July 8, 2021
Day 57 - Ennis, MT to Dillon, MT
Hell must be windy, and high elevation
This morning was difficult to wake up. We were already pretty beat up from the last few days and I was a bit worried about the initial climb. We ate and had coffee before heading off. We met up at the grocery store and started off up the climb. It was an 11 mile stretch of 2200'. It wasn't too bad, but it did take a while.
Apparently David, Conor, and Tim who were ahead of us got run off the road by a work truck and called the police. Fortunately we didn't get that experience and made it to the top. My tire was pretty low so I looked around and found a small wire stuck in it. Since someone put sealant in there, I just pumped it back up. On the way down, I took it easy because of the tire. We descended into Virginia city, but just flew through since it was still steep. We carried on into a dry valley which leveled out. We made it to twin bridges by 1230 and stoped at a grocery store for lunch. Half the group continued past us and we took our time getting back into the road. We were feeling pretty good at this point and only had 28 miles left to go. We turned south onto hwy 41 and immediately had a strong headwind. The road also had no shoulder and lots of 18 wheelers. My mirror was broken and you couldn't hear anything from the wind.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
It wasn't long before a cattle hauler laid on the horn right beside us. It just got worse from there. The wind was all over the place and a gust pushed me 3 feet into the lane. I was sure I would be killed. There was plenty of flattened and exploded road kill. These merchants of death didn't care about animal life, including ours. I was about to give up and saw a shoulder up ahead. I was sure it would only be for a few feet but it kept on going. It was full of glass so I just stared at the ground. It was hot and dry and I was almost out of water. I felt grateful for this dirty glass filled shoulder. About a mile outside of town I saw mark and Alex.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We rode the last bit to the bike hostel. It turns out that Alex had 3 flats on that road. After deliberation, everyone had a similar experience on that road. Conner called to complains about one of the trucks and Tim, who is usually very positive and cool, lost it on the side of the road. He is apparently considering renting a car to drive to Missoula. We arrived at the hostel and met the caretaker and builder of the place, Larry. He gave us a tour of the two buildings. In the log cabin they work on bikes and give them away to the community. The other building has showers, bathroom and a common area. He also told us that our route after wisdom is closed July 12-15 and there isn't a close reroute. We sent the info out to the group chat for anyone behind us, but we should be fine since that is only 1 day away for us. We dropped our stuff off and rode a mile into town to get food and go to a Patagonia outlet. I didn't need anything at the outlet, so we went to Mexican food. We stuck out there as the food wasn't good, so we got second dinner from the grocery store. We bought some beer, food, snacks, and stuff for a second dinner. We were all super tired, but we're up untill 1030 because the sun wouldn't go down. The valley here is hazy from Idaho fires, but it made a really nice sunset. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day with two mountain passes to get to wisdom. Tim, David, and Conor are planning to take a rest day tomorrow.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Mileage:73
Altitude gain:2900
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 6 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |