"Even if you stumble, you're still moving forward."

Sunday, June 17, 2012 (Day 11)
Stevensville Hotel, Stevensville, MT
Miles:  67  MPH:  10  Max:  31  Total:  646

Happy Father's Day!

Rough day today!!  Thunder and pouring rain woke us early!  Ugh!!  Another soggy morning at a campground!  The tent was muddy, covered with pine needles and soaked.  Not wanting to pack it up that way, we dragged it to the bathroom -- they were heated, so we hung it over the stalls hoping it would dry.  It was a great way to meet fellow campers...."Hi, please let me move my tent out of the way while you use the toilet, oh, my name is Bonnie, where are you headed?"  No one seemed to mind too much.  I think most folks felt sorry for us!!!

As we began our ride the trunks of the huge pine trees along the roadside were eye level.  Fog hung at the top of the trees.  Soon the tree tops were eye level and eventually we were above the tree line.  We read a sign that said when Lewis and Clark first made it to the summit of Lolo Pass they encountered thunder, rain, and hail!  Ha-ha, us too!!  Didn't know I could have been an explorer!

So in the rain, we set off to finish our climb to the summit.  The first 5 miles were easy and we felt confident.....Then the road got steeper and our MPH slowed, then steeper and we slowed, then steeper and we used all our gears, and slowed and slowed and slowed.  We ended up walking the last 3 miles pushing our bikes and gear and trailer uphill.  We're getting good at this hike and bike stuff!

Wonderful Visitor Center at the summit of our climb - it was a tiny piece of heaven!

Montana Landscape - We crossed over those mountains!!

Exhausted, wet, and a bit down we had made it to the top!  Dripping wet, we approached the visitor center and received a very friendly welcome.  The rangers lit the fire place and we dried our wet things.  We drank coffee and hoped the rain would slow.  As we left the visitor center, 5 things happened....We entered Montana, our 4th state, we crossed  the continental divide, we entered a new time zone (lost an hour), a bit of blue sky appeared amid the thick white cloud cover, and the grade of the road turned downhill.  It was 12:00 and we had only covered 13 miles!!

We flew down hill for the next 30 miles or so to the honky tonk town of Lola, Montana.  Then we turned South onto a bike path for the next 15 miles.  We would have had a great tail wind if we were still riding East, instead the wind blew across us knocking us off our bikes -- twice I fell!!

They are calling for storms again tonight, so we couldn't face another soggy wake up.  After biking about 67 miles we are at a beautiful B&B in Stevensville, Montana -- owned by the town's mayor!  We are again pampering ourselves!   Coffee will be brewing at 5am --- heaven!

xo