Day 4: Drummond to Philipsburg

June 15, 2025

Today is a relatively short day, so I was in no hurry. Up at 8:15. Pedaled to have breakfast at the cafe, then back to the motel to pack up. On the road at 10 AM.

I looked around Drummond a bit, pedaled to the city park alongside the Clark Fork river. It has a campground and a low bridge across the river that doesn't offer a great view. Then I got on the main MT 1 bridge which is much higher. It offers a great view. My final view of the Clark Fork river that I first saw in Missoula.

Clark Fork river from the new highway bridge.

Today's route is entirely on MT 1 which is signed as the Pintler Veterans Memorial Scenic Highway. The first few miles are upstream in a wide valley, with tall mountains ahead in the distance to the left.

I felt decent when starting today's ride. Today's route is all upstream, so I was kind of slow. Late in the morning I started to feel mild pain on the left side of my chest. I kept pedaling but tried to take it easy. I started to feel weak and tried to take it even easier. After a few minutes I felt too weak to pedal. I stopped in the village of Hall and laid down on the concrete front porch of a church for about 30 minutes. That made me feel much better.

I wasn't suffering from heat exhaustion. Temperature was only 75F. I wasn't suffering from extreme exhaustion because it was early in the day. I had only pedaled 10 gently uphill miles.

I laid down on the concrete in front of the church.

After the long rest I continued the ride with no further chest pain or weakness. I tried to go at a slow easy pace to avoid triggering chest pain, and was successful. The next 2 mornings I also had brief mild chest pain, but no weakness. Never late in the day when I was the most tired. Then it went away and never happened again for the remainder of the tour, or since the tour.

MT 1 had moderate traffic. Mostly recreational traffic. Few big trucks choose to drive this mountain road. Plus, today is Sunday. Traffic was mellow. Nobody seemed to be in a big hurry.

The rumble strip was troublesome. A few places have no rumble strip but most of the road has a rumble strip. When the road is straight the rumble strip is close to the fog line as it should be. But whenever the road curves the rumble strip drifts into the shoulder, ruining it for cycling. Montana is notorious for unnecessarily ruining narrow shoulders with rumble strips.

Rumble strips always drift to the middle of the shoulder when the road curves.

Today's weather fit the usual pattern. Sunny morning, then cloudy from about noon until 6 PM. High of 80F, but a bit cooler after sprinkles at 3 PM. Very pleasant.

Today I had my first encounters with mosquito swarms when near the flat river floodplain. Mosquitoes were less of a problem when high above the river.

The last few miles to Philipsburg gave me good views of mountains ahead to the south. I will see the mountains up close tomorrow.

Today was pretty much uphill all day but the grades were gentle. 1 to 3 percent on MT 1. Steeper but still easy 4 percent on the spur road into Philipsburg.

I arrived in Philipsburg at 4:30 and got my reserved room at the 1890 Broadway Hotel. I saw the steep staircase from street level to the hotel, but eventually found the main hotel entrance on the back of the building. After checking in I promptly went to a nearby Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. I was hungry after no lunch on the road. After dinner I took a nap for 2 hours, then got up and had 2 canned beers on the patio of the brewery. They aren't allowed to serve beer on tap after 8 PM.

Broadway Hotel upper left. Brewery lower right.

Level benches on the side of the brewery.

I enjoyed walking around Philipsburg. It was founded in 1867, was a successful silver smelter and logging town. It has a great collection of grand historic buildings in a small town mountain setting.

Philipsburg has many tourists like me. It's on a well known scenic byway that goes to two historic smelter towns.

Granite County courthouse. Philipsburg is sort of wealthy but Granite county appears to be quite poor.

Historic jail and sheriff office, still in use.

I got to The Sweet Palace just before they closed, and bought one large dark chocolate pecan cluster for $8. I ate it over 2 days.

Philipsburg is well preserved. I like it. Very little traffic in town because the highway, MT 1, is a mile away. No traffic lights. Quiet and serene.

Philipsburg has delightful summer weather but I wouldn't want to spend the winter here. 68.6 inches annual snowfall. The average January low temperature is 11F.

Tonight's home is the 1890 Broadway Hotel which occupies the 2nd floor. The ground floor is a thrift shop.

My room has a stained glass transom window.

I was able to roll my bike from the back door entrance (up a hill) to my 2nd floor room without any stairs. The room doesn't have A/C because it's not needed much at 5233 feet elevation. The room was comfortable today, with temperature ranging from a low of 40F to a high of 80F. I wouldn't like it during a heat wave.

The Wrangler room has a private bath. No air conditioning.

The owner of Broadway Hotel is a transplant from Texas. Montana attracts many transplants from the south and southeast U.S.

Philipsburg recently got grants for painting the facades.

Today's distance was short but it was nearly all uphill with a gentle headwind. I wouldn't call it an easy day.

I ended the day with the usual exhaustion, but no chest pain or weakness. I should be fine on tomorrow's ride to Anaconda, but I'm looking forward to taking a rest day there.

Distance: 29.9 miles
Average Speed: 6.3 mph
Ascent/Descent: +1494/-235 feet

Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 130 miles (209 km)

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Kelly IniguezI'm glad Phillipsburg was worth the stop. The chest pain thing is concerning!
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6 days ago

Mike AylingChest pain - might be worth a medical check up now you are home.
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5 days ago