Wow, we've been travelling through small-town MT recently. The ranchette sprawl is long gone, and we're in very sparsely populated lands now. The last few "towns" have had no services (Grant used to have a cafe, but it didn't open this summer, and Polaris has a small mercantile but she's closed on Wednesdays.) We're at a nice old 1950's or 1960's motel in Lima, which offers free laundry and laptop -- everything a hiker or cyclist could use. Lima is on the Continental Divide Trail as well as the Great Divide Route, and she says she gets about 175 hikers/cyclists per year here.
19 riding days done. We're at mile 847 (of 2700) on the route, and we've ridden another 100 or so on side trips (visiting Elke's folks, Haydi, grocery stores, campsites, etc). We're tracking a little ahead of our planned pace of 40 miles per day - which we're happy about since we really didn't know how hard this would be when we started. Although there are a lot of forest fires burning in the general vicinity of our route, so far none of them have caused us to re-route around them. There have been a few days in which the smoke has obscurred the view, but currently the skies are smoke free.
We continue to be extremely lucky with weather. Highest temps have been 85 or so. Lowest temp was 24. A few afternoon thunderstorms, but only one included heavy rain.
The route has been FANTASTIC. Most of it so far has been on well surfaced packed dirt/gravel roads in the mountains - very easy riding if you subtract all the vertical feet we have had to gain. Most of the roads have had little to no traffic. There have been a few stretches of a few miles of rough surfaced road or single track - but we've done fine with that, which is saying a lot since we are not mountain bikers. I can imagine those stretches could be miserable with a heavy load - lifting the bike over the occasional log or pushing it up a steep hill.
The scenery (other than the ranchette sprawl in NW MT) has been great - although I'm starting to get really disgusted by the fact that cows graze EVERYTHING everywhere. Back in West Marin county many ranchers have fenced their creeks, so you get some healthy riparian zones. But out here, everything is grazed to the dirt.
Not sure where the next internet access will occur, but we'll post again when we can.
All is well, healthy, and in working order. We're having a great time. Amy & Jim
4 comments:
Meat production is not an earth-friendly endeavor :-)
Looks like you'll be in Yellowstone soon. We were there a few weeks ago and saw some spectacular sights. You should see plenty of wildlife coming through West Yellowstone.
Hopefully you can take some time and energy to pedal up to Mammouth Hot Springs or down to the Paint Pots. Skip Old Faithful.
Wow! Almost 1,000 miles in 19 days. You guys must be in awesome shape.
I think my brother is at his place in Wyoming. I'll be sure and tell him to wave as you guys whizz by!
I just came back from a week in Glacier Park, and was wondering if you guys were in that area! Luckily we were away from most of the fires, although we did get smoke on the first day.
Give a whistle to the marmots for me.
-Jen DW (coworker of Jim's)
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