We got a lot of good suggestions but for now the answer is a dish towel. Easy to find, and easy to put in the laundry.
Other suggestions included, Tyvek (perhaps in the form of a USPS mailer), used sail-cloth, a diaper pad, space blanket, or silicone baking mat. We’ll be keeping a lookout for some
of these alternatives too.
56 miles today, 1164 miles total
This will be short because we forgot… the fried chicken, Jo Jo’s and beer Steve procured for dinner distracted us.
We had a great start to the day with coffee or hot chocolate at the Gypsy coffee stand. The proprietor was wonderful and chatted with us while we consumed our drinks.
As we tried to leave town another local asked us if we were heading to New York; she had been warned we might be passing through by the physician/vascular-expert we met earlier on our trip.
Then we headed on to some beautiful gravel that we rode until lunchtime.
We had Chinese food for lunch, it was delicious and uncharacteristically civilized (compared to our usual). We followed lunch with 25-ish miles on a pleasant frontage road (again, alongside the Yellowstone River) into Laurel.
Our campsite tonight is… acceptable, and hopefully nothing to write home about. We locked the bikes 🤞
61.3 miles today, 1107 miles overall
It took us a few days but we eventually figured out that FAS means Fishing Access Site. There are quite a few of them along the Yellowstone River, and some of them have campsites. We were pleased to see Bratton about 60 mi from Livingston, so that was our target today.
I’m pleased to report that there was no freeway time today. After riding through Livingston we got on to the interestingly named Convict Grade Road which was devoid of asphalt but overflowing with beautiful scenery. Much of it ran along the side of the Yellowstone River.
Then it climbed for a while into ranch country, where we saw lots of cows and our first rattlesnake of the trip (alas, it moved too fast for the camera).
We have found people want to talk to us on this trip. Today it seemed like there was just a little bit more talking than usual. Outside the grocery store in Livingston a nice lady instructed us to go and see the Sacagawea Park, so we did. She was also a font of knowledge about bike shops, coffee shops, and the state of the local roads (and gun dealers). On the Convict Grade Road an older couple in a pickup truck stopped and talked to us for a long time. They had five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and a lot of interest in golf course developments (and suggested that we should have killed the rattlesnake). Outside the grocery store in Big Timber a (fit, she told us so) friendly and recently single female rancher enquired as to our (former) employment, qualifications and marital status. She is going to sell the ranch, and is looking for some new adventures (if you’re interested, hang out at Big T groceries in Big Timber, she’ll probably find you there).
It’s time for dinner, Steve is on fire duty again and working hard gathering wood.
And here is a picture of sunset on the river.
33 miles today, 1046 miles overall
We had some ups and downs today. The ups totaled 1,600 ft, the downs 1900 ft. This was much more than anticipated on both fronts. We started on the freeway but abandoned it after 4 miles because the shoulder was very narrow and we were coming upon roadworks where there would be a single lane. Google assured us there was an easy work around, but we found a closed gate and had to take a route that was 20 miles longer.
We had asphalt for most of the climb but as we reached the pass it turned to hard-pack.
Since Bob got his new panniers, and moved some weight lower at the front of the bike, this has been less painful for all of us (but especially Bob). I captured these photos of Steve and Bob cresting the only significant climb on the hard-pack.
The views were expansive.
Arriving in Livingston we stopped at supermarket for lunch and decided enough was enough. Bob found us an excellent campsite and we retreated back into Paradise Valley and pitched our tents in front of a red Barn (but not until after we enjoyed a cold ‘Pot Shot’ Pilsner, brewed in Bozeman).
Taking advantage of the shorter ride today, Steve applied himself some serious bike maintenance.
Bob relished his ‘cowboy’ shower experience..
…we were relieved to hear it didn’t involve a pressure washer, which is the first thing you see when you enter the shower-room.
It’s time for dinner now. After that’s out of the way, we will attempt to plot tomorrow’s route.
An aside, we asked the camp host whether we had to worry about bears. He responded, “If you see any let me know. We’ll shoot them”. We can hear someone shooting just now; it’s nice to know we are safe here. 😎
We brought a portable workbench in the form of half of a bulk rice bag. See the pictures below.
This was intended to help us keep track of tools, nuts, bolts, etc. when inevitable bike repairs were required (and it functioned well in this capacity when we did the full caliper rebuild on Bob’s brakes).
However, lunch and dinner (and for that matter breakfast) have been much more inevitable than bike repairs and our ‘portable bench’ has seen daily use as our tablecloth/food-preparation-station. It has some limitations in this regard. Notably doesn’t lay flat and it’s not very wipeable. So we’d like your ideas as to how to replace this valuable part of our equipment. When it’s unrolled it shouldn’t be all kinky. It needs to be about 17 in by 30 in and should fold up nice and compactly. Like this…
So, if you have any ideas please send one of us a message. Thanks!
We love it when a plan comes together. After our brief stop to contemplate crossing the Continental Divide, we rolled downhill almost all the way to Whitehall where we stopped at a park and prepared lunch. In a break with tradition, it was turkey, salami, Romano cheese and mustard on rolls; quite delicious.
After that it was pretty much plain sailing all the way into the state park. The last 7 miles were through a canyon of the Jefferson River, where Lewis and Clark had set up a camp. The Milwaukee Road, on the opposite side of the river, was in use by a herd of loud cows (it would make a really nice bike trail). An active rail line remains on the side with the road. We watch a bald eagle flying above the river and a red tail hawk soaring in the updrafts along the canyon walls. Spicing things up further, two sandhill cranes flew by landed and started making lots of noise.
On arrival at Lewis and Clark State Park, we found excellent hiker biker facilities.
The canyons are well worth the visit (I know this from a previous trip) but we elected not to ride 3 mi up the hill to see them. Instead, we will attend the ranger program at 8:00 p.m. (hopefully after someone makes me dinner, all this writing is hard work).
One final note, Bob and I remain very impressed with Steve’s commitment to personal hygiene.
Despite 33F and fog in Butte we broke camp by 8am (!) and got on the road. After a fast breakfast of burritos and corndogs at Walmart we shopped for the day’s supplies.
We headed out on Hwy 2 in search of the Continental Divide. The weather improved quickly…
…which was a relief because we were frozen. The road was beautiful and had little traffic.
And I think we made it.
We have 33 miles left today and it looks like they will pass more readily than yesterday 😁.
