July 22, 2006
Day 51: Ennis, MT to Dillon, MT
70.37 Miles, 5:30:33 Ride Time, 12.92 Average Speed, 41.7 Maximum Speed
I was up and out of the motel reasonably early. It was supposed to be hot today, but it wasn't too bad yet. I stopped at the convenience store in Ennis for a bagel-sausage-egg thing, and bought some snacks for the road. As I was getting ready to leave the store, a local guy came up and asked about my trip - turns out he was a cyclist, although he had never done any touring. I'm not jaded enough at this point that I find these conversations boring (although I was in a hurry this morning, and this delayed me about ten minutes). In any case, kind of a nice start to the day.
The first eight miles or so this morning were a climb out of the Madison River Valley. I knew this was coming, of course (I actually look at the elevation profiles on the back of my maps now; for some reason, I didn't do this until well into the trip), and it wasn't too bad. I don't try to attack the longer hills immediately, anymore; I just try to get into a groove of 5.5 to 7.5 mph.
The reward for the hour and fifteen minutes of climbing was a very quick descent to Virginia City (pop. 130). There was no traffic at all, the road wasn't extremely curvy, and I was able to get to 40+ mph without feeling too nervous. I rode into into town doing 37 in a 25 mph zone.
Virginia City was the site of a gold rush in the 1860's, and today is full of many old buildings. I took some pictures, but didn't feel like I had a lot of time to look around.
It was a quick ride to the next town, Sheridan (pop. 659). I stopped at a diner there for what I hoped would be a quick breakfast, but the place was packed, with only one table available. I decided to stay anyway, and was immediately engaged in conversation with two older men at the next table, who had the now-familar questions about my trip. I waited quite a while on my pancakes (there there were only two women working at the place, and it was very busy), but they were good when they finally arrived.
It was ten miles to the next town, Twin Bridges (pop. 400), where I stopped at a nice little park to fill my water bottles. By now it was hot. It's around this time every day when I regret not leaving at dawn, and avoiding at least some of the middday heat. For some reason, I never remember this the next morning, when I turn off the alarm clock at 5:00 and go back to sleep...
Not long after I left Twin Bridges, and turned onto the much busier State Route 41, I met a couple on a tandem recumbent bicycle. They were Bruce and Charlene, travelling from Jasper, Albert (Canada) to Yellowstone. They gave me one of the "business cards" they had printed for this trip, and I regretted, not for the first time, not having done this myself.
The rest of the ride (about 25 miles) to Dillon wasn't too pleasant - the traffic was much heavier, the scenery was nothing special, and it had finally gotten hot. There was one irritating incident where an 18-wheeler got extremely close to me, and then lay on his horn for some reason. Did I react calmly and maturely to this provocation? Sadly, I did not. (One of the other riders I met on this trip, Mike from Rochester, NY, told me that he always just gives a friendly wave whenever a driver engages in some jackassery; I just don't have it in me to react that way, apparently).
I got to Dillon and rode immediately to the Super 8, where I had a room already reserved... After the difficulty I had finding a place in West Yellowstone the other day, I had decided that that approach would be less stressful than just showing up in town and hoping a room was available somewhere (although that had worked well for most of the trip).
After I showered and changed into my off-bike clothes, I walked outside and was shocked at how horribly, horribly hot it was... how had I been riding in this all day? It was so hot that I didn't feel like going too far for dinner, so I just walked 50 feet to the Pizza Hut next to the motel and got a pizza to take back to my room. Later I walked to the Safeway behind the motel and got some granola bars and toiletries (I had run out of shaving cream weeks ago, and had been shaving without it - I just kept forgetting to buy some more).
I talked to the young guy at the desk at the motel about my itinerary the next few days and, like locals everywhere I've been, he proceeded to tell me how dangerous some of the route would be (in this case, State Route 93; he even said there was a local saying, something like "I'll be on 93; pray for me." I suspect he was making that up...)
Except for the annoying incident with the truck driver, I had met several friendly people today, and the first 2/3 of the ride had been very pleasant... a good, if hot, day overall.
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Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 3,240 miles (5,214 km)
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