Ennis Montana

Note to Terri: next time I'm bringing my laptop!! We have come across many places with WiFi, but hardly any libraries. The problem is that at our age, if we don't get to update often, we forget what we've done.

Anyway, to pick up where we left off: we left Missoula on Wednesday morning with the lofty goal of riding all of 15 miles to Lolo. Attractions in Lolo: the absolutely confirmed site where Lewis and Clark stayed. (Don't ask how they know this; just remember it has to do with the latrine!) That was actually fascinating. They are working on putting the place together. There are two large yerts which serve as the ranger station/meeting place. We had the fortune to show up when there were about 25 retired National Forest Service rangers meeting for a tour. Talk about a wealth of information.

From there we headed up to meet Dan and Sally Wheaton, uncle and aunt of our friend Kim. They retired in PA and moved out to Lolo about six years ago, and welcome any company from back East. They treated us like long-lost relatives; we had dinner of Copper River salmon, salad, etc. and got to christen their above-the-garage guest house. Note to Kim and Burt: get the heck out there to visit. It was a great way to start the trip. They are interesting and welcoming people, and since Dan was an English professor before retirement, we felt right at home.

Thursday morning we headed out with Darby as our goal. I'll just mention right here that the scenery is almost indescribably beautiful and leave it at that. We followed the Bitterroot River for several days, so we were treated to the sound of running water everywhere. The weather is sunny, at least after the first couple of days, but the air is clear and cool and very dry. (Great for doing laundry at night.) Being able to wear long sleeves has helped with my sensitivity to the sun. It's rarely too hot for either long sleeves or a jacket!

From Darby we headed for Wisdom, Montana. It was on that stretch of the trip that we really began to feel that we were "Out West." We climbed Chief Joseph Pass, the toughest one so far. The obligatory tourist stop on that stretch was the Big Hole Battlefield where Chief Joseph battled the "heroes" who wanted to push his people onto smaller and smaller pieces of land despite treaties to the contrary. The battlefield site is a National Park. Upon leaving there, a high plateau leading down to Wisdom, we wondered why suddenly we were swarmed by mosquitoes. The woman who owned the restaurant where we ate dinner explained that it was due to the flooding irrigation they use there for ranching. "They just blossomed yesterday!" she said cheerfully. We decided that would be a good night for a motel!

The route out of Wisdom took us through more of the lush, very wide valley that the Bitterroot feeds. After riding over two moderate passes, we stopped Saturday night in Dillon, Montana, the biggest town since Missoula. We stayed at a KOA (enough said there; sharing the campground with a teenage baseball team in for a tournament was just lovely.) We were happy to have our earplugs along. The route out of Dillon included some more wide valley and a nice downhill run into Twin Bridges, a pleasant town at the confluence of three rivers (hmmm!). It was hosting a Father's Day Fly-In; we're not sure what that means, but there were lots of small planes buzzing around. It also seems to be a common thing for large ranches to have an airstrip. More than once we noticed a pickup truck parked way out in the middle of a field at the end of the strip. Probably the rancher flew off to the nearest Wal-Mart!

We climbed very gradually through Laurin, Sheridan, Alder and on to Nevada City and Virginia City. These last two were former mining towns that have been set up as tourist traps, oops, I mean centers. They were typical western towns with wooden sidewalks, stage coach tours and even a cabaret. It was interesting historically, since most of the buildings and houses were original. We chose a bed and breakfast over the campground there, since shade seemed to be at a premium in the campground and it was a mile ABOVE the town. The bed and breakfast was great. The hostess was actually from Queens. She got tired of city life and she and her husband moved out here about nine years ago. He is a glass artist and she runs the bed and breakfast and is a massage therapist. She did a good job, but she was no Sally Wheaton!

Our climb out of Virginia City was interesting. We had chosen to stop there rather than going an additional 15 miles to Ennis, since the 15 miles included a pass that was four miles up to 7,000 feet. Since we were starting fresh after a good night's sleep and a great breakfast, we thought we'd have a relatively easy time with this climb. After three miles, we pulled over for a "stretch-break" panting, sweating and blaming the altitude, rather than our age, for the hard time we were having with this particular ascent. That's when Bob noticed that our drag brake had been on the whole time. We outfitted the bike with this drum brake before coming out here to help us with the DESCENTS! He tried to pass it off as being a way to make the climb more challenging; I have reminded him after every stop to check the brake lever.

We will head today along the Madison River (Ward, Skip and Randy: you have to get out here!) toward Yellowstone Park. Mom: finally a new state! Montana is a manly state and I think we've seen the prettiest part of it. Wyoming and Colorado will have their challenges. Hopefully, we'll set out without the brake!