Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

Today was a day that started off strong and ended with a whimper. 

We left Missoula today after breakfasting on a fine meal from that Scottish restaurant with the Golden Arches, munched on in our room at the Campus Inn. Calories are calories. As we were leaving the hotel and it was raining so we donned our best rain apparel, including the new items purchased yesterday such as the new seat cover, the new waterproof gloves, and the new shoe covers. Of course within 10 minutes we were removing half the items as it grew warmer and drier eventually immediately. 

We went back through Lolo and ride south, headed eventually toward Yellowstone Park within the week. We felt very happy that the state of Montana has seen fit to provide bike only lanes from Missoula all the way to Hamilton, a nice 45 mile off-the-highway path. Thanks Montana, you put the state of Ohio to shame. E we’re taking along in a very nice valley between two separate sides of the Bitterroot range. Because of these stress free roads, and the increasingly better weather, we were making great time on our way to our goal of Sula MT. We did 49 miles before lunch at BJ’s family restaurant. Once we got there everything changed again in about 5 minutes. As we were finishing up our lunch we looked outside to see the skies grow dark and the rain begin again. The temperature when we went in was 64 degrees and sunny, and we came out to 41 and hard rain. On came the rain gear again and this time for good as it looked like it was here to stay. 
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1XCu6XdAw22S_gVeG-qpa-w6w_pMQCZD3
Miles of separated bike paths made the morning fly by


The other big difference is that for the first time this trip, the high winds were blowing against us, making it harder to push for more mileage. We ended up opting for our “bail out” town as we were tired just getting that far. We ended up in the clean and friendly Mountain Spirit Inn and RV Park. They weee very nice and I personally was ready to get off my soaked (with sweat) togs as it had grown a bit drier and steeper on the way in and The rain gear just traps moisture in as well as out. Equal opportunity water repellent. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1uBsCLvOpMIDSWBwYyeQ_t6jauuNtgz9s
Rain coming in from the mountains 

This bailout today puts us in a more precarious position in that we are negotiating between towns that have limited or no facilities, even camping, so we struggle to ride enough, but we have to make the next place with services. This is not at all easy to do when So few places exist between Missoula and Yellowstone. We may need to either ride a few miles  (about 60) or ride about 100, in order to continue to find places to sleep that are the indoors. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1sBKO-urYQDEMlc6cDjY7k0byVUNLJ1p9
Our dry room at the Mountain Spirit Inn

Tomorrow we are off for either Jackson MT (bail point) or Dillon (stretch point) depending on weather conditions. 

We will likely not have WiFi for the next few days so I will report when I can connect again. 

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