The life of a touring bicycle – Day 13

Date: Thursday 19th August  

Route: Hamilton, Montana – Jackson, Montana 

Distance: 87 miles 

Total climb: 4514ft 

Net climb: 1840ft

It’s been quite cold out here overnight, even with Diana for company.  I do hope the boys will let us stay indoors from now on – there’s plenty of space.  No surprises this morning, Fred can’t get out of bed and will not communicate.  He needs coffee and cereal, quickly.

After a 6am alarm, we’re underway at 9.15am – another efficient morning routine for the boys, not helped by Fred’s waking up issues and Jay’s lack of method to packing the panniers.  However, today is exciting – both Diana and I have new handbags (front panniers) to show off as we make our way along the scheduled runway of 87 miles.  I also have new jewellery, in the form of spokey dokeys sent over by the ever-wonderful Helen.  They look particularly chic in alternate red and black on the front wheels, although Fred did initially cause me confusion by carefully putting them on Diana, before waking up sufficiently to make the change.

The first few miles to Darby are hard going, with a strong headwind meaning that Diana and I take it in turns to go in front, feeling the full resistance on our new panniers.  There’s a highly amusing gym in the town, with the sign reading “the right to bare arms”, and a good selection of Gatorade and provisions at Mr T’s gas station.  I’m getting used to the cultural differences to home, but still find it odd when I notice a gent parked at the gas station with a rifle hanging in the back window of his truck.

Onwards and upwards to Sula, which for a very small place seems to stretch out far.  However, Diana and I are parked up at the designated eating spot, locked together and left to rest in the shade whilst the boys take on calories (and consider a game of mini golf at the facilities available).  I’m not quite sure what happened inside, but the boys spend the first few miles after lunch laughing about restaurant service requiring them to order, find a seat, return to organise drinks, eat the food, ask for the check, pay in the adjacent shop and then finally pay for the drinks – an over-engineered system if ever there was one.

Diana and I cruise up the climb, past ski slopes and wooded mountainsides, to the top of the Chief Joseph Pass (7,241 feet).  The boys continue to motivate themselves with impressions of Chris ‘Busi’ Akabusi, John Fashanu, Tiny Tempah and the occasional La Cucaracha.  It’s an easy cruise downhill from the top to Wisdom, passing the Big Hole battlefield and opening out onto the high plains, surrounded by mountain peaks and a huge, lightly clouded sky.

The boys stop for pie in Wisdom (a wise move, if you ask me) and discover that they are just days after a harsh swarm of mosquitoes had prevented people from leaving their houses in the daytime.  It is then a roll on over the plains, through the land of 10,000 hay bales, to Jackson and a hot spring.

Final other bullets on my debut (/final?) posting:

– Jay went slightly mad, deciding to have a go at “interval training”, 80 miles into the day, at an altitude above 6,000 feet, by sprinting up the short rolling hills.  Fred and I kept with him, but remain cautious of his mindset.

– We met another bike this evening, being powered by Aidan the Irishman, who is 2 years into his round the world trip and heading west

– Temperatures are noticeably lower up here at night, although the boys did get a soak in the natural hot springs to ease any muscle aches and were confused for Australians (again by some Americans) in the pool

– Jay had another game of Golden Tee and went to bed regretting having not paid the 50 cents to finish his round and secure the course record.  He did beat Fred, though.

Rosie