Thursday, Friday, and Saturday August 12-14
Had a continental breakfast with a rancher named Robert, the guy is a fourth generation rancher in Montana and readily states his number one problem - the government and it's confusing and nonsensical regulations. His wife Mary runs the Post Office in Polaris, so after our informative breakfast we headed down the road to see Mary at a very small single building post office. She had our package of additional supplies, sent by Tom Lafleur from San Francisco. We left her with some of the excess things we didn't need and rode for an eventual end of the day at a guest ranch. We stopped at Bannack State Park to see a town essentially frozen in time, almost 150 years. Very interesting to see how folks lived and the complete lack of any convenience. Worth seeing if you are in the area.
A lot of uphill climbing in the last 4 hours of the day, which is not exactly our desired program, would rather climb in the morning while our legs are still fresh and cooler. Got to the guest ranch and even though we had called ahead, albeit with no answer, there was no one home. Guess that was why there wasn't an answer. At 7 pm at night the last thing we needed was a mile and half detour uphill with no one home. We got back on the main road (a dirt road of course) and went about another 2 miles and found a small meadow by the road with a spring flowing fresh water. Had the usual freeze dried dinner and into the tent. Didn't have to do any bear bags as there weren't likely to be any in the meadow area around that campsite. During the night/early morning a coyote kept getting a little closer and howling like crazy. At least there was only one of them.
Friday we had a very steep climb only 2 miles after starting out. I was last to go up and because of the vegetation and the curve I couldn't see John or Mike. I thought they had ridden the entire way up, so I went for it, damn near threw up and it took 5 minutes of heavy breathing to get back to normal. So much for being machismo! After ascending Medicine Lodge-Sheep Creek Divide we had a mostly downhill run to Lima, about 32 miles away. Lima was a great stop with only 2 motels and a couple of restaurants and a laundromat. Mike and I got to meet up with our wives, an especially huge treat for me as I still have over a month left on this trek. We had a great steak dinner and slept in a rustic cabin.
Saturday we took off for Lakeview with the wives following in a car for part of the way. Colleen joined me for the second half of the day, renting a bike in Bozeman before heading 3 hours south to Lima. It was great to have her experience the type of riding we have been up to, albeit with no big climbs and no trailer but with 30 miles of rolling hills Colleen got a snippet of the experience. Nancy Weinberger joined Mike for the last 6 miles of his trip to finish the entire state of Montana 699 miles on the Adventure Cycling maps and more like 750 actual riding miles, that-a-way Mike! Spent the night at the Centennial Lodge and Outfitters just before Lakeview, a ranch house that is Montana's version of a B&B. The home cooked roast dinner was off the charts good!
Oh yea we have had some concerned comments about our blog entry a few days ago with Mike falling off his bike. It was really no big deal, the falls all occurred while almost standstill owing to the fact he couldn't get his clip-in pedals to disengage and his trailer with all his gear is way too heavy. Hasn't happened in 2 days and the ride is over for him, at least this segment.
