Pedal and Path: Across the Continent Awheel and AfootThayer, George B. (George Burton)
History
Pedal and Path: Across the Continent Awheel and Afoot
Thayer, George B. (George Burton)
Bicycle touring; United States -- Description and travel
After waiting all day at Pocatello, where I put in five or six
hours of good sleep on the platform, on the shady side of the depot,
with the knapsack for a pillow, I reached Beaver Cañon, on the Utah
Northern Railroad, at three A.M., and before daylight slept an hour
or two more on the floor of the waiting-room, near a stove that
was really comfortable, for the nights were quite cold up there. I
had lost so much sleep the past week, I could lie down and take a
comfortable nap anywhere I could get a chance. The two nights on the
boat, it may be remembered, were not accompanied with many hours of
sound repose. The first night out of Portland, I talked with friends
on the train who were to return home by the Northern Pacific, till
late, and then I wrote till after one o'clock. After that there was
not much rest sitting bolt upright, for every seat in the car was
taken. The next night it required more force of will to stop off at
Shoshone than anything I had done during the trip, for these reasons:
I was going towards home, after four months and a half of constant
traveling away from it. That thought alone made me very happy, and
I could not bear to be delayed even for a day; and besides, I had
laid down with four seats all to myself even before dark that night,
with the intention of having a good long night's rest. But I did not
want to miss any great sight so near as that to my route, and so I
took short naps all night till three in the morning, for I did not
want to be carried by the station. The next night I took the train
at the same hour that I left it the previous night; and thus I had
had only one good night's sleep in over a week, when I started out
due east early in the morning, Aug. 22d, for the Yellowstone.
Distance on the wheel, 3,251 miles.
CHAPTER XXI.
IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK.
Next morning I left Beaver Cañon, taking some luncheon along with me,
and it was well I did, for there was no place to get food, and I saw no
one all day. But the roads were excellent, level, and running through
some beautiful meadows, with hills on either side covered thick with
pines. There were many streams to ford, though, and taking off my shoes
and stockings so often was the cause of much delay. It was the first
delay of this kind during the trip. However, I reached the Half-Way
Hotel sometime before sundown, after riding fifty-five miles, and was
obliged to stop there, for the next ranch was twenty miles farther on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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