Rain, rain, rain, cold, cold, cold

Well, who would have guessed that what we would be facing as we cross America in the last few days before summer begins would be - hypothermia?  

We are getting closer and closer to West Yellowstone, the aim of this part of the trip.  We hope to make it by tomorrow evening.  Today took us from Dillon, Montana, over to Ennis.  Last night we stayed at the generic FairBridge Inn, located on the edge of town.  We had a nice dinner at Sparky's, a car-themed restaurant.  By the time we left dinner, it was, you guessed it, raining.  All during the night it came down in buckets.  We left a little bit late this morning, trying to wait out some of this rain.  Sorry, that's just not going to work.  We took off and rode on down the road from Dillon toward Twin Bridges, about 30 miles away.  After 30 miles and about 10 wardrobe changes (rain pants on, rain pants off, jackets on, second pair of gloves applied, etc.) trying to regulate our temps, we stopped in the Twin Bridges Cafe,  We stopped in just as much for warmth and dry relief as we did breakfast, although we really enjoyed the French Toast breakfast.  While there we spoke with some of the older gentlemen of Twin Bridges, regulars at the Cafe, who said that they have already gotten 2 years' worth of rain already this year.  I think by the end of the day they might have changed that to 3 years' worth.  In other words, it rained a lot.  And, it was perhaps a high of 45 degrees, so we had that going for us.  

This morning started out very difficult for me.  I couldn't seem to keep up with everyone else, and I couldn't figure out why.  Eventually, after chasing both Pat and Jerry down a couple of times, I decided that I couldn't last the 72 miles for today at this pace.  So I slowed to what I thought I could handle.  And then noticed that my bike was bouncing, so then I looked at the back tire, which was down considerably.  I stopped, pumped it up, and immediately could ride again like a human being.  When we went to the Twin Bridges Cafe, everything was good.  By the time we came out, ready to ride, it was low again.  I decided to put in a new tube.  After this, Jerry noticed a bump on the tire and I used my pliers to pull out about a 3-4mm shard out of the tire.  New tube, shard pulled, I was ready for the rest of the day.  Strange, but the two flat tires we've had on this trip, both were found while we were off the bike and in the position to fix them.  So far, this is lucky.  Let's see if our luck holds on this front.

Fixing the flat in Twin Bridges

So off we went, through a couple of other towns, on the way to our daily mountain pass.  This time it would be after we went through three more towns, including Virginia City.  Virginia City was an interesting town in that it was originally the largest city in Montana.  It was certainly a gold rush town, and its heyday was in the years right after the Civil War.  I guess the heyday ended when commercial mining outfits came in and mechanized all the mining in town.  We could see the mining tailings spread all over the sides of the roads into town.  Everything, crushed into small rocks, looking for gold and minerals.  It was pretty sad.  I guess this drove away all of the independents, and Virginia City and nearby Nevada City just died.  The town really looks authentic, as most of the town's original buildings were still there, and they certainly looked like they were old.  We stopped in the Virginia City Cafe, (see a theme here? Most cities' Cafes are typically where they will serve a good cup of coffee and something good to eat).  Virginia City Cafe was an exception, because the coffee was awful and they served us some type of cake of unknown origin, but it was all a ruse to sit inside, warm up, and hopefully miss most of the afternoon's heaviest rains.

Virginia City, in the rain

Eventually we had to go, and so we bundled up again against the rain and cold.  Upward we went, immediately, for about the next 5 miles.  Unfortunately, because of the grade of the hill, we immediately went from dry and warm, to toasty, to sweaty.  The combination of cold and high exertion eventually lead to my glasses fogging up because so much steam was coming from inside my shirt, I looked like a steam engine passing through.  I opened up all the zippers, took off the hood, and got rid of everything I could in order to cool off, to no avail.  I was drenched by the time we got to the top.  And then... 10 miles downhill at 30-40mph in 40 degree weather while wet.  I re-zipped everything, but it was just such a cold wind chill that nothing could stop the cold from getting in again.  The sad thing is that this was a beautiful ride, in gorgeous mountains, but we could see so little because everything was shrouded in dark clouds.

Passing the beloved down-truck sign, signifying the end of the climb and beginning of descent 

We quickly, and I mean like 15 minutes quickly, went the 10 miles to Ennis, MT.  After shopping a number of places, found a nice, old riverside cottage on the end of their downtown area. The people here were so nice, they even did a load of laundry for us - lots of sweaty clothes that were rejuvenated within an hour.  Dinner at the Gravel Bar was good, as all went for Shepherd's Pie (it seemed like the best option on a cold, rainy day in the mountains.  

Our cottage at the Riverside Inn

Tomorrow we head for West Yellowstone and a day off in the park.  We have another 70 something miles to ride, uphill, but only slightly, and the rain's chances are slightly less.  Lots to look forward to for the coming weekend.

Today's ride was about 74 miles, and we climbed 2,800 feet.