Started out the morning with a tough 12-mile climb up the Lolo Pass and out of Idaho, and felt immediately better as soon as we found the sign for the Montana border (and the awesome descent that we knew came right afterwards).
We lost an hour of time when we crossed the Montana border and switched time zones, unfortunately, so by the time we got to Lolo and had to make some decisions about the route, it was already after noon. We decided to stick with the original plan we had and head north to Missoula, where we stopped in at the Adventure Cycling Association's headquarters and met some fantastic and knowledgeable people. Josh gave us some great route advice, and we headed east out of the city.
Though Missoula markets itself as bike-friendly (it was on signs everywhere), we got a lot of yelling and honking from drivers- more than any other place so far! Oh well, it was only a quick stop.
From Missoula, we hit some awesome frontage roads that gave us a feel for what Montana looks like. Hard to capture in photos, but it's pretty stunning.
We found ourselves running out of daylight, but we stopped in Drummond for a quick gas station dinner and to grab snacks, and then headed south towards Phillipsburg. Though Drummond was fairly empty, we had a beautiful ride leaving town.
Route 1 heads straight south to Phillipsburg, but since it was getting dark we decided to stop early and happened to find a lodge with campsites just as the sub was heading down. This place had NO web presence, so we were expecting to have to ask a farmer to stay in their yard, but this was a welcome surprise. They led us to a beautiful campsite by a stream, we got some hot showers, and now it's bedtime!
I'm so happy there were unexpected hot showers!! 3rd state - now onto Wyoming! Safe trip!
ReplyDeleteI got harassed by a big black Chevy truck in Missoula when i was clearly riding in the bike lane. Funny you had similar experience. Adventure Cycling people treated me like royalty
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