Today is John Witzel's 56th birthday! He woke up to a clear sunrise on a gorgeous lake - happy B-day. After a quick breakfast we started up the big climb, which as it turned out was not as hard we thought but the descent on fairly rough single track trails was a lot harder. On the way up we saw very dramatic mountains and peaks in the distance still almost fully covered in snow. On the way down the single track was rough, some wash-out and logs fallen across the trail requiring dismount and portage around those areas. When we hit the dense foliage areas I started whistling as loud as I could since I was in the lead. Mike was talking loudly to himself to create noise too. We didn't want to run up on a bear without them hearing us.
We ate hamburgers in Seeley Lake, 2 miles off the trail but well worth it. After 244 miles and 6 days of riding (with 1/2 day of being lost), we finally get to the next page of the map. A long, constant medium climb takes us to Ovanda, a throw back to the Old West, a cute town with a B&B, cafe-coffee shop, museum, gas station and a fishing shop. Since we don't have a lot fuel left until we hit Helena in 2 days we are trying to eat out as much as possible.
