70 miles, 2876 ft ascent, 5:26 saddle time, elevations: min 4634, max 6930 ft
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I forgot to talk about our guardian angel yesterday. I previously told you about how our WarmShowers host in Lander, Dannine, came to rescue me when the winds 3 miles south of Lander became dangerous. Well, at the Earthquake Lake visitor center, Brian broke a clip on his rear right pannier. He had to strap it to his rack, which made it difficult to remove. Well, we were riding along and stopped in a turnout to rest and a campervan pulled over to the side of the road. Lo and behold, it was Dannine, Vicky and a friend. They werre on their way to Missoula for a concert and saw us. Dannine happened to have the same pannier as Brian, so he was able to switch clips and repair his pannier. Also, Brian and I both have sleep issues that make camping challenging. I was concerned about carrying a heavy tent (6 lb) over multiple passes that were coming up. We had been talking about mailing our tents home and staying in hostels and motels. We had not totally committed to the idea yet and mentioned it in passing to Dannine. She immediately offered to mail them home for us. We could not pass up that opportunity, so we gave the tents to Dannine. That was the second time Dannine came to my rescue. She is a truly generous and caring person.
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| Dannine is in the bottom of this selfie |
Today’s ride started out with a long climb of 1906 ft in 8.2 miles. I have found that my riding companions can eat a large breakfast and then start riding hard, but I cannot. Consequently, I ate a light breakfast of mostly carbs (pancakes) and then planned to eat a second breakfast once I was over the pass. The downhill ride on the other side was exhilarating! Our group consisted of three at this point, Brian, Erick and me. We stopped in Virginia City for my second breakfast of eggs, sausage and hash browns. I am eating a LOT more than I usually do, and I am always hungry.
Virginia City looked like you might imagine a western mining town looking back in the 1800’s. The town had its heyday back in 1863 when gold was discovered in the Alder Gulch. Unfortunately I don’t have photos because Virginia City and the neighboring Nevada City were on a steep downhill run and it is difficult to keep stopping on a good downhill. I am fascinated with the old west, so I would like to visit these towns on a future trip. As we proceeded down the Alder Gulch I noticed lots of piles of rock and gravel. They were mine tailings from dredging of the gulch to get to the gold. Ecologically speaking, they ruined the gulch. I can only imagine how beautiful the gulch was before that happened.
Ennis had an old west museum, but it was not open when we passed. I saw this old harvesting machine on the way out of Ennis, which I can imagine being pulled by the tractor in my previous post.
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| Old harvesting machine |
These are views of the valley from the top of the pass. This area of Montana is characterized by strings of mountains separated by wide open valleys.
When passing through Yellowstone NP I saw a bear (from a distance!) and multiple Bison, but the Elk were elusive. Today I probably came the closest I will come to seeing elk.
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| Wall decorations in restaurant in Twin Bridges |
We stayed at the Southwest Bicycle Camp hostel in Dillon, which is a unique facility created by a cross-country bicyclist and former physics teacher, Larry. He was a really interesting guy and was easy to talk to. This hostel had multiple buildings, but no beds! A couple days ago I threw away my sleeping pad because the valve broke, and today I shipped my tent home, so I was concerned about how I would sleep. I mentioned that to Larry and he offered me a cot. Hallelujah! The sunset at the camp was beautiful.
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| Sunset over the Southwest Bicycle Hostel |
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