Day 16 Missoula to Hamilton, Montana

-
The morning air was chilly at 6:30 am. Well, that happens in the mountains. After a quick pick me up breakfast, we sagged it to Missoula. Again, erring on the side of caution because of the road conditions, we were glad to skip highway 93 for several miles and start today's ride in Missoula.  Once we unpacked the bikes and clicked into our shoes, it looked like it was going to be a lovely day! Paved trail riding for the whole ride! What a relief! We started out on the inner city section of the Bitterroot Trail. What a quaint little city! Lots of cool things to do there, but we just took it all in as we cruised by....

As we got out further from the city, we saw a small herd of Buffalo, a purple and white Buffalo too, some beautiful vista's of the Bitterroot River and the mountains looming up ahead in the direction of Hamilton. As we got closer to Hamilton, we could see the snow in the peaks. Cool.



Ticking off the miles, we cruised along the trail further out in the country, maintaining a pretty steady pace until we saw a sign about "the best pie" on a billboard. We put it to a vote and the pie won. Yum! After taking off that much time to enjoy pie (except Lisa who indulged in home fries a la Americain) we realized that the temperature, as promised by the weather forecast, was speedily going up. We needed to hightail it to our next destination: Hamilton.

Sue Shrader and I decided to, well, haul ass to beat the heat. I think we had 26 miles to go at that point. Right about at mile 20, we spotted Leslie at a gas station. Serendipity! She gave us the address of our lodging. Six more miles to go. And go we did!  Fun. We arrived at this gorgeous house on a quiet street in Hamilton. There is no escaping the beautiful Trapper Peak from anywhere in town. In addition to that, the accomodations were lovely: back yard patio ( in the shade!), fridge full of cold beverages, comfortable and spacious bedrooms and 2 living rooms. 

When everybody gathered around the table to eat the awesome meal that Pete put together, there was thankfulness all around for our good fortune all day long. It really was a lovely day. 

Comments

  1. VarettaJuly 31, 2022 at 7:27 PM

    Ride on team What is y'all name? The update journaling is great, yum on the pie, that's count as an energy bar ,right!!!! Prayers go up too

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BetsyAugust 1, 2022 at 6:19 PM

      Going clockwise around the table starting with Pete, Lauran, Pete's sister Lisa, my sister Sue, Stephanie, me and photographer is Lauran. Lesli is our driver and chef!

      Delete
  2. Susie LAugust 1, 2022 at 7:14 PM

    Way to go you guys! You are making great progress. We've enjoyed the pictures - we have amazingly similar pictures from our trip! Had Chris for dinner last night and showed him some of our pictures. He seems to be doing well! Keep riding and have fun!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BetsyAugust 2, 2022 at 7:41 PM

      Thanks for looking after Chris in our absence. I hope he introduced you to Sue Turner who is staying with him!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 11 Halfway, Oregon (population 303) to Cambridge, Idaho (population 328)

-
Image
Well that was an interesting night for sure! I slept in the shack "out back." On my way to the shack to go to bed,  I saw a large feral cat. That sprang my imagination into high speed. Hmm I wonder why it ran under the shack? Will birds and snakes crawl into my shack? Oh bother! When I finally went to sleep, I slept well. No creatures visited in the night.  Monday morning. Up bright and early! Lauran gave me a gentle reminder to wake up. As she had already perked a pot of coffee, I was eager to get up and get going. We all bustled about the place packing and preparing for today's climb; almost identical to yesterday's trajectory. Today we hoped to get started an hour earlier to avoid the predicted high heat. We might make all 58 miles if we planned it right. Donning some very strange looking duck billed visors, we set off into the rising sun. What a fantastic morning. Flying up over hills and down the other side on Hells Canyon Rd. I got a great view of an Elk standin
Read more

September 23: Steubensville OH through West Virginia to Pittsburgh PA; 33 miles

-
Image
View from our hotel in Steubensville Today we started on our 4 trail to finish stretch. And we crossed 2 state borders!  We started on the Panhandle Trail in West Virginia which hooked into the Montour trail that circles around Pittsburgh and eventually connects with the Great Allegheny Passage and lastly the C&O into Washington.  Both the Panhandle and Montour are lovely.   The Panhandle was flat and paved making for excellent riding at top cruising speeds (20 mph)!  The Montour was crushed limestone but smooth.  We traveled across a long trestle bridge and through a 600 ft long tunnel.  Great fun!  Tomorrow we will connect with the GAP for 3 days.  This phase seems like a huge turning point, no more road riding, and.......Pete gave up his noodle! Pete sadly removes his noodle, it seems to be too old to be of use! It was a COLD 🥶morning, temperatures did not get above mid 60s until lunchtime.  The frigid temperature necessitated a stop at the Walden Restaurant in Burgettstown PA.
Read more

Day 66: Old Town to Williamsport, 43 miles. An Epic Day all Around!

-
Image
Pete's Epic Malfunction: he survived to tell the tale! One more day!   Stephanie agreed to SAG today.  Lance, Lisa, Pete and I set off on a crisp sunny morning after a leisurely morning at the school house.  We had heard from cyclist Mitch that there was a paved trail paralleling the C&O that we could pick up in Little Orleans.  Since we needed to SAG around the Paw Paw Tunnel anyways, Stephanie drove us over the mountain on a gravel road to the trailhead.  We were thrilled to see a black bear cross the road in front of us while enroute.  Lisa remarked that she was glad that we were in the car as opposed to on bikes. The Western Maryland rail trail was smooth and easy to navigate.  We enjoyed the fall air and ease of travel.  At Hancock we left the trail to look for lunch.  ONE restaurant was open and they had a 30 minute wait due to not having enough waitstaff and cooks.  We're retired, we have time!  And how could you not want to eat at a restaurant named "Buddylou&#
Read more