STATS
- Day: 13
- Day Mileage: 47.6
- Total Miles: 689.8
My plan was to leave Chad’s house and Missoula closer to 8am but turns out it’s terribly difficult to drag yourself out of a real bed, with cool temperatures because it was too nice to sleep with the windows closed. I finally dragged myself out from underneath the covers and began packing my items . As I was loading up the bicycle, I had a few additional accessories that I didn’t have rolling into Missoula. At rei on my rest day, I bought things I may need in the future: an 8 speed chain, two additional tubes making my total 3, a whole other tire, a pair of pants, long sleeve wool shirt and a can of bear spray. There are additional worries through the next 1000 miles I didn’t have through Oregon. As 9am came, I was out the door and headed to Sula, 75 miles down the road.
Leaving Missoula, I was on a paved bike path called the bitterroot trial for the entirety of the first 47 miles into Hamilton,p. As I approached victor, an older couple were out cycling and mentioned there was a park with bathrooms in town, so I pulled off with them and we chatted for 15 minutes. They had recently retired and moved back to Florence from Seattle. Grant grew up in Montana and went to the university of Montana in Missoula so he and Diane knew the area really well. After we said goodbye and they continued on their ride as I did mine, I had 10 more miles into Hamilton.
The last 10 miles were a struggle, not entirely sure why but it was. I pulled in for lunch and looked at my schedule. Today, I was schedule to ride into Hamilton and stay … and because of the last 10 miles i decided not to push it into sula. In Hamilton, they allow cyclists to camp at the fairgrounds except this week, the fair is actually in town. So I called the office and Beth said that they can arrange for an overnighted so I rode into the fairgrounds as everyone was setting up the rides, show cows were being hauled in and trailers were setting up camp. I rode around but anyone actually in charge so I found a plot of land close to bathrooms and pitched my tent. Was happy to have called it a day, I crawled inside my tent and fell asleep quickly even with the sounds of cows, hogs and the street I was next to.