September 23rd, 2015
Friendly Faces
There we were, sipping our morning java, when a truck drove across the field and into the wooded area where we had erected our tent last night in the dark. A man got out, with his dog. Were we in trouble?? It turns out that it was Steve Taylor, the Mayor of Neihart. He was cleaning up the park as part of his civic duties, and we spent about an hour talking with him about some of the hikes he has done in South America.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Neihart, Montana, United States of America
Destination: White Sulphur Springs, Montana, United States of America
64.4 km trip, 4:31 time, 49.9 km/h maximum speed, 15.0 km/h average speed
What happened…
Andrew writes: I somehow convinced Amanda to “sleep out under the stars” last night, which meant that while we were still in the tent, we didn’t put the fly on. The stars were beautiful, and there is just something about gazing up at the treetops while drifting off to sleep that makes me feel…manly.
We rode to the top of King’s Hill today, which was a really satisfying climb, and our tallest summit to date. Then we whooshed down in to the town of White Sulphur Springs, which we had heard offered up a really good hot spring. It turns out though that you have to go to the “hotel” and pay $7 to access the spring.
Two great things about White Sulphur Springs: The gigantic plate sized cinnamon buns offered up at the Branding Iron Cafe for only $3.99, and the eating/sleeping shelters at Rader Park. We were a little nervous about stealth camping in the middle of town, but the only other option was a campground charging $20 for a tent site.
There are two shelters on opposite sides of the park. One shelter has a sign that says, “No Camping”. The other shelter has a sign that says “No Overnight Parking”. Naturally we slept inside the second one. It’s always scary when we sleep in a developed area. Fortunately, Amanda has changed so much in our year of travel, that she is really calm, cool, and collected when it comes to putting it all on the line like this. She’s a great partner.