Day 1 - Round and round... up and up!

The thing they don't plug on the Trek America website is the driving. Yes, there's a map and an itinery, but if your mental picture of the US is around the same size as East Anglia it doesn't quite click! Day 1 was basically 6 hours of driving (plus stops) from Seattle to Montana, which serves as a stop-off before reaching Yellowstone.

However, with early starts and most of the accommodation being camping, the drives are actually welcome opportunities to catch up on sleep. I've been making the most of this, as anyone who's travelled with me any distance in a car will attest to. The snoozes are only broken by toilet / petrol stops and bits of conversation when people aren't sleeping.

The early starts allow us to reach places while there are still several hours of daylight, and start exploring the day we arrive. We had a very gentle lead-in, checking into a ranch ont he first night and being fed a meal of ribs, cowboy beand and corn bread. I'm not sure how much actual ranching they do, and to what extent they're basically a step above a campsite but below a hotel, but it worked.

Earlier, we'd had the opportunity to go on a horse ride, but I'd given this a miss as I hoped to do some two-wheeled activities later on, and it cost $30. A few of us explored the ranch (and, as it transpored, did the same walk as the horses) then asked if we could head up the hill at the back for the view. Sure, just jump over the fence.

OK. The first thing I have learned about hills is that they are bigger and further than they look. The second thing I have learned is that when the guy at the front has been soloing round the world for the last 10 months, he's usually going to go at it rather quickly. The third thing is that although the steepest route is the shortest way to the top, it isn't necessarily the kindest on your shins, as unexpected undergrowth rears up. At least I made it to the top though - the other four who'd started with us fell by the wayside. (Mum, I'd taken plenty of food and water, and we were back well before it was dark and in time for tea. :-)