Little Joe Campground to Bannack, MT – 37 Miles, Avg Speed: 12 mph
This is the day that the support crew took to the road! Jiggleless fixed the flat on my bike, and I (Debbie… support crew member) got the pleasure of riding my bike along with Numb Stuff, Dirtbaby, and Jiggleless on the Great Divide route. It was a fantastic day, and a I feel so lucky that the team embraced me to join them, and gave me such a wonderful experience.
Out from the Little Joe Campground, we began a slow but steady 8 mile climb on paved road from about 6,800 ft to 7,885 ft. The air was thin, but at the same time it was clean and pure, and it just felt great with every exhausted breath I took. We passed gorgeous meadows, lily ponds, and just fantastic scenery. Unfortunately, we lost the photos for the day that were taken on NumbStuff's good HD camera. The photos here are all from my iPhone and/or Judy's camera.
I had the pleasure of having a juvenile antelope run right across the road in front of me! It came from a cow pasture on the left side, and appeared behind a small hill to prance across the road to my right. My bike scarred it, and I tried to slow down, but the antelope got nervous and kept trying to jump the fence on the right side of the road. It couldn’t get the height to jump it. In desperation, it finally plowed through the fence, pulled out a post, and took off and out of sight. Not sure how or why it was separated from the rest of its herd. This all happened in just a few seconds. Numb Stuff was behind me, and we both regret that we didn’t get a photo of it…sorry.
After the climb, it was a great downhill run to get to the Elk Horn area where we stopped for lunch at the Grasshopper Inn. It proved to be an excellent place to stop and eat. I asked the waitress what town we were in, and she said “Polaris” is the name. Little did she know how significant this was for us because Polaris is the end of the section 1 map of the Great Divide route. There are 6 sections in total that it will take Numb Stuff and Dirtbaby to get to Mexico. This was a great moment for us all!
In Bannack, we got to see the ghost town which was very cool. The evening ended with ghost stories by the fire and hot toddies. It was a bit windy and looks like it might rain on our tents tonight, but I couldn’t have asked for a better day.
Out from the Little Joe Campground, we began a slow but steady 8 mile climb on paved road from about 6,800 ft to 7,885 ft. The air was thin, but at the same time it was clean and pure, and it just felt great with every exhausted breath I took. We passed gorgeous meadows, lily ponds, and just fantastic scenery. Unfortunately, we lost the photos for the day that were taken on NumbStuff's good HD camera. The photos here are all from my iPhone and/or Judy's camera.
I had the pleasure of having a juvenile antelope run right across the road in front of me! It came from a cow pasture on the left side, and appeared behind a small hill to prance across the road to my right. My bike scarred it, and I tried to slow down, but the antelope got nervous and kept trying to jump the fence on the right side of the road. It couldn’t get the height to jump it. In desperation, it finally plowed through the fence, pulled out a post, and took off and out of sight. Not sure how or why it was separated from the rest of its herd. This all happened in just a few seconds. Numb Stuff was behind me, and we both regret that we didn’t get a photo of it…sorry.
After lunch, we began section 2 map. It was a great ride of mostly straight-aways with some small inclines, but nothing too difficult, and it was all on hard paved roads...boy did choose a great day to ride with these guys. When we turned onto the 278 hwy, towards Bannack, the wind was to our backs, and this made all the difference! We did a quick 6 mile run up the road, and came across a fellow bicyclist coming the opposite direction. He yelled out to us, and turned around to follow us. Once I noticed he was following us, I turned around to greet him. He immediately asked me if one of the bikers on my team was from England, and was her name Susan. As it turned out, his name was Stuart, and he is riding the Transamerica route to Oregon. He had communicated with Susan on Facebook prior to our ride, and he recognized her floral shirt from her facebook page! We stopped and had a great meeting on the side of the road. He had just left Susan a little hidden treat at the entrance to Bannack State Park stating it was yellow and had bullet holes in it. He was going to notify her via Facebook later, but since he ran into us, it was even better! We stopped and found the hidden treat. You can just see it peeking out under the sign here. Thanks Stuart! Follow Stuart on his blog here: http://www.midlifecyclist.me.uk/
Judy, my support team buddy, showed up at the same time as our meeting with Stewart. She was there just to check up and see how I was holding up. I told her I felt great, and finished the ride to the Bannack State Park with my personal best of 37 miles on a bike. I won’t be riding tomorrow, but I am very thankful to my whole team for allowing me to have such a great experience that I will never forget!
Here is some video I took on my bike at the end of the ride on our way to Bannack State Park.
In Bannack, we got to see the ghost town which was very cool. The evening ended with ghost stories by the fire and hot toddies. It was a bit windy and looks like it might rain on our tents tonight, but I couldn’t have asked for a better day.
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