Day 73, Ennis to Dillon, Montana.

The clouds began to build in the afternoon. A common thing in the high country.

We noticed how dark the sky was getting, but didn't know about the hail storm till we got to Jackson.
Meet Richard. He is 68 years old, and was the youngest person to cross the U.S. at 17 years of age in 1955. He went from San Diego to Maine.

While in Virginia City, the old western town, we took the liberty of sight seeing. This is one of the original buildings with all the modern stuff they had back then.

These horses were pulling a stage coach. For tourist of course. We decided we didn't need that experience.

All this stuff is real. The national Park maintains Virginia City as a historical site.

The streets of modern day Virginia City.

We ate lunch here at the Outlaw Cafe. They have excellent french Dip.

Looking back half way up the 2,059 foot climb through the pass.

These clouds got worse and worse until all hell broke loose. With The Lords Mercy, we would be safely on the other side with out a scratch.

I think these are pelicans, but the plaque said they were cranes. You decide.

The stage coach at Virginia City.

Another shot at down town Virginia City.

In Dillon, we ate at this Mexican restaurant inside this bus on a recommendation from Richard. The food was GREAT!!! I highly recommend it.

It looked real bad, but I prayed, and The Lord answered.

We stopped for a cold drink at The town of Sheridan. I had two cans of V-8 and an ice cream.

Passing through the town of Twin Bridges. We only stopped for water.


Day 73, Ennis to Dillon, Montana. “Faith”. 71.63 miles.

Thursday, July 23, 2009. Interesting title, don’t you think? I’ll get to that a little latter. Ennis was another nice Little town. Although we did not get a chance to explore her, we did get to walk around a bit and see what her main street was like. Typical of an old western town, most of the buildings were made of wood with a look from time gone by. The thing that sends it into the modern era would be the busy paved road leading right down the middle of it.

We left the Camper Corner Camp Ground shortly after 8:00AM. Today was going to be a long day, and we knew about the up coming climb from the elevation profile on the map, and previous accounts from others we have read about. Actually Lisa is the one doing all the reading. About a mile and a half into our ride, be began the climb. At first we weren’t sure if this was the actual climb, or one of the hill sections leading up to it. But as we rounded the corner at the top of the first break, we could see what was ahead. This climb is a constant 7% grade of 2060 feet in altitude gain. It sounds pretty bad, and it was, especially pulling all that weight. To put it into perspective, the climb up to Maunaloa just past the big cut at the top from Mahana has a grade of 6%, and you gain 700 feet in almost exactly two miles. Okay, now. Grab a bike, load it with about 60 pounds of stuff, and go climb it. Take your time, and drink plenty of water. Now, imagine a hill three times that long, and steeper. Okay, you get the picture.

The scenery here is not as impressive as what we have encountered in the past few days. I found it hard to break out the camera since I was a bit spoiled by Colorado and Wyoming. Maybe we are just in the wrong part of Montana……….. Once over the top, we had a long decent into Virginia City. Yes, the Virginia City you see in old western movies. This is a real place, and the National Park Service has done a wonderful job a keeping it looking pretty authentic. We had lunch at the Outlaw Cafe. An antique shop as well. I don’t know where they get all that stuff, but there were really neat stuff from way back then. It I didn’t have to carry all that on my bike, I would have gotten a few things just to have as a conversation piece. After lunch, we spent a couple hours walking around and exploring the many little shops on either side of the street. A few of the buildings are actually the original, and some of them were left open so people can go in and see the stuff that was used way back then. By now, I was getting hot and needed something to cool me off. I found a place that made the best mocha I have ever had. It gave me brain freeze at first, but I enjoyed that one till the very last drop.

We left Virginia City at about 1:30. It was more down hill. Nevada City, another authentic western town and mining community was about a half mile away. We didn’t stop, we spent too much time at Virginia City. We rolled along following the Madison River through the Madison Valley. More dry desert like terrain. Once we hit the open flats, things changed quite abruptly. It got greener, and farms started popping up. We passed by marshes with water fowl living around them, sheep, cattle, and goat farms. And fields of what appears to be alfalfa or something. We came to he crest of a slight up hill grade when two ravaged dogs came charging out at us. They were drooling and vicious. One of them bit Lisa’s foot through her shoe, but no blood was drawn. They kept coming at us, and for a moment there I thought we were dog food. /this was the worst encounter we had so far.

The rest of the ride was pretty much un eventful. We stopped at a little town called Sheridan to get a cold drink and cool down. A lady pulled in right next to where we were sitting and offered us water and wanted to make sure that we were safe. It’s always nice to meet people like that…………………. Our next stop would be the town of Twin Bridges. There is a bike camp set up by the city to attract touring cyclists. We stopped there for water. It is a brand new facility with showers, a screened enclosed dinning area, bike stand, sinks, rest rooms, and a tent sight all located right next to a beautiful river. It was a great place, but we had our sight on Dillon, another 28 miles down the road. It was now 3:30 in the after noon. We needed to get going if we were to make it before dark.

It was easy going at first. And we were making pretty good time. We stopped at an over look to take a break. While we were there, we noticed dark clouds beginning to form in front of us. It didn’t look good. Now, this is where the Faith part comes in. I always depend on God to take care of situations like this. After all, He is in control, and everything is at His Command. I said an earnest prayer, and repeated it several times as we rode. In front of us I could see the dark clouds and heavy rains. Lightning struck now and then, and we were headed straight for it. I kept offering that little prayer. And I felt confident that The Lord Would Deliver………………………… At this time Lisa said, “We’re going to get rained on”. And it did look like it. But I kept repeating that little prayer……………………. To make a long story short, we didn’t get a drop of that rain. The roads were wet as we rolled into town, and you could see the storm off in the distance behind us. But The Good Lord Watched over us. I believe it was because of Faith. Through Him we can do anything. Next time you get in a bind, ask The Lord for help. We likes when we do that, and He is always there.

Tonight we are safe and sound at the Sundowner Motel. Aloha and good night, Ted.