June 20, 2014
Day 22 - Lolo to Hamilton: Out Running The Rain...Or Not
At breakfast we discovered who had been running up and down the halls last night. Seems there was a baseball team in residence. They were about 13 so we hurried and picked the items we wanted to eat before they took over the breakfast area......nothing like teenage boys and food.
Soon we were out on the road......well the bike trail which runs all the way from Lolo to Hamilton! This was great because the road Hwy 93 is VERY heavily traveled. In fact, we saw our first accident just leaving town, commute traffic to Missoula. It was a really bad one and difficult to go past but we were safe on the bike trail as it runs parallel to the highway and within about twenty feet of it most of the time. It is also more rolling than the road so it was a bit more fun to ride.
As you can see by the above photo it was a beautiful sunny day when we started. However, just a few miles down the road we started to see this.
We chased the rain for awhile then it turned and chased us....finally catching us in Victor. We had just pulled into our third store (we have been looking for fuel for three days) to see if they had the fuel we need for our whisper lite stove. Of course they did not.
Everyone only seems to have Coleman propane canisters not the IsoPro. We were at least under their overhang when the rain started. It rained for a few minutes and then cleared off. We could see the storm move to the southeast....which was the direction we are moving. We continued on and pretty quickly we were just outside of Hamilton and seeing the clouds build again. We had planned on going to Darby another 16'ish miles but decided if we came upon an RV Camp we would pull in and get our tent up ASAP.
Just as we decided to do this we came upon the Black Rabbit RV Park. We picked a site by the creek and had the tent up in no time. As it turned out...the rain only lasted a few minutes and was moving on again. UNTIL NEXT time.....which was about ten minutes ago. This one was a little more impressive. Thunder and lots of noise but not much rain. Now the sky is blue again and it is snowing again!! The cottonwood kind of snow. I have never seen such thick amounts blowing about. I tried to take pictures for you all but it is so fine it wouldn't show up. Just believe me when I say it is a flurry. Even in Ks I don't think it has been this thick. The sky here is amazing. It changes so fast! The storms will blow in then move right out. That works for me and I hope they are all blown out by the time we get to the higher elevations this week. Tomorrow we will do another medium day then Sunday we will be going UP to 7,000+ ft.
The park is very nice and pretty full. There are even some baseball players here too. Younger but several families. There must be a tournament around somewhere. We have had a long afternoon of watching clouds go by.
We just had some sad news. Our friend and co-worker just passed away. We are so sorry to see him pass and are grateful he isn't suffering anymore. He and Jack were a funny team....we will miss you John. RIP
Good night from Hamilton.
I forgot to mention that we are riding in the Bitterroot Valley (the Bitterroots on the right and the Sawtooth on the left). Beautiful mountains on both sides of us! With so much time to reflect today I also realized that I didn't mention that the previous three days up the Loscha River were on the Nez Perce trail and some of the time we were on a beautiful reservation along with the Lewis and Clark Trail. I really need to study more about the Nez Perce Wars they seem to have gone on for years and over many miles. We have seen information in Idaho and Montana on their history. They were/are a proud people. So much for me to learn even at this old age.
Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 811 miles (1,305 km)
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