheeled trailer similar to a Burley Nomad and admitted it was not the ideal setup for the Divide.
Roger was not feeling well, but this seemed to affect his speed mostly. He still did the miles and got to the planned campground with a total of 62 miles ; pretty amazing.
We crossed the dam of a reservoir and found all of the campsites in the National Forest just west of the Tetons closed to the sequestration.  It seemed like more if a statement than anything because more effort must have been expended to close them than the summer upkeep. The vault toilets had been boarded up in a very sophisticated way, not just locked.  The garbage boxes had wooden boards fitted to keep trash from being thrown in, a huge pile if gravel had been deposited in the drive leading up to site to keep cars out, closed signs had been posted and barriers put in front if the whole thing. For each campsite along the road. Just saying.
Merely making people carry out their trash seems like it would mostly suffice. Letting vault toilets go uncleaned/ stocked... whatever. OK. I'm done with my tirade.
Traffic increased as we approached Flag Ranch, but the road became paved and so dust wasn't a problem. At 25 miles, we reached the Flag Ranch area and stopped to do some shopping and refill water bottles.  A construction sign directed people to yield to cyclists. It would be helpful to have more signs like that because drivers seem to actual behave better with them.
The road was being repaved and I rode down the wrong way because i thought the ashphalt was still hot and I've popped a tube that way.
Jackson lake's shoreline is quite evident, since the water level is so low. 
John and I took a quick trip to Colter Bay grocery (which I had forgotten how fabulous it was), while Roger and Jamie continued on. By the time we caught up with them 20 miles later they were 3 miles short of the campground. It was almost 6:30 at that point, so it was a quick rinse, dinner and bed. Loads of horses at this campground, Turpin Meadows. Technically this campground was closed to tents and soft sided campers due to bear activity, but the host turned a blind eye, since she had already done her rounds.
Stats:
Start odometer 1326
End 1389
Avg 12.1
Max 39.2
Total 63
Time 3:22