Day 37

Mileage: 91
Total mileage: 3265

If there's a counterpart to yesterday, it was today, and it was glorious! !

Last night I stayed nice and dry underneath my cafe porch while storm after storm swept through until about 4 in the morning. My sleeping bag (technically a quilt) has been performing marvelously this whole trip and I've been warm even on the coldest nights. This morning, however, I decided to put my windbreaker on over my Tshirt because little gusts of cold wind kept slipping in around the collar. I found out when I got up that the temperature dropped below 30 early this morning, which only elevated the bag even more in my standings.

Let me paint a cold picture for you. The puddles by the side of the road were all frozen and the tips of the grass were covered in frost. Up on the foothills outside of town there was a fresh covering of snow from last night. My jersey, shorts, socks and shoes understandably never dried out last night and there was no convenient laundromat, so I put them on wet and cold  which woke me up rather quickly. I suppose I'm in the mountains now and pretty far north as well, I should expect the cold despite the fact that it's July.

The restaurant in town was closed on Mondays, so I put on 20 miles to Wisdom before breakfast. My gloves kept my fingers nice and warm, but the combination of wet socks and cold wind quickly froze my toes back into numbness. It didn't last long. In Wisdom, while waiting for my eggs and pancakes, the waitress invited me to hang up my socks and shoes in front of the merry fire cracking in their stove. I sat myself right next to the fire and warmed up my feet while the socks dried out. After breakfast, I got to put on toasty stockings and nearly dry shoes; my feet stayed dry and warm for the rest of the day!

My day only got better from there! For 30 miles I gently climbed up to Chief Joseph pass and crossed the continental divide for the 9th and final time. It looks like I'm in the Pacific watershed to stay! The ride up there was two hours of perfect bliss. I climbed out of the Big Hole valley and into the mountains proper, passing through coniferous forests and past countless mountain streams. The sun started to warm up the air and the atmosphere was absolutely still, no traffic. I was listening to a recording of John Muir's wilderness journals being read aloud, but after a while I just turned it off and listened to the insects whirring, songbirds chirping and the soft babble of mountain streams. Crossing one little river, I got off the bike and just sat on the rocky bank for a while, enjoying the pine scent and the soothing sounds while eating my skittles.

On the other side of the pass I enjoyed a whole different kind of fun. I passed within viewing distance of Idaho, but I don't get to go in yet. Then within 10 miles I got to descend 2000 feet through the sweeping mountain landscape. My mouth always gets dry on descents like these because I cruise along over 35mph with my mouth wide open, grinning like an idiot the entire time. The rest of the day was spent cruising through forests, across rivers and just generally enjoying the Montana scenery. I think I'm falling in love with this state.

Tonight I'm in Hamilton. There used to be a lady here who let cyclists stay at her place, but when I texted her number off my maps she replied that she had moved to Virginia, so that's a nonstarter. I think I might just ride out of town for a while until I get somewhere that looks good and drop my sleeping bag. I'll have to keep my tarp handy though, those Montana storms creep up really quickly. G'night!