September 12 & 13, 2015
Friendly Faces
So there we are, pedalling numbly down Montana’s Highway#89 when a dark-green Saab comes careening towards us, until finally at the last second, with a squealing brake and in a cloud of dust, Gary Wolf (AirGar) pulls up alongside us. He was on his way to St. Mary (Glacier Park) to go kitesurfing. He planned on being gone a few days, but invited us to stay with him in Great Falls, just down the road when he got back. Then, like a crazy guy, he was off in a similar manner. There’s something to be said for being a race car driver I guess.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Wild Camp near Browning, Montana, United States of America
Destination: Choteau, Montana, United States of America
99.3 km trip, 5:54 time, 54.1 km/h maximum speed, 16.8 km/h average speed
September 13 – football rest day
What happened…
Andrew writes: It sounded like we were in a tropical jungle this morning when we woke up. There were hundreds of birds chirping, calling, and singing to us; what a sweet serenade they made!
Our target today was our weekly “Warmshowers” stop, this time in Choteau (pronounced show-TOW). We are on the trail of Lewis and Clark, or at least the highway that follows some of their trail. Those poor guys; the terrain is insipid, uninspiring, torturous and shades of brown. It was hot, the wind was in our face or a cross-wind most of the day and we knew it would be a long day at about 100km.
The bright spot in the day was when we ran into Gary, or perhaps when he ran into us. Everything else just seemed so dreary. It’s a mindset I’m sure, but today was just a grind. Arriving in Choteau, we were actually a day early; our hosts were out of town. Luckily there is a municipal campground with “free” camping, and we settled down there for the night with a fresh bag of potato chips, and a couple of cans of beer.
We met John and Candace from Georgia who are supporting their sons hike of the Continental Divide trail. That’s a pretty cool thing to do actually! Their task is to deliver water, food and importantly, beer, to various trailheads. Their son has been on the trail since April! Crazy.
John and Candace brought us coffee in the morning, and the local town crazy, Art, came and chatted with us for over an hour about everything and anything. He even went so far as to invite us over for dinner, fried trout. At 1100hrs, we headed over to the “Antler Bar” to settle in to watch a day of football. The beer was cheap, and there was a free potluck lunch provided too! Later in the afternoon, Micah and Jo, our Warmshowers hosts returned home and we headed over to their house for dinner.
Micah is a tall and gangly, with a huge heart to match his gigantic smile. Jo has such beautiful heart shaped lips that make her face look so young and vibrant. They have such a wonderful old home, in the picturesque town of Choteau. Despite eating all afternoon from the potluck, we still had room in our bellies for soft tacos. Micah regaled us with stories of his speed skating and bicycle racing past. He reminded me a lot of our friend Marlin Petersen, from Wenatchee. Another guy whose stature just radiates awesomeness on a bicycle. We took to our bed, eager and excited for our 60 mile ride to Great Falls the following day.
Amanda writes:
The ride was pretty relaxing and when I was able to draft Andrew it was nice. I don’t mind days like today where we don’t have gruelling climbs and thrilling descents. Don’t get me wrong, I love them when we have them but I also welcome the break.
As Andrew mentioned we camped in the city park and met some nice people. Sunday we woke up and went to the local bar to watch football. They happened to be having a potluck as their kitchen was out of order. Lucky for us our hostess said we could dig in. It was more great Montana hospitality at it’s finest. We watched football until 5:30 when Andrew decided to reach out to our Warmshowers hosts and say we were enroute. To be honest I was incredibly annoyed because my team was playing at 6:30 and now he wanted to leave?! I was left with the decision to watch my game which I had waited all day for or be a gracious guest and go to our hosts home. So while I was pissed at Andrew for putting me in the position to make a choice, I chose the latter because I’m riding my bike around the world to meet people; not watch NFL football.