Day 38

Mileage: 51
Total mileage: 3316

Today I got sucked into the beautiful vortex of kindness that is Missoula!

Last night, after I typed my blog post, I went to a McDonald's to grab Wi-Fi and publish it around 10pm. As I was sitting there, waiting for it to upload, a guy in his mid twenties came up and asked if I needed a place to stay for the night. I replied that I hadn't find one yet and he invited me to go camping up in the mountains with a bunch of his buddies. I had nothing better to do so I readily obliged. We waited for a little bit while a bunch of people assembled in the parking lot and then cruised off about 7 miles outside of town into the mountains. They brought a bunch of pallets so we broke them up, had a campfire, enjoyed some beer and just generally had a great time. When we were all going to sleep, the sky was clear, so I elected to camp out under the magnificent stars that I could see through a gap in the trees. If it rained, I was ready to jump into the back seat of one of the cars, but the rain never came.

As a result, this morning started understandably late. I woke up around 8 while the others were still sleeping. I was stuck at the campsite until the others woke up, so I passed the next two hours playing with the chipmunks. They were fairly skittish at first, but I finally got them to the point where they were eating chip crumbs out of my hand. One particularly fat one was a big fan of my skittles and he was willing to stick his body halfway into the bag to get them.

Around 10, the guy with the truck woke up and we drove my bike back into Hamilton. From there I got to ride 40 miles of bike trail (!) through the Bitterroot valley into Lolo. Out of Lolo, the trail went into Missoula, but it was a 10 mile spur, I would have to ride back again to continue the route into Idaho. The big draw of Missoula was the Adventure Cycling Association and the potential to pick up a package at the post office. Since it's officially part of the route, I decided to go visit, with the firm expectation to get in and get out quickly.

At the ACA headquarters the whole plan broke down. When I walked in I was greeted enthusiastically by the staff. They took a Polaroid picture of me, had me sign my name and stuck it up on the wall with all the other cyclists. I guess they scan them as well so it's probably on their website too. One of the rituals there is to weigh your bike, but since my bike is empty, I got my pack weighed instead. 13 pounds, 15 ounces fully loaded. From that point, everyone I got introduced to on the tour of the building was informed by my guide that I was only carrying 14 pounds. I met the founder of the organization, Greg Siples and he ended up taking me out back to shoot a picture of me and my bag for their magazine.

The fun didn't stop there! While I was sitting in the cyclist lounge eating their free ice cream and reading their huge book about the TransAm, three cyclists that I had met in Jackson came in, Christina, Lael and Timothy. When I had talked to them there, they had just said that they were riding from Bozeman to Missoula, nothing more. What Lael neglected to mention was that she was in fact the legendary Lael, women's record holder for the great divide trail and this year's winner of the trans American bike race which I followed closely. (Absolutely insane, no woman has ever finished close to the top before and she WON). I totally fanboyed out when I learned who she was and got to talk to her for a while. She was super nice and in the end she took a picture with me.

The whole experience from tour to ice cream, photo shoot and meeting Lael Wilcox took a couple hours and by then a storm had rolled into Missoula. It was early evening and I could theoretically have kept going, but the folks at HQ told me about a free hostel in town where I could meet some other cyclists and stay the night. I've got a bit of time to play with, and quite honestly I'm eager to extend the trip by a little, so I opted to stay.

I showed up to Bruce's place (the hostel) which turned out to be his huge house with a bunch of folks living in it. The door was open which pretty much set the tone for my stay. Go in, go out, use the kitchen, take a shower, literally make yourself at home. I met a couple of other guys there, three of them going on the trail the other direction. One of them knew a girl in town and said we were invited over to go cook dinner. So the three of us hopped on our bikes, rode over to meet Allana at her house and then went to the grocery story for spaghetti supplies. When we came back we cooked an incredible meal of garlic bread, salad with strawberries and almonds and spaghetti. Towards the end of dinner two girls who were doing their own tour across Idaho and knew some of the guys stopped by. It was a big party and we sat, chatted and ate for a long time before we all ended up getting on bikes and riding convoy style back to the first house for the night.

It's a crowded living room floor here but I'm extremely glad I ended up sticking around and hanging out with these guys. I wonder what tomorrow will hold. G'night!