 So with a fresh tan and a pack of food, I hopped back on the bike. My knee and elbow were healing up fine with more or less full mobility. I was first going to split out of Bozeman and head towards a new friends house in McAllister to help out cleaning her barn for a few dollars for the road. Even though I just came off a break, my 3 days there was very relaxing with a spectacular view of the surrounding Tobacco Root mountains while sitting in the Madison Valley.  Riding through Ennis ("fly-fishing capital of the world") and then to Virginia city (a once extremely booming gold rush town of 10,000..now a registered historic landmark and ghost town of 132 tourism loving residents). Not knowing I had jumped on the ACA's trans-am bike route, I rode up to 3 other touring cyclists, 2 going my way and one going the other. We chatted for a bit and then started riding together towards Twin Bridges. With the wind in our favor, we cruised our way to Twin Bridges. Lunch time for me, but quitting time for them. The county fair was going on in Twin Bridges and they (one being from Scottland) wanted to experience a good ol' Ameracun demolition derby. Guess I can't blame em', but I wanted to cover some more ground. I ate a typical lunch down by the river as I watched hollering kids float by on tubes and catch an occasional whiff of nearby dog poo. Besides the promise of crazy fried objects at the fair, I was very ready to hit the asphalt.  I had about 10 miles to get North of town, then I knew I would be turning onto a dirt road to catch "a shortcut". I knew it would be gravel and about 10 miles of it. Emmmm, nope. Turned out to be 20 miles of heavy heavy loose hilly gravel open range country road. All of those words together are not good for a bicycle. This stuff was even bad for full suspended trucks. Very easily I could have taken the long (paved!) road and made it there before I was done with my gravel road short cut. Ya live and ya learn I suppose. But...It was pretty.  Met high school kids jumping of a bridge into the river (their beloved summer was almost up), spotted Ospreys (i think) and Eagles, held my breath as I rode through herds of brainless cattle staring at me like I was riding a giant black banana instead of a bicycle ready to attack at any moment. But instead of attacking, they ran. Never letting me pass and be out of their life. So I followed this herd of 10 skittish cattle about a mile while swerving their home made pies until they were able to take refuge in an open grass field or up the unattractive rocky hillside. That was a new experience for me..  So I wont go into the gory details of this 20 mile road, but lets just say it ended up at me yelling at things that could not yell back at me. That BIG rock that made me tip off my bike. That set of 3 hills I saw in the distance after I thought things would finally be flattening out resulting in a very loud "Are you f*$% kidding me??!" Remind you that I was anticipating 10 miles, thinking every "around the next corner" was the last. Meh, it was rough and I was very very tired after this day. But I survived the 85 mile day and made it to the Divide Bridge Campground. Because it was actually an excellent campground, I didn't even skip the bill and paid for my camp site. I bathed in the Big Hole River and hung out with nearby retirees on a RV/fly fishing vacay. The hailed from NC and knew places I knew. They fed me apples and pimento sandwiches and eventually kicked me out so they could go to sleep after I took to long to eat my sandwiches. I slept very soundly.  The ride along the Big Hole River to Wisdom was what makes Montana Montana. Uhhhh you can't pay to see stuff like this. A winding river 50 ft down to the right of me. Canyoned walls on either side of me. Wildflowers, hardwoods and conifers, peaceful fly fishers, birds of prey, steady climbs or descents, the works. The road spit me out on the other side of the Beaverhead National Forest and I had a fairly easy slightly tailwinded (and of course sometimes headwinded) ride into Wisdom. I ate a whole pizza with 3 other chaps that were heading the other direction the next day. It was frozen in Wisdom, but I decided to make it consecutive day 4 that I bathed in the nearby river. The morning was frozen as well and I bundled up and headed for my last pass over the continental divide at Chief Joseph Pass. I followed the Bitterroot River along the Bitterroot mountains into Darby, MT. Caught a beer and burger with 3 other fellow tourers and then chugged myself up to Hamilton and where I would find a place to stay for the evening. Striking out at the bike shop, I snagged a few numbers offline at the library and then struck gold with Cassie! She took me in last minute, took me on a little field trip to see the farm that she gets her CSA vegetables from, and cooked up a killer curry. What a lady.  After finding out I needed to get to Missoula a whole day earlier to be able to catch a ride upto Glacier, I managed to find a ride early the next morning. But that is a whole lot to take in, I'll let you chew on all that for a little bit. |
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Journal >
'A cow, a cyclist, and a banana walk into a country fair..': Bozeman to Missoulaposted Nov 17, 2011 2:09 PM by Seth Buller |