Day 13 (6/14): Missoula, MT; 60 miles

Team Photos

Trying to scramble to pack all your stuff and get ready to ride in a tiny cabin with 8 other guys is tough. Despite stumbling over bags and bikes we were out and ready by the required 6 am for some crew chief breakfast. Our last treat before shoving out of Powell was an old guy coming over to wish us well, and also mentioning that these campgrounds sometimes reminded him of his time in ‘Nam…if only you were here Schuey haha.

Today’s ride had our biggest climb yet: Lolo Pass, 5 miles at a 6% grade. Thankfully it was at the beginning of the ride, only 8 miles in…we split into smaller pacelines and Jay, Country and I rocked it out no sweat. The summit (5235 feet) was actually the border of Idaho and Montana and where Pacific time becomes mountain time…guess you could say we were time traveling, zing! We took some pics and started down some sweet downhills into Montana. Our pride from climbing the mountain was kept in check when we met an elder lady who had just ridden up the pass with her bike loaded down with gear…and she had started her around the world trip from Laos, Vietnam. All right so she’s more BA than us, no big deal.

After about 45 more miles of beautiful Montana country we reached Missoula, home of the University of Montana and all in all a nice lookin city. Our lodging is at Hellgate High School…kind of a freaky name huh (named for a canyon nearby).

Lunch was at Adventure Cycling, a not-for-profit organization that plans out routes and organizes trips for cycling enthusiasts. The group grew out of the organization of “Bikecentennial,” a huge cross country trip in 1976 to try and revitalize cycling as a great pastime rather than just a kid’s activity. Over 4000 people participated. Their route was the original “Trans-America” route...in fact when Bruce Rogers (the inspiration for the Journey of Hope) first rode across the country in ’87 (hence our ride being the 20th anniversary) he followed this route put together by Adventure Cycling. Greg, one of the organization’s founders, gave us a tour and a fascinating history of cycling….he had done rides from Alaska down to Argentina…nuts!

After lunch we had some downtime…I went to Wal-Mart with some of the boys to pick up some Venus razors and Skintimate Raspberry Rain (they were out of Peaches)…gotta keep the legs smooth haha.

At around 6 we headed to dinner and a friendship visit at Opportunity Resources. They have a beautiful home that houses 8 wonderful folks. We all feasted on some Taco’s while Dan taught us some sign language, Don showed us a sweet handshake and sang some “For the Longest Time”, and Andy dropped some choice language (in an innocent way, of course). It was a blast.

Not long after getting back to lodging the guys got changed and headed out on the town. Just a few blocks down we hit the Iron Horseshoe Pit…a pretty sweet bar. We fratted it up pretty good for a few hours fueled by some good ole’ college town specials: 2 wells for $2.50…nice! Silly times were had before we all headed back around 1:30…day off tomorrow whoooo!