July 10, 2021
Day 59 - Dillon, MT to Anaconda, MT
Fire sale
Last night we were debating whether to take the regular 65 mile route or Larry's suggested 93 mile alternate. This morning we decided to trust Larry. We left after everyone else but just a few miles north of town saw everyone stopped on the road.
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It was the dew boys, Tim, David, Conor, Nina and Jeremy. We had heard from Dianne, who was ahead of us, that there was a fire near wisdom. We called the forest service and they said the road was open, but they wouldn't recommend coming. If we got up there and it was impassible, we would have to backtrack 40 miles since there is no way around. Luckily we were on Larry's alternate and we had the option to not take the road to wisdom.
Our group decided to go to anaconda, 80 miles, where we found a warm showers host, then go 80 miles the next day over to Hamilton to rejoin the transam. The dew boys, Tim, David, and Conor decided to nuke this section, so Tim called his family in southern Idaho and they are going to get picked up from Dillon and taken down there where they will meet up with the transam somewhere in Oregon. I don't know what Nina and Jeremy were going to do, since their other friend, shalom, went the regular route this morning. We said our goodbyes, since we are usually pretty close with the other group, and headed on north into a slight tailwind. We rode the frontage road near interstate 15 for a while. We were out of water and stopped at a fly fishing spot on divide to fill up. The fishing guide recommended a different route through the mountains, but we ignored him. We didn't want to add any more miles since it was so dry and hot. The southern wind was bringing alot of smoke today, so it was definitely effecting my sinuses. We rode a little longer on the frontage road before getting on the interstate for 4 miles. We got off and took the next frontage road which turned into gravel and went through a giant water tunnel under the interstate.
The mornings tailwind had changed to a headwind and we crossed the interstate one last time to get to a road which would take us to hwy 1. In all the mess of turns, we did find a bike trail for 1 mile. Before getting on 1, we were pretty burned out from the sun and the dry weather. We turned onto 1 to go west toward anaconda and the headwind was intense. We later found out from locals that the wind is funneled through that valley and almost always blows hard toward the east. We had5 miles to go and came upon a burned area. All the sudden, a bang rang out. The others thought we were finally shot at, bit my rear tire was flat. It unseated at the bead and blew a hole in the tube. I replaced the tube and we carried on into town. I was worried about another blow out, because I thought it was well seated when I rotated the tires yesterday. Luckily, the bike shop in town was still open and I bought a new tube. We went right to dairy queen for vegan dilly bars. Everyone almost fell asleep. We were looking online for a restaurant to eat at, bit there wasn't anything for me and Mary other than french fries, so we went to the grocery store while mark and Alex are at a restaurant. Our warm showers host for the night was 3 miles out of town, and we hoped he would let us use the microwave, because all we could find was frozen vegan foods. We showed up at our hosts home and he showed us in. It was a small space with no door on the bathroom, so the showers were a bit awkward. We heated up food and ate outside while mark and Alex talked to the host for a while. Our host, blaze, showed us out back to the teepee we could sleep in, which was awesome. We were about ready to pass out when blaze was having an ordeal. He said he was having bad cramps and was moaning and groaning around for about 20 minutes before his girlfriend showed up and put him in the back of her car and drove off. We were all alone and can only assume he went to the hospital. We prepped for bed and got into the teepee. Mary and I slept on the floor while Alex and Mark slept on a couch and a bed respectively. The teepee was dry and comfortable with minimal insects. It was also quite huge and pretty cool. I fell right asleep.
Mileage:84
Altitude gain:3100
Today's ride: 84 miles (135 km)
Total: 3,091 miles (4,974 km)
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