Day 65 - July 7 - Sula, MT to Hamilton, MT - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

July 7, 2023

Day 65 - July 7 - Sula, MT to Hamilton, MT

A Tale of Two Breweries

Ed’s Story

Typical morning - breakfast, take down tent, and load bike. We were looking forward to an all downhill ride today according to our GPS elevation profile.

Little did I expect a Climb to show up on my GPS. We were actually riding downhill when it occurred.

The GPS said I had a 70 ft hill, 0.2 mile long, with an average grade of 5.0. Luckily for me the routing saw the two steep hills on either side of the road…bottom line, no hill.

The ride to Darby for our coffee stop was uneventful. There was a 7 mile section of highway with no berm but we are used to that.

By the time we got to Darby we had dropped 550 ft of elevation. We have another 300 ft to drop before we get to Hamilton.

We stopped at the Montana Cafe for coffee and a second breakfast. I had a pancake and country potatoes.

If I knew the pancake was that big, I would not have gotten potatoes. This is the second huge pancake I’ve had in Montana - they grow them big here.

Shortly before we arrived in Darby a noticeable headwind started. Although our ride was on a downhill, the wind counteracted any gain we achieved from the hill. The wind continued all the way to Hamilton.

About 4 miles before Hamilton the bike path leading all the way to Missoula started. The path was fine until we got into town, and then it turned into a sidewalk with bushes and trees growing over the path.

This makes it very dangerous to ride, especially since there is a curb on the right hand side of the path. In cases like this is much safer to ride on the road.

We stopped at the Safeway to pick up some food supplies and then headed to the Higher Grounds Brewing Company for a cold one before the last mile and a half to camp.

Schrodingers Brewery.. am I in the brewery or outside taking the picture?

From there it was on to the Black Rabbit RV park. We have a nice grassy spot.

Set up camp. Currently the tents are in the shade but I expect that to change as the sun moves around the stationary earth. They will get sunny but as the sun sets, they should go back into the shade.

Camp sweet camp. We keep moving the picnic table to keep it in the shade.

Showered and relaxing. We are meeting an old coworker of John’s at the Bitter Root Brewery (the other brewery in town) at 5:00. Apparently John knew him 30 - 40 odd years ago.

Brewery limit laws…nothing stops you from going elsewhere.

I guess a beer keg urinal is fitting at the Bitter Root Brewery

Interesting bike rack at the Bitter Root Brewery.

Dinner will be the same as last night (no, not leftovers). Beans with canned tomatoes topped with instant mashed potatoes are a campfire hit.

But things change. We ended up having a big plate of nachos at the brewery so I’m thinking that is my dinner tonight.

I started watching a new Netflix series called The Days. It is about the Fukushima Daiichi reactor accident in March 2011.

For those that don’t remember, an earthquake and tsunami led to power loss in the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Without power, the cooling systems failed in three reactors, and their cores subsequently overheated. This led to a partial meltdown of the fuel rods, a fire in the storage reactor, explosions in the outer containment buildings (caused by a buildup of hydrogen gas), and the release of radiation into the air and ocean.

Following this accident, in the US, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission required all operating reactors to do significant analysis and plant changes to ensure nothing like that could occur here.

Enough of the history lesson.

On the way to the brewery I stopped at a sporting goods store to look for shoes. They had what I needed but not in a size 9-1/2, only a size 10. Luckily the route tomorrow takes us right past a mall with shoe stores.

Tomorrow we have a 47 mile day ending at a Motel 6 in Missoula. We will be there through Monday morning. There are numerous breweries in Missoula. Additionally we will be able to go to real church since Jefferson City, MO (on Sunday it will be 42 days).

Until tomorrow, happy biking.

John’s Story

Per the campground manager last night there are no bears around until the autumn. No raccoons or other hefty pesky critters. Just squirrels. I’d seen the squirrels, so small you could fit several in each pocket. Your food is safe, she said. I trusted.

