Twin Bridges, Montana
Heidi and I are at the public library in Twin Bridges, Montana. And we're about four days past our last blog entry from Missoula. Although we really loved some things about Missoula (fantastico bread from a local bakery, the bike bridge for crossing the river, and divine truffles we found along the main drag), we are both really happy to be out on the road again.
In Montana we opted to take an alternate route (not the Adventure Cycling path), and this alternate that we're on supposedly cuts off 50 miles and some climbing, and also avoids a truck-filled highway. Now, here at Twin Bridges, we join up again with the Adventure Cycling route we've been (mostly) following across the country.
I have to say, I LOVE being off the Adventure Cycling trail. For one thing, people in towns are actually enthusiastic about meeting us, because we're not the thousandth cross-country cyclist they've seen on their town's Main Street. Also, being off-route curtails me from pouring over the elevation map and dreading each climb in the day. It's exciting to be going through new territory.
The day we left Missoula we biked about 55 miles to Drummond, Montana. Upon setting up our tent in the local park, we were invited by other campers there to a free bluegrass concert/dance and all-you-can-eat-down-home-buffet downtown. Of course we decided to attend! It was a great night of hanging out with the local crowd, stuffing our faces with deep-fat fried corn-on-the-cob and cream cheese mushrooms, and watching cute old couples two-step in front of the stage.
The next morning we both felt sluggish about continuing on our journey, because other people were still camped out in the park and it almost felt like we were at a bluegrass festival! We made pancakes over our wood-burning stove, then sloooowly packed up and pushed off at about noon. It was too hot, really, by the time we got out on the road, so we ended up biking to the next sizeable town (Philipsburg) and calling it a day.
Philipsburg just happened to be having its local art and jazz festival on Main Street, so we ate ice-cream and listened to live music and browsed around downtown. One of the restaurant/bars advertised "lousy food and warm beer" and another was called the White Front Bar, simply because the front of the building was white siding...It seemed like a town with character. Heidi and I were really debating about paying for a spot at the local R.V. park, when we met a man who told us he was sure we could stay in the town park.
The town park had a great view of mountains in the distance, *delightful* pit toilets (not so delightful, actually, as the floor near the toilet creaked dangerously when it was walked upon), a really nice shelter, and nearby water. Oh, yes...And outlets where we could charge our cell phones! (Not that Sprint has had service in the western United States).
After a very relaxing evening lounging around under the shelter, we clambered into the tent (which we'd set up under the shelter) and prepared for great night of rest. Just as I was dozing off to sleep, I heard a terrifying rustling and scratching emanating from somewhere nearby. I say "terrifying" because Heidi and I are constantly being told to watch out for wildlife, and have become slightly paranoid about when and where we're going to be mauled by a Grizzly. Anyway, Heidi also jerked awake at the sound, and we decided it was better to investigate than to freak out inside the tent. Heidi approached a trash can and out leapt a cat who had been rummaging for food. Whew! With relief we crawled back in to go to sleep...but the cat had other plans. How long can a cat spend rummaging for food? Hours, my friends, hours. All night long, we were tossing and turning as the cat yowled and meowed around our tent, and then took occasional breaks to claw around in the garbage. Heidi would bark like a dog to scare it off, and I resorted to hissing. Peace-loving Heidi even thought about spraying it with our dog mace or trapping it in the garbage can.
Come morning, we both were bleary-eyed and laughing hysterically about what a horrible night of sleep we'd had. As we ate breakfast, we heard a faint meowing coming from a nearby ditch, and when I went to get water I saw the cat running through the grass. Soon it came out of hiding and rolled cutely in the dust...In the light of day we felt some mercy for the little bugger, and so Heidi set about dumpster diving in search of cat-friendly foods, and I tried to ply its tastebuds with trail mix. Soon Heidi had it eating mayonnaise she'd found, and also drinking hot cocoa powder mixed with water.
By that time, we were also trying to figure how we could bring the cat with us on the rest of journey, but we decided to call the city offices instead, because it was obviously a tame cat who'd lost its owner. Heidi ended up calling the Chamber of Commerce, where the woman who answered promptly decided to come down to the park and check on the cat. She soon arrived bearing cat food and water, and then put the cat in her car to take him to the vet ("I can't remember his name...I just call him 'Doc'").
