DAY 56 - THE LONG HAUL

My alarm woke me up at 6:30am to an icy cold tent.  I immediately nope'ed and set it for 8am and went back to sleep with my little cold weather hat on.  When I woke up again the sun had made its way up and warmed up the tent enough where I could get out of the sleeping bag and throw on my fleece and pants and get up.

I opened my tent and saw that my UK friend was already ready to roll, much props to him.  He told me to watch out for the cat lady, as there was now a minivan in the park that must have came in at 3am that looked to be just *full* of stuff and he said he passed it on the way to the bathroom and there were like 6 cats inside.  

Sure enough, right after he headed out and I grabbed my food for a breakfast PB&J bagel, the older lady came out with 4 cats all on harnesses and leashed.  Each wanted to go a different way and the lady was having a difficult time controlling them.  After their walk as I was rolling up the tent, she put the cats away and went outside her minivan and started doing what I would call solo air karate, punching and kicking the air.

As I was ready to leave she came by me to throw some trash away and I said hi and she was friendly but warned me to stock up on vitamin C as the DEC had "nuked" the road shoulders with pesticides and they made her get light headed as she drove by the area.  I thanked her for her insight and headed out.

I stopped about half way to Chief Joseph Pass, kinda late in the morning at about 10am, and checked my cell phone (finally had signal) and had a text.  It was Rhea, she had split from the Yellowstone group and hitched her way to Missoula and wanted to know if I would be there today or tomorrow.  She was staying at a warmshowers house that I had heard from people going east was kind of like a "cyclist frathouse", a big house who's owner let cyclists come and go or stay for as long as they wanted.

I was planning on only going to Hamiton for the night but after the pass it was all downhill so I thought I would try and get to Lolo, where a "care package" from Lyman was waiting for me.

Back to the ride, I started the day a little above 6,000ft and only had to climb to about 7,200ft to make it over the pass, which turned out to not be too bad.  After the pass was probably the coolest downhill run I've done so far this trip.  It was steep and had a bunch of switchbacks.  I was doing about 40mph and had to brake around some of the turns.  It was great!  

I got down to Sula then Darby where I stopped at a grocery store and bought some ready made sandwiches.  As I came out I met a father and son cycling team going east and we hung out and chatted for probably 30 minutes while I ate.  They weren't going to attempt the pass until tomorrow and I wished them luck as I lost almost 3,000ft of elevation in a short time, it's got to be a challenging climb.

Before I left I pulled out the next map section and saw that I actually go to Missoula, then back to Lolo before heading west.  I texted Rhea to see if I could crash in Missoula at the house if I made it that far, as I could swing back to Lolo and stick get Lyman's package.  She said it would be more than fine but it was getting late in the day so I jumped on the bike and just kept going.

The sun was disappearing behind the mountains by the time I made it to Stevensville, still 30 miles from Missoula.  But luckily there was a paved bike path alongside the road to Lolo, so I hopped on that and continued pushing.  I was amazed that it was still warm.  I was dreading having to ride in the cold, but losing all that altitude changed everything.  It was dark out and still in the high 70's.  

I reached Lolo and back on the main road, had to pull out my headlamp and turn on my rear flasher.  It was now 10pm and I was only 10 miles from my destination.  The road to Missoula was 2 lanes in each direction but had a nice wide shoulder, so I hung out in the shoulder and tried to dodge all the road debris that I could see with my headlamp as I cycled towards Missoula.

At about 10:45pm, I rolled up to the house.  Rhea had texted me saying she would get back there soon, but there were several cyclists hanging outside at a table drinking beer and as I walked up I recognized two guys that I had met in Yellowstone at one of the campsites. 

I hung out with them and had some beers until about 1am when Rhea and 2 other guys, not cyclists but hitchhikers she met, finally returned from the bar.  We caught up and I got the gossip of the group split and met everyone.  At about 2am people were calling it a night and most were sleeping inside the house on the first level.  I grabbed a late night shower and on returning there were more than a few people snoring up a storm inside the house, so I went outside and pitched my tent next to two others and fell asleep finally around 3am.

Tomorrow's going to be a rest day!

Day 55
Start: Wisdom, MT
End: Missoula, MT
Distance: 123.80 miles