Montana, like so many other states, begins somewhere else. For Montana, it started in Yellowstone after spending a day cycling from the campground to the Old Faithful area, checking out all the geysers, hot springs, bubbling mud, elephant herds, and the tourists. Me and the Swede left Yellowstone and Wyoming early in the morning, and entered Montana with slight winds and beautiful mountains greeting us. We turned north and our slights winds of course became strong headwinds all the way on our 90 mile jaunt to Ennis where we camped along the Madison river.
Heading out we bumped into some tourers I had meet in the Tetons and again in Yellowstone, and they told us about the world famous “Bike Hostel” in Twin Bridges, where bike tourers are treated to a free campground, hot showers, water, screened in sitting area, and plain old respect and good treatment from the townfolk. And so instead of a long 70 miler, it became a dainty 40 miler, giving me and the Swede time to check out the old ghost gold rush towns of Virgina and Nevada City.
Of course, making one day shorter means the next day has to be a little longer, and so it turned a day with two passes into a 75 miler day. Crossing Badger and Big Hole pass, topping at 7,400 feet, we tiredly freewheeled it into the little town of Wisdom where the American Legion has a little park on the river where you can camp for free. In Wisdom, they also don't really follow the normal rules of summer and so the next morning we awoke to temperatures of 34 degrees. Wonderful. Being fully donned in my warm clothes, it was about 12 miles until I was able to slowly remove my layers and bask in the growing sun.
Two more passes, Chief Joseph and Lost Trail, and my 5th crossing of the continental divide, along with a momentary visit to Idaho left us with a killer downhill into the Bitteroot Valley towards our warm shower host in Hamilton. We arrived sweaty and tired, and were greeted warmly as has been the case on my entire trip. A huge dinner and awesome pancakes the next morning set us up well for the sorta downhill ride into Missoula. Had a good stretch of bike path along with a bad stretch of trafficy highway, but rolled into Missoula just in time to visit Adventure Cycling, get our free ice creams, our photos taken, and some needed info about both our upcoming routes. We checked out the Celtic Festival before setting up camp at our warm shower host.
And now the Swede has left for Seattle and I am once again a solo bicycle tourer. From Missoula I will head north to Glacier National Park, first riding south of the park and then coming back east along Going to the Sun Road before heading north into Alberta and British Columbia to make my way to the fabled Banff National Park.
Lots of mountains, lots of glacier lakes, lots of amazing scenery awaits. My love for cycling, for the land, and for life only keeps growing. Each day I try to encapsulate more and more the signature quote of this blog, to "divest myself of the holds that would hold me". Remember, you can send me mail in Seattle, where I will be around the end of August:
Sonadei, LLC
PO BOX 99133
Seattle, WA 98139-0313
USA
PO BOX 99133
Seattle, WA 98139-0313
USA
Check out the most up to date photos of my trip at picasaweb.google.com/rossbikepics Keep pedaling.
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