We left town feeling chipper about our good deed, and also, mostly, about the kindness and assistance from the woman in Philipsburg.
Well, folks, I'm burning out on writing. Heidi's loading photos at the computer beside me. Let me just briefly summarize the time since Philipsburg:
We left P-burg and biked towards Butte yesterday. It was actually a really nice ride, including seeing beautiful Georgetown Lake and having a sweet downhill for some miles, but 15 miles outside of Butte, just as we were warming up our vocal cords with some made-up lyrics to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," I repeated my chain-snarling performance and so we had to stop and fix my bike. One man stopped and lent us the pliers we needed to finish the repair, and just as he drove away we noticed we'd missed putting the chain through one key spot. So we flagged down a couple from Steamboat Springs, Colorado (who just happened to have a mostly empty U-Haul trailer), and they were so kind as to take us directly to our hosts for the night.
Our stay in Butte was really relaxing and rejuvinating. We were hosted by a couple from one of the local Presbyterian churches (we'd called to ask if we could camp on the church lawn), and we learned a lot about the history of Butte (biggest open-pit mine in the U.S.) and also had a driving tour over the pass at night to see the lights of the town and the Virgin Mary statue up on the mountainside (I guess it's the same size/shape as the Statue of Liberty, and was built by steelworkers during a strike in the 80s). This morning we awoke to huckleberry pancakes (huckleberries are quite prized in these parts...hours of picking may yield only a cup or so of berries), and bid our kind hosts farewell.
We were on the road by 9:30 a.m., had a easier-than-expected climb over the Continental Divide, and then road through a broad valley with mountains in the distance in the afternoon. We got into town early enough to come here, to the library, and we've met up again with Mike & Liz, the couple who is biking the Adventure Cycling route on about the same time table.
Take care! We're still having a blast and I love (at least a significant part of) every day!
In Montana we opted to take an alternate route (not the Adventure Cycling path), and this alternate that we're on supposedly cuts off 50 miles and some climbing, and also avoids a truck-filled highway. Now, here at Twin Bridges, we join up again with the Adventure Cycling route we've been (mostly) following across the country.
I have to say, I LOVE being off the Adventure Cycling trail. For one thing, people in towns are actually enthusiastic about meeting us, because we're not the thousandth cross-country cyclist they've seen on their town's Main Street. Also, being off-route curtails me from pouring over the elevation map and dreading each climb in the day. It's exciting to be going through new territory.
The day we left Missoula we biked about 55 miles to Drummond, Montana. Upon setting up our tent in the local park, we were invited by other campers there to a free bluegrass concert/dance and all-you-can-eat-down-home-buffet downtown. Of course we decided to attend! It was a great night of hanging out with the local crowd, stuffing our faces with deep-fat fried corn-on-the-cob and cream cheese mushrooms, and watching cute old couples two-step in front of the stage.
The next morning we both felt sluggish about continuing on our journey, because other people were still camped out in the park and it almost felt like we were at a bluegrass festival! We made pancakes over our wood-burning stove, then sloooowly packed up and pushed off at about noon. It was too hot, really, by the time we got out on the road, so we ended up biking to the next sizeable town (Philipsburg) and calling it a day.
Philipsburg just happened to be having its local art and jazz festival on Main Street, so we ate ice-cream and listened to live music and browsed around downtown. One of the restaurant/bars advertised "lousy food and warm beer" and another was called the White Front Bar, simply because the front of the building was white siding...It seemed like a town with character. Heidi and I were really debating about paying for a spot at the local R.V. park, when we met a man who told us he was sure we could stay in the town park.
The town park had a great view of mountains in the distance, *delightful* pit toilets (not so delightful, actually, as the floor near the toilet creaked dangerously when it was walked upon), a really nice shelter, and nearby water. Oh, yes...And outlets where we could charge our cell phones! (Not that Sprint has had service in the western United States).
