Day 88, to Darby: A freezing morning, a riding buddy and another awesome descent to the finish

July 19, 2022

Tobin, another cyclist who stayed at the American Legion Park in Wisdom with us last night and rode with us to Darby today, smiles with Dani and me at the top of the pass after today's climb. Behind us, the road seems to drop off sharply before curving behind thick pine trees

Tuesday stats

Start: American Legion Park, Wisdom, Mont.

End: Traveller's Rest RV Park, Darby, Mont.

The Daily Progress: 57.1 miles

Cumulative climb: 1787 feet

Cumulative descent: 3903 feet

Elevation at endpoint: 3923 feet

Ice cream flavors: N/A

Beer flavors: A Montana amber ale whose name I forget

Lodging expenses: $22

Food expenses: $64 for lunch, $30? for groceries

Dani's daily digest

The temperature dropped into the thirties last night so we let ourselves sleep an hour longer to give the sun a little more time to warm up the world.

Chris got two flats -- one overnight, and one about halfway through the ride. Most likely there is/was something stuck in the tire, but we never found the culprit (but we think/hope we resolved the situation?)

Other than the flats, today's ride was incredible. We had a steady but gradual climb for the first 25 miles, then a steep 7-mile descent from Chief Joseph Pass, a then a 25-mile glide into Darby. The descent was a blast. Definitely in the Top 3 descents (the descents from Cameron Pass in Colorado and Togwotee Pass in Wyoming being the other two).

With no cars in sight for the moment, Tobin rides a bit closer to the left side of the road to get a better look at the view as we fly down today's big descent. A faded blue mountain lies on the horizon.

We were riding today with a young man named Tobin, who camped with us last night. It was a nice change of pace to converse with someone besides ourselves. It was also quite literally a change of pace. Tobin rode much faster than we would have ridden on our own, and so we got our miles done in record time.

The three of us got lunch in Darby, then Tobin continued on while Chris and I settled in at the Travelers' Rest RV park in Darby. This RV park is interesting because it serves a large number of TransAm riders (3 tonight) and Continental Divide hikers (maybe a dozen tonight?) as well as RVers (I guess -- I see RVs but haven't met any RV campers). We spent a lot of time chatting with Presh, a high school physics teacher and fellow TransAm rider who is camping here tonight. We also strung up the hammock, which we have rarely had opportunity to do. And we took showers for the first time since West Yellowstone! Tomorrow we should make it to Missoula, a full day ahead of schedule.

A good day indeed.

Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 3,318 miles (5,340 km)

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