As we've moved north out of Idaho and into our last state, Montana, a couple of sights have become much more common. For one thing, there are the panic-inducing mosquitos. This has led to some slightly miserable camping as we actually hit each other in the face more often than we talk. Mostly we forgive a good face slap as long as the mosquito winds up dead, but occasionally reflex gets in the way and Cate hits me back. Mosquitos make us into grumpy children again.
Another interesting thing we've noticed is Montana's very big sky. "Wow what a big sky!" we thought when we crossed the Idaho-Montana border. It always seems to be raining somewhere, especially in the afternoon. Thankfully we've missed most of the storms. For example, on this fine afternoon we stopped to enjoy ourselves when we realized a massive storm was crossing our path in front of us.
A pickup truck pulled up as we sipped our Coors light and munched on snacks. An octogenarian rolled down the window, and said, "It's a hard life, but someone's gotta do it!" You are right, sir, we are just doing our best.
How did we get such nice beer, you ask? The night before, as we camped in what we thought was the middle of nowhere, a caravan of two pickup trucks and an ATV started bumping down the washed out road next to our campsite. Sadly the last truck got stuck in the mud, and the man in the first truck saw we were starting a fire and immediately offered us some lighter fluid. Of course, we said no thank you, but the guy pulled firewood out of his truck. "I don't need this anymore! Please take them!" he said, gesturing with a log in each hand. Of course, he had to carry it over and put it in our fire ring, and then it was only natural for him to douse it in gasoline. Presto we had a roaring fire! Before the caravan left, he insisted we take two of the most gigantic marshmellows I have ever seen! As an afterthought, his son handed us two Coors lights as well.
Gifts from the passing ATVers.
A gift of beer was especially welcome because we brought a six pack of Moose Drool Brown Ale with us from Lima, MT, but as it was chilling in the stream, one of them escaped! I literally spent an hour looking for my lost beer, but it was nowhere to be found. I can only hope a moose found it and was offended.
Can you spot a lost can of beer? No? Me neither.
The third and final notable thing about Montana is the absurd number of cyclists!! It is a very popular time to start riding from the north, and so we see a couple cyclists going the other direction, every day! We thought that our BOBs plus hardtail mountain bikes was the most common setup, but here you will see a wealth of others.
These guys, Charlie and Dave, weren't actually riding the divide, but Charlie just did a section in Colorado, plus he and his brother started the Grand Teton Brewing Company, which was very nice to us in Victor, ID! Dave has a cool recumbent bike.
We camped one night with Lucas and Brandon in Bannack State Park. They are from Lincoln, Nebraska, and were very nice to let us share their campsite. They both have rigid frame 29ers, panniers. and drop handlebars.
Ian and Turtle are from Tuscon, AZ, and Turtle works with jaguars. They had the same setup as us--front shocks, BOB trailers, but they are vegan. No ice cream!! How do they do it?
The next two cyclists were British! Top of the morning to you too!
Phil's had a BOB, but decided it was too big, so he welded together a new trailer/rack of his own design. It's possible he welded together his bike as well.
Stuart had panniers and a big, floppy, safari hat in place of a helmet.
We met more people than we took pictures of, including five cyclists with no stuff at all. They were followed by an RV. Literally, a huge RV followed them down the road at about 10 miles an hour. We've also seen a couple motorbikes riding the trail, and we've heard of many more people.
It would be hard to describe every day of our trip since Driggs, so I will just show the photos:
Leaving the Tetons!
Squirrel Dance Hall: I enjoyed imagining what goes on in here.
Crazy afternoon storms.
Biking along Warm River on an old railroad bed.
Old railroad tunnel--we weren't allowed to bike through.
Leaving Island Park, ID, we went on this crazy road. Yes, this was the right way.
Beautiful views of Sawtelle Mountain from our "bike path."--the closed road.
Getting very wet feet near the Centennial Range on the very edge of Idaho.
Continental Divide sign AND state sign! How exciting to be in our last state!
Biking along Lima Reservoir on our way to Lima, MT and our first care package.
We ate breakfast at this Calf A in Dell, MT.
Biking up a very windy, rocky canyon to Medicine Lodge-Sheep Creek Divide, where we met our fire and gigantic marshmellow enthusiasts.
Storms on the horizon, as usual. Thankfully they never came our way!
In the abandoned ghost town of Bannack--now a not-so-well-preserved stated park.
"Antique Merry Go Round: Use At Own Risk." Cate you are so daring!!!
Old county courthouse, and converted hotel. We were allowed into "any buildings that aren't locked!" We took this as a challenge, though most buildings had very tilted floors that made us feel dizzy.
Old Free Mason lodge and schoolhouse.
From Bannack State Park, we headed to Elkhorn Hot Springs, where we encountered warm swimming pools filled with algae and VERY unfriendly staff.
All the bicyclists coming the other way warned us about Fleecer Ridge and its ridiculous downhill. Unfortunately, for us this meant an impossible uphill.
Starting up Fleecer Ridge. We're still smiling as we head up this two track!
Very quickly the trail turned into this river and we fell and hurt ourselves. We're off to a good start.
A couple miles of hard climbing and we get to this. Now, the picture doesn't do it justice. This is a trail heading straight up a mountain! Most people coming the other way walk their bikes down. So we had to walk our bikes up. But, it proved impossible to push our bikes with our trailers, so we took two long, hard trips. In about a mile we gained over 1000 feet.
Cate starting up the trail with her BOB bag on her back.
Pushing bike and empty trailer up the mountain. Note how small the trail is at the bottom!
Several hours later, at the top! Fleecer Mountain is in the background. Note how the trail has disappeared and we are now riding in grass.
Fleecer ridge took the better part of a day, and then it was one day into Butte, MT, where we are now!