After a very relaxing evening lounging around under the shelter, we clambered into the tent (which we'd set up under the shelter) and prepared for great night of rest. Just as I was dozing off to sleep, I heard a terrifying rustling and scratching emanating from somewhere nearby. I say "terrifying" because Heidi and I are constantly being told to watch out for wildlife, and have become slightly paranoid about when and where we're going to be mauled by a Grizzly. Anyway, Heidi also jerked awake at the sound, and we decided it was better to investigate than to freak out inside the tent. Heidi approached a trash can and out leapt a cat who had been rummaging for food. Whew! With relief we crawled back in to go to sleep...but the cat had other plans. How long can a cat spend rummaging for food? Hours, my friends, hours. All night long, we were tossing and turning as the cat yowled and meowed around our tent, and then took occasional breaks to claw around in the garbage. Heidi would bark like a dog to scare it off, and I resorted to hissing. Peace-loving Heidi even thought about spraying it with our dog mace or trapping it in the garbage can.
Come morning, we both were bleary-eyed and laughing hysterically about what a horrible night of sleep we'd had. As we ate breakfast, we heard a faint meowing coming from a nearby ditch, and when I went to get water I saw the cat running through the grass. Soon it came out of hiding and rolled cutely in the dust...In the light of day we felt some mercy for the little bugger, and so Heidi set about dumpster diving in search of cat-friendly foods, and I tried to ply its tastebuds with trail mix. Soon Heidi had it eating mayonnaise she'd found, and also drinking hot cocoa powder mixed with water.
By that time, we were also trying to figure how we could bring the cat with us on the rest of journey, but we decided to call the city offices instead, because it was obviously a tame cat who'd lost its owner. Heidi ended up calling the Chamber of Commerce, where the woman who answered promptly decided to come down to the park and check on the cat. She soon arrived bearing cat food and water, and then put the cat in her car to take him to the vet ("I can't remember his name...I just call him 'Doc'").
We left town feeling chipper about our good deed, and also, mostly, about the kindness and assistance from the woman in Philipsburg.
Well, folks, I'm burning out on writing. Heidi's loading photos at the computer beside me. Let me just briefly summarize the time since Philipsburg:
We left P-burg and biked towards Butte yesterday. It was actually a really nice ride, including seeing beautiful Georgetown Lake and having a sweet downhill for some miles, but 15 miles outside of Butte, just as we were warming up our vocal cords with some made-up lyrics to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," I repeated my chain-snarling performance and so we had to stop and fix my bike. One man stopped and lent us the pliers we needed to finish the repair, and just as he drove away we noticed we'd missed putting the chain through one key spot. So we flagged down a couple from Steamboat Springs, Colorado (who just happened to have a mostly empty U-Haul trailer), and they were so kind as to take us directly to our hosts for the night.
Our stay in Butte was really relaxing and rejuvinating. We were hosted by a couple from one of the local Presbyterian churches (we'd called to ask if we could camp on the church lawn), and we learned a lot about the history of Butte (biggest open-pit mine in the U.S.) and also had a driving tour over the pass at night to see the lights of the town and the Virgin Mary statue up on the mountainside (I guess it's the same size/shape as the Statue of Liberty, and was built by steelworkers during a strike in the 80s). This morning we awoke to huckleberry pancakes (huckleberries are quite prized in these parts...hours of picking may yield only a cup or so of berries), and bid our kind hosts farewell.
We were on the road by 9:30 a.m., had a easier-than-expected climb over the Continental Divide, and then road through a broad valley with mountains in the distance in the afternoon. We got into town early enough to come here, to the library, and we've met up again with Mike & Liz, the couple who is biking the Adventure Cycling route on about the same time table.
Take care! We're still having a blast and I love (at least a significant part of) every day!
posted by Heidi & Liz at 6:07 PM
3 Comments:
Enjoyed the write-up. I pulled out the atlas and checked the various Montana towns mentioned. Not far to Yellowstone! Mom amanda
I too, enjoyed the journaling. I'm glad you're still having fun. The cat story was awesome!!! Myrna
Hi Liz and Heidi,
Had not checked your blog in awhile, so really enjoyed seeing all of the pictures. Received your postcard, Liz. Great to follow you girls and live vicariously outside these library walls.
Love,
Sarah
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