Day 8 - Butte to Bozeman

I know this is getting redundant, but what a day on the bike. We began with cool temps in Butte (49 degrees with no wind), but Dave reminds me that it is a dry cool... Anyway, we encountered little traffic on the way out of town - it being Sunday morning. About eight miles in we climbed over Pipestone Pass, a winding three mile climb, that got hearts and legs working again. The reward for the climb was a tremendous eighteen mile descent.


I stopped to get pictures of riders coming over a rise after the descent. The picture above is looking west and the picture to the left is a nice shot of two riders heading down the highway. By the time we got to the first stop, which was at mile 29, it was time to take off the jackets, arm warmers, knee warmers, and any other cold weather gear we had donned in Butte an hour and a half earlier. The vehicles at each stop have bags into which we can throw extra clothes that can be collected later in the day at the destination motel.



Each stop is a mobile smorgasbord of tasty treats. The picture shows all the snacks, from assorted cookies, crackers, jerky, chips, nuts, and twizzlers to cherries, bananas, grapes, and even mango and kiwi fruit. I've found that peppered jerky and dark cherries pair nicely when you eat them together... literally. For the Dave, the gold standard is still the peach he had days ago.


As far as the bikes and other equipment go, we're doing fairly well. Dave has changed saddles to one that provides a bit more cushion. He's also broken one of cleats, but has back up shoes, which was one of the things noted in our pre-ride packing list. We stopped at a local bike shop in Bozeman and bought some insulated bottles. The afternoon temps reach the 90s most days, which means the last bottle of the day is warm, if not hot, water or Gatorade.... yummy. I'm sticking to water, since I like to cool the head occasionally and dumping Gatorade on your head is nasty. I'm supplementing the water with Endurolytes, which provide the electrolytes provided in sports drinks. Sunscreen and chamois butter are provided each stop as well and people tend to lather up liberally in both cases.

Back to the scenery... we were treated with stunning views of distant mountains in the early morning haze (top pic); the Tobacco Root Mountains (next pic); and winding roads heading to the Madison River, which was filled with people floating on tubes, which looked especially appealing in the hot afternoon sun. We're off to Columbus, Montana tomorrow and suspect we'll be treated to more beautiful views.