Day 28 - Alder to Ennis: Yippee io ki yay - Get Along Little Dogies!! - Off To See the Wizard

June 26, 2014

Day 28 - Alder to Ennis: Yippee io ki yay - Get Along Little Dogies!!

Ear plugs and meditation music on my iPod and I was asleep in no time. Waking up to the sound of the one Diva cow in the heard is getting to be a daily occurrence. Nearly every camp we have been in has had cattle very close by. I never noticed how noisy they are. Reminds me of the sea lions in Monterey........however the sea lions win for pure noise. The funny thing is there always seems to be just one that is whining with a loud dramatic voice. Also, while riding if there are heards in the fields there are always a few drama queens as Jack says. It's been entertaining for us. Well today we were entertained by cattle in an up close and personal way!

We left Alder after a pretty quick pack up considering how wet everything was. We are getting a good technique down. However, I would be ok without having good wet camp technique.....but that looks like it will not happen until Sunday. More rain on the way. Folks up her say this is the greenest June in yrs. Lucky us.....well yes in a way. Because of the rain it has been cooler and I can't imagine doing some of these climbs in the heat.

We rolled out of the RV park and headed out on what we knew would be a short day and a challenging one. We had nine miles of enjoyable very gradual up to Virginia City. Then we would gain 2000 ft in only 4mi and then have a downhill of 10 miles to Ennis. After Ennis you would need to do another 50 mi to get to another camp...thus the short day. Tomorrow we can go 50'ish or if we get a tailwind like Janet (The Promised Tour) did yesterday we could go 72 mi to Yellowstone in one day. That's a big if!!

We were riding along enjoying the early morning when all of a sudden we see about 100 head of cattle on the road in front of us. At first it looks like they are going the direction we are so I rush forward to get a picture of a real "cattle drive". I stop to get my camera out and realize I didn't put the battery back in last night AND they are not going in our direction they are coming right at me!! The leaders had gone off road a little and the dogs and the cowboys and cowgirls were getting them back in place and heading into us. We turn around and head back by this big truck and ask the driver if we can stay behind him and he says...No, I have to be in front if them. You better get up there by the fence. By now our hearts are beating a little fast because they do have a presence moving as one unit and they are looking at us in our bright shirts (remember the stampede we started back in Oregon) and we are hoping they just go by without a fuss. I have to take my yellow bag off the back and dig for my battery to finally get a picture. When I do they are past us and we are safe.

Rush hour in Alder.....population 116. Seem to be more cattle than people. The dogs were amazing to watch. They really kept them in line.

The rest if the ride to Nevada City was not nearly as exciting. There were heavy ruins from the gold mining years. Mile after mile of land just turned over looking for gold. We had heard that Virginia City was going to be an interesting stop but no one mentioned how interesting Nevada City is. Well Janet did say there was a great bakery there and we were headed right there.

Yum!! A Must Stop. Mom-Jack says they are not as good as Mary's!

We would have had to stay for dinner for this...might have been worth it.

Roof of the Bakery. Found this when I used the Ladies Room. Must have your camera with you at all times!

A row of little cabins that are now a hotel

With our tummies full we needed to get back on the road. For some reason I was expecting Virginia City (and no we are not in Nevada...we are still in Montana) to be a few more miles away. As it turned out it was less than two miles and after just seeing Nevada City it didn't look all that interesting. It was a much larger town and reminded me of Silver Dollar City in Colorado. It was also very early in the day and the town was really just waking up....so we didn't really stop and look around. We were stopped by a man on the street asking us about our trip and turns out he was on bicycle too and had just come over the hill from Ennis.

State Office Buildings with a local History Facade ...nice job. Between Nevada City and Virginia City. Looks like a painting!

The Other Riders Bikes - Note the Wood Sidewalk

Just after Virginia City it starts UP! there is a very steep grind for about a mile and a half. It is around 10% so dig deep. Then the grade drops to about 8% for the next three miles. In Virginia City it said the elevation was 5,210'ish ft. The top of the pass is just over 7,000 ft.

This gives you some idea of 'space' out here. We are so tiny and it is so vast. Jack coming up the hill.

Nearing the Top....this was not that steep. In fact we were clicking along really fast it felt so good to move!

About half a mile down we turned a corner and this was our view. Made the climb worth it. Was amazing. Again I can't put in words how vast this is. We think we could see at least 30 miles away.

If you follow the road down in the above picture you will see where we were headed. About 3/4 of the way down we were hit with 25'ish mph cross winds. It was all we could do to keep from being blown across the road into the oncoming lane. This made for a very interesting end to a pretty great day. We are in a motel...no wet camp tonight. Going to walk downtown in a little while and call it a day.

I have been loving the Pussy Willows all along this trip and I can't remember where it was today but the sun came out for just a second and lit this group for a quick minute. I tried to get them how I see them....don't know if it worked.

Up Close..I guess I have never seen them in this stage before. I thought they were just brown.

Today's ride: 24 miles (39 km)
Total: 1,032 miles (1,661 km)

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