Sunday, July 04, 2010
Today, Sunday, we’re in Missoula, MT taking a day off. We got here yesterday afternoon and are still on schedule. This coming week, however, is 411 miles through mountains so we will probably fall a day behind schedule (as we don’t think we can average 70 miles a day for the whole week). But we had planned for a little extra time so we’ll be all right.
Monday was one of our very best riding days of the trip. We left W. Yellowstone and rode through a beautiful mountain valley along Hebgen Lake for 25 miles. The end of the valley was the sight of the 1959 earthquake that collapsed part of a mountain and destroyed roads, houses, and campgrounds and created Earthquake Lake. The collapsed mountainside is still there and was pretty impressive to see.
Tuesday we started off with a 2,000 ft. climb and went through Virginia City, MT which had a stagecoach and several old, restored buildings and looked like an Old-West movie set. We camped that night in Twin Bridges which had a very nice “cyclists only” campground. We sat out a pretty fierce thunderstorm in our tents in the later afternoon but everything inside the tents, including us, stayed dry.
Thursday started out badly as I discovered I had a flat tire as I started to ride out of town. A tiny piece of wire had pierced the tire and the tube. I patched the tube and was on my way a bit later than I had planned. We had two 1500 ft. climbs to do and after the first one we got caught in a cattle drive. Actually, I was a bit behind Steve and when I got to the drive the cowboys, who had been driving the large herd on the road, had just moved them to the pasture so I got to see it but was not held up. Steve, however, came upon the drive while it was still in the road and had to follow the herd while being attacked by a huge swarm of mosquitoes that was also following the cattle. A cowgirl on an ATV came to his rescue and led him through the herd (although several of the bulls appeared to take exception to his presence and looked as if they were thinking of doing something about it).
Friday we had another climb, 1200 ft. over Chief Joseph Pass, and a steep descent into Darby. Early that day we stopped at the site of the Big Hole Battle where Chief Joseph’s band, fleeing the U. S Army, had a fierce battle with Col. John Gibbon’s forces and escaped to continue their flight. I know the Chief Joseph story well so this was of particular interest to me.
Saturday was a nice, uneventful, 70-mile, mostly downhill (16 miles on a bike trail) ride into Missoula and here we are. We’re hoping to catch fireworks for the 4th tonight.
Tomorrow we head for Idaho and have another 2,000 ft. climb, this time over the Lolo Pass.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers and, once again, thanks for your support.
Bruce
