Helena to White Sulpher Springs, MT

Our day started with a great send off from the nicest guy in Montana--our WarmShowers host Joel. We slept great, got to do laundry, and had a lovely chat before Kate and I hit the road. We'd planned to grab a late big breakfast in Townsend, MT. After oatmeal in town, we ate our leftover PB&J and an apple on the way.

The 15-mph headwind had it out for us though. Those 30 miles took four hours and more energy than we were prepared to offer. When we finally made it to Penny’s Breakfast Station in Townsend, we enjoyed a relaxed breakfast (you guessed it, biscuits and gravy), Kate put her head on the table and took a nap, and I chatted it up with Chris, a fellow touring cyclist who started in Boston last November, has been touring the entire country. He just came from Yellowstone, is heading to Glacier, and is considering going up to Alaska before he starts pedaling back to Boston in the fall. (His blog is www.ChrisAyers.info). The long delay was a lazy-person’s effort to wait out the wind, which per the forecast was supposed to change direction in the early afternoon. At around 1:30pm, we decided that the possibility of more evening storms was the greater evil and that we should hit the road.

Maps can be very misleading. We were glad the unforeseen 3,000+ feet of climbing around Mt. Edith was a surprise. We would have been stressed out about it otherwise. The wind did eventually shift in our favor, and despite the lack of shoulder, Hwy 12 was a great climb. We even found time to cool off a bit in the stream that followed the road.

All the mountains these past two weeks have been good training and we felt great as we crested the final hill. With the snow-capped peaks to our backs, the landscape lay wide open, rolling, rugged and green to the east. Kate commented that it felt like we were crossing the first gateway to the prairie. Plenty of big climbs ahead for sure, but we are definitely nostalgic about the mountains we've been cycling around since the very first day's climb up to Jim’s cabin in Index, WA.

On the descent into the valley below, we found ourselves once again racing a storm. This time the ominous clouds were coming over the mountains to the west and we were racing in from the south. It was a great view, and unlike yesterday we beat the rain by a long shot. Actually had time to set up the tent and enjoy watching the rain come down over dinner--burgers and such at the Branding Iron Cafe. Next order of business is ice cream followed by sleep. If all goes well, we will repeat tomorrow. :-)