Day 14: Bozeman, MT to Big Timber, MT

Bozeman was a fun town and hard to leave. We finally made it on our way around 11:30 after a delicious breakfast at the Stockyard. The Stockyard is this hole in the wall old restaurant down a remote gravel road outside of Bozeman. Joe treated us to a farwell breakfast. Portions were generous and tasty.

After a few final glances at the map and packing everything back on the bikes, we were off to Big Timber, MT. It was a direct shot down I90 about a 60 miles or so. It was a beautiful sunny day and should have been a quick ride (so to speak.) There were supposed to be a few frontage roads we could take to avoid the highway. We found the first one out of Bozeman, but it put us back on the highway after a few short miles.

After a few more miles on the highway, I saw a turnoff for Trail Creek Rd. I remembered the road name from my route discussions with Joe and his friends, so I suggested we take that road. It was beautful winding road that lead into a tight valley with ranches and nice homes. After about 7 miles or so, it turned to gravel. Marc and I both looked at each other inquistively. He asked if I knew it would be gravel. I said that I could remember some talk about a stretch of gravel road. I was hoping it would be brief.

We cycled on enjoying the beautiful scenery. However, the road started to get progressively worse with potholes and ruts. It would have been fun on a mountain bike, but a bit to rocky for the road bikes. We were now about 10 miles down the road so we felt committed to riding it out.

I kept praying that it would turn back to a paved road and lead us back to the highway. After about 15 miles on the gravel, we came to a fork in the road. Marc pulled out the Garmin GPS to see if we could find out which way to go. I was starting to think that I took us on the wrong road.

As we were stopped, a pickup truck pulled up and asked us if we needed help. (The folks in Montana are super friendly!) Marc asked him "Which way to Livingston?".

The driver replied, "Up that hill and then a left. Do you want a ride to the top of the hill. We can throw the bikes in the back of the truck?"

It was awfully tempting at this point, but we declined and moved on up and over the hill. Riding on gravel roads is tough on a road bike. You definitely can not go as fast and it takes a lot more energy to keep the wheels rolling. After summitting the hill and rolling down into the valley, we finally made it to a paved road and discovered that we were in Paradise Valley - the valley that leads to Yellowstone. Appartanly I has mistaken the original directions to Yellowstone with the directions for our new route to Big Timber. Thus we ended up going about 15 miles out of the way!

I was eager by then to just get on the highway and stay. No more frontage road detours. So we left Livingston for Big Timber and rolled along on the wide shoulder of Interstate 90. The scenery today was quite breathtaking. We had tremendous views of several different mountain ranges.

Given our late start and our 15 mile detour, we rolled into Big Timber around 7:30 PM. We found the downtown area and a historic hotel right on the main road downtown. The Grand Hotel was built in 1890 and is now a Bed & Breakfast Hotel. The rooms were the cheapest in town, and they had an adjoining restaurant so we decided to take a room. Our room is quaint and small with a bathroom down the hall. But - the restaurant was open and served pie! I opted for a slice of cheesecake with a blueberry sauce. It wss definitely homemade and delicious!

We are still looking into our route for tomorrow, it looks like we will most likely take the highway again to Billings.

Day Eight - Haugan, MT to Missoula (Zoo), MT

So I awoke this morning around 6:30 AM to the not so welcome sound of a rain storm thundering on the roof of our motel. It was a clear sign that I should go back to bed for awhile.
When I woke again about an hour later, I asked Marc "Do you hear that?"

His response "What, the air conditioning?"

I replied, "No, the rain!".... his response was a brief groan and going back to sleep, I decided to join him.

We both went back to sleep in until about 8:30 or so. It was a late start to a long 95 mile day ahead of us. We ate breakfast at the same (and only) restaurant in town and rolled out back on the interstate around 10:15 in the morning. Luckily the rain had passed and the sun peaked out just a bit.

The first 20 miles or so of our ride down Interstate 90 was all downhill with a slight tailwind. It was an easy start and we were eager to stop at St. Regis and strip off some of our rain gear. (Its been the story of our trip so far - put on rain gear, take off rain gear --- oh wait 10 minutes later -- stop and put on the rain gear!)

A few miles after our stop we encountered our first road construction detour. The highway merged with the oncoming lane for a two-lane highway situation. It was miserable. We had a 1 foot shoulder with RV's closing grazing us at 55+ miles an hour. Marc decided it was too dangerous and led us across the grassy median to the closed side of the highway. So for the next 5 or so miles we poached a ride on the closed side of highway. It was beautiful! We had a 2 lane highway all to ourselves! I kept turning around expecting a car or worse yet... a cop to be chasing us down. Marc said we could plead "scared". (Scared that a RV would run us off the narrow shoulder!) I'm not much of a rule breaker so it made me nervous but excited at the same time.

About 50 miles into our ride we stopped at a rest stop for a quick potty break. As I came out of the bathroom, Marc suggested that we might want to wait a few minutes before getting back on the highway. Just then the sky opened up and there was a thundering downpour with strikes of lightening all around us. We huddled under a covered picnic table. Wow, we had good timing - it would not be fun to be stuck on the side of the road in this storm.

Luckily the storm passed quickly and we were on our way in within 20 minutes or so. The air had cooled quite a bit after the storm and we were back in our rain gear and pants. At one point on the ride, I swear I could see my breath - boy it was cold!

As we rode, I took particular notice to the clouds. They are really fascinating in Montana. They hang so low in the mountains that they look as though the trees are on fire and smoking. Reminded me of puffs of cotton sitting on treetops.

So we finally rolled into Missoula around 6 PM but took a wrong turn and rode a few miles out of the way. We were looking for the downtown area and seemed to surround it but not find it! Another storm was rolling in, so I was getting a bit antsy to find our motel.

Finally we asked directions and found a motel close to downtown - The Bel Aire Motel - a 70's style motel with a nice heated indoor pool and hot tub (too bad I can't get Marc to go down there with me - its no fun to swim by yourself!)

Dinner tonight was at The Old Post Inn - a hole in the wall bar/restaurant that we stumbled upon in downtown Missoula. We had really good food and even better Montana brewed beer. For dinner I had 'The Old Brown' - a southern style dish consisting of strips of toast with roast turkey, topped with a creamy Mourney sauce, roasted tomato slices and bacon strips. Yum! We attempted to order the cheesecake for dessert (yes, it counts as pie!), but the bartender recommended the bakery across the street instead. So we headed over to the Break Bakery for a slice of White Chocolate Lemon Cheesecake. Oh my god! It was as good as it sounds... I think this one tops them all. A delicious, thick cheesecake with a hint of lemon and a nice coating of white chocolate on top. We paired it with a perfectly brewed English Breakfast Tea. Wow! A perfect end to a great meal.

Tomorrow we are off to Deer Lodge, MT. We have a route that will take us off the main highway for awhile. The best news is that tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and mid 70's! Finally!!!