Then why the warning! To be safe I put my food and other aromatics in my critter sack last night and cabled it to the picnic table. Sasquatch was evidently unable to open it, because my food was intact this morning. Hopefully Sasquatch will never figure out he could team up with the much smarter squirrels.

It was much cooler last night than we expected. Instead of low 50s it was low 40s or even high 30s. Tonight the weatherman is promising low 50s again here in Hamilton. Once burned, twice shy. I’ll bundle up a little more when I crawl into the sleeping bag tonight.

We crossed the Bitterroot River soon after we left Sula. We’ll be following it all the way to Missoula. From Lost Trail / Chief Joseph Pass yesterday to Missoula is about 100 miles of ostensibly downhill riding. If only the wind will cooperate.

See the dark band of rock crossing the lighter rock at an angle? That is an intrusion. The lighter rock was split apart by tremendous pressure and the dark rock was injected as a molten mass into it. If the dark rock were vertical it would be called a dike (like a dike in Holland, get it?). If it were horizontal it would called a sill (like a window sill). This juxtaposition is called a cross-cutting relationship. This sort of thing helps geologists determine the order in which rocks were emplaced and therefore sort out the sequence of events that occurred. When I took the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) in Geology as part of the application process to enter grad school, the hardest part of the exam was on cross-cutting relationships.

A very simple example of the sort of problem posed in the GRE. Which things happened before or after other things?

We headed down the river canyon, which got wider and the grade of the drop more gentle as we proceeded.

It was a while before any sunshine found us in the bottom of the canyon.

Not a business you see advertised every day.

I did see one new flower today. Looks a lot like some sort of daisy.

Brewery Numero Uno: Higher Ground Brewing Company. Stopped here on the way into Hamilton after a stop at Safeway.

The Black Rabbit RV Park and Campground look a lot like a place where seasonal workers live in the summer tourist season. Lots of semi permanent structures around some of the RVs. We did get a nice grassy place to pitch our tents, and water in the shower is hot, so we can’t complain.

A couple days ago Helen in Houston asked me if I remembered Joe from Phillips Petroleum, my work home for 25 years. Yes, of course. Helen told me that Joe retired in the Bitterroot Valley and sent me his contact info. I texted Joe this morning and we arranged to meet at Brewery Numero Dos at 5:00 PM. Joe told me by text that he remembered me by name but couldn’t dredge up my face. I told Joe that I remembered his name, face and voice but couldn’t remember when and where we worked together.

I left early to go to brewery Numero Dos so I could visit the Westslope Distillery across the highway. I had time to try a flight of their liquors, probably a quarter ounce each. The rye whisky didn’t even taste like whisky to me. The rum was ho-hum. The two honey liquors were very good. They are distilled from mead, honey wine. I’m glad I can’t carry any with me, because I would have bought some.

Left to right: Sweet Sting Honey Spirit, Golden Sting Aged Honey Spirit, Cutthroat “Brum” (distilled from sugar beets), and Timber Cruiser Rye Whisky.

Made it to Brewery Numero Dos, the Bitter Root Brewery.

Montana limits the amount of beer that a brewery can sell to an individual in a single day.

When Joe and I saw each other our memories were jogged, and we remembered a lot more of our past together. I first met Joe about 1993 when he came to Odessa, Texas, to teach us some geostatistics. If it weren’t for Joe I wouldn’t even know how to spell Markov-Bayes simulation. We reminisced and talked of mutual friends. Joe talked a lot about life in the Bitterroot Valley since he retired here in 2008. We spent about two and a half hours visiting before we had to break up and go our separate ways.

Joe is granted Road Angel Status for driving all the way here and treating us to beer. Joe’s conclusion at the end: “Our memories are still good, John.”

And finally, the namesake rabbits here at the RV park. I’m convinced they are domesticated and have just been sent out to play.

Even so, the food is going into critter sacks tonight.

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 987 miles (1,588 km)

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