Traffic Jams

See the full gallery on Posterous

There aren't many roads in the mountains. If you are by a town typically the road you are riding on is also the only road for the cars and trucks, well at least for the major mountains. Valloire is a major town. You descend the Telegraph, quick run through town, then straight up the Galibier.

Valloire is a major point for hiking, mountain biking and etc. It was a cute looking ski town, unfortunately we didn't spend any time there - in and out, up and down.

The traffic to town was fairly heavy. The hope was that traffic would thin out on the Galibier as it's not a major through point. But it's Tour time and the Tour goes over the Galibier so the campers, cars, and camper vehicles were already, three days prior to the Tour, setting up and reserving their spots. As you'll see in next post, they are in for a long few nights!

So the traffic was heavier than usual. But I ran into the most unusual traffic jam (for once I was glad I was slow or I would have missed it!). I heard them first, then saw them quite quickly crest the climb - not sure how cars wouldn't hit them. The amazing thing was that there were over 3,000 of them! I was stuck there maybe 10 minutes (the Shepard stopped traffic once but I couldn't get across). I hit the 2nd traffic break and could see what looked like thousands more down the hill waiting to cross.

With one Shepard and maybe 4 dogs. It was incredible to watch the subtle moves of dog and Shepard guiding the dogs.

Both the sheep and the dogs were a bit curious about me. I was in a bad spot and thought I'd get run over more than once but they always avoided me. A few sheep came up to sniff my wheels and check me out, the lead dog eyed me warily.

It was hilarious watching them bump into each other, jump straight up in the air and jostle about. It was a bit sad to see the ones limping and not using a leg (and across the road was a steep hill they had to negotiate) but there is only one Shepard and the sheep are free to roam wild essentially. From my farm days sheep have terrible hoof issues due to the curve, it attracts dirt (and pooh) well and it sits in there and festers (GROSS to clean out by the way).

Very cool experience. It made my day. Ranks as the highlight of the trip right now (I am a sucker for animals!)

In West Virginia and Southern Ohio they have shotguns on the rack in their trucks. In the Alps they have a shepards hook (no kidding, I saw several!).

Not often you get stuck in a traffic jam of sheep in Ohio!