Day 17

A late start after a good coffee at Fire Tower Coffee House in Helena. 

This day was in thirds… The first and last third reasonably nice! The middle third, pretty much 2.5 hours of pushing up rocky trail that never seemed to end. For the first time on this trip, I was verbally cursing the author of this particular part of the trail! It was really ridiculously difficult for an extended amount of time! But I guess the advantage of me yelling out loud and cursing was to notify any bears that might be in the area of my presents! 

Speaking of bears, I had one scare today. After the hardest part of the trail, I was on a gravel road making a sharp right turn and saw a large black mass approaching the road ahead of me through the trees. My heart rate went up to about 800, but as it turned out it was just a black cow! Reminded me of the Steely Dan song… 

Not so many views today as we were in the trees mostly. 

I got into the small town of Basin two hours ahead of Chris and Dave, they took two naps on the ride today. We will communicate the day’s end plan better going forward. 

I had a great jalapeño burger at the only bar in town. And nice home made potato chips. Later when the guys arrived, they ordered food and I had a bowl of tasty homemade potato and bacon soup. Perfect! And a scoop of huckleberry ice cream, which is available throughout these parts… And over yonder…

We are camped at the Merry Widow private campground, right next to the Mine Health Spa. Like as in an old mine… Apparently there are healing powers for arthritis in the old mine here. The story was told that even old dogs have been known to barely crawl in there with bad arthritis, and come out frolicking like a puppy. Really, that’s what the guy said up at the restaurant. I think his sister in law manages the place…

The campground clubhouse had very nice showers decorated in a sort of beach Hawaiian motif! Very luxurious for us tent campers!

Day 18

After a great campground sleep next to a babbling river in my over-toasty new bag, I packed up and rode back the mile into Basin and had a fantastic breakfast. The other guys stayed in camp and had granola. 

I think today will be easier than yesterday, which was one tough damn day! We will make it into Butte by late afternoon, possibly stay an extra night there as rain is predicted, but the percentage keeps dropping a little bit so maybe rain will never happen. It is definitely a grey and much cooler day today so far…

About two thirds of the way through the day, saw a huge Golden Eagle on top of a power pole, the first one I’ve seen in Montana! He was looking at me and made some noises my direction…

Actually very moderate cycling today compared to yesterday got to the hotel about 2 PM. We will discuss it later, but we may stay another day here as rain is predicted tomorrow.

Had a fantastic Reuben sandwich with a baked potato(e) and a tasty IPA at Sparky’s Garage! 

Day 19 (Hangin’ in rainy Butte)

Butte Berkeley Mine, what a disaster! One of the largest open pit copper mines in the world, and rated the most toxic. The open pit is full of leached minerals, like arsenic. They hire people to shoot shotguns to keep the birds from landing; this after a few years ago when a large flock of migrating Canada geese landed there, more than 342 dead in a few hours. (http://www.hcn.org/issues/49/1520)

Much worse than that, the pit continues to collect groundwater and rainwater. It is predicted that in 20 years, the level of the resulting lake will rise into the water table and all of those toxics will essentially overflow into the surrounding area (and Butte’s) water source will be horribly contaminated. Wikipedia does a better job explaining it at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Pit I believe we will ride next to it tomorrow. 

Hopped the free bus into lower Butte to pick up some supplies right on the bus line. While Butte has a coherent downtown called “uptown” cuz it’s up the hill, Butte kinda looks like a town without heaps of community pride. I don’t mean to be excessively judgmental after only being here for two days, I recognize I really know nothing of Butte… But with that toxic mine a huge visible feature from anywhere in town, it seems somewhat of a grim future looms…

There is a huge 90′ statue on the mountain above the mine called Our Lady of the Rockies, a BVM statue. Beautiful, but don’t think we will take the two hour round trip tour on a school bus to see it…

A 15 minute walk from the motel is the Berkeley Mine Viewing Stand. Was going to walk up there, but raining pretty hard! If it lets up soon, I will walk up there otherwise I think we will just see it on our bike route tomorrow. All digits crossed the rain stops! (Never made it to the view, too much rain. )

It’s a very lazy afternoon, actually took a rare nap. It has been an uneventful day, didn’t feel like exploring out in the rain, going to find a slice of pizza and a salad soon… If all goes as planned, we will leave Butte tomorrow, riding past the Berkeley mine back out into the hinterlands, day after tomorrow we will attempt to conquer the ominous Fleecer Ridge, One of several spectacularly challenging portions of the route. Snow is predicted down to 7000 feet, so we may hit some very cold days ahead…

The last evening in Butte, we had a fantastic pizza at Broadway Cafe. The kind where the crust is thin and crisp and well done, and all of the toppings are still fresh and hot and not overcooked! A real treat with a glass of Pinot Noir…

Seems like the longer I ride the fewer photos I take… Thanks for taking the time to follow along this adventure…