Day 38 - 72 Miles

Helena National Forest to Missoula
Total = 2,865 Miles

Wow, very cold morning. We were up in the mountains and it was easily in the 30's when we woke up. Cold like that makes it hard to get going in the morning. Especially doing easy tasks like rolling up our tents. It doesn't take long, but by the end your hands are just freezing. What made it worse is that our first 10 miles was shaded by the mountains, so we weren't even getting any sun to warm us up. As Armin put it, "my hands were so cold I couldn't even move them. Good thing I never had to break because I don't think I could have." A nice thing about the mornings is you do see a lot of wildlife. Below is a deer I credited myself from saving that was about ready to cross the busy road. I scared it enough to get it back up the hill where it came from. I also came across two wolves today.

We have big plans for Missoula. Our first stop was at the Adventure Cycling Association. Even though we weren't using our maps, we were told by a few different people that it would be cool to drop in and see them. They were right. For touring cyclists they have a fridge full of soda and a freezer with ice cream. We probably ate too much of that, but it's hard to pass up free goodies. They also took our picture a few times and they had a computer just for touring cyclists to use. Very cool place.

With Missoula being a bigger city with a large transient population, we weren't able to find a park where we could setup camp. Very frowned upon by the police we were told. So, instead Julie used the website Warm Showers to find us a place to camp. The way it works, is that you agree to host touring cyclists and by doing so, you can see who has offered their home. Julie took down a few numbers and began calling around. It was last minute and we were lucky to get a hold of MaryAnne. She is great. Lives close to downtown, has a nice backyard to setup tents, and she allowed us to take showers and use the bathroom. She is an avid dog lover and a great person to be around. Thanks for hosting us!!

Taking Saturday off also allowed up to hit the town for the night. We didn't get too crazy, but it was fun to grab some drinks and stay up past 9pm. We hit up a few different bars around the downtown area. Drank some good local beer as well as PBR. Missoula is a fun town. I could easily see myself living here. They seem like they have a pretty happening culuture scene and people are biking everywhere. Portland has a lot of bicylists, but I think Missoula has them beat if you account for the size of the city.

Saturday's itinerary includes the Farmers Market, internet time at the library, laundry (I really stink!), doing some reading + relaxing, and I might try and catch an evening movie. I've been dieing to see Knocked Up and the local theater is still playing it. Sunday morning we hit the road again. Shortly after we leave the city we have Lolo Pass and we've heard that we'll get a beautiful downhill all the way to Lewiston, ID.