Day 25 – July 7, 2015

Day 25 –  July 7, 2015
Ovando MT to Elliston MT – 53 miles

This was a tough day for me. We got up at about 6am, packed up and headed across the street to the Stray Bullet cafe for breakfast. As we walked across the small square I looked up and saw big dark clouds. I said to Gregg that we need to pull out our rain gear because it is going to rain at any minute. Sure enough a couple of minutes later it started raining. Our first rain. We found all our covers, except I seemed to have misplaced my handle bar bag cover.

After and excellent breakfast we headed out. In about 5 minutes the rain was gone. We pulled off our jackets, and Gregg stowed his covers. I was skeptical sine I know, at these altitudes and in the mountains things change quickly so I left my rear panniers covered.

The rest of the day was a real slog. It seemed tough especially since we were introduced to our new friends Rain and WIND! Yes, the next element that is causing us hardship is WIND. We hit a few spots where the WIND was so intense that we had to get off our bikes because we were almost blown off. It basically is the combination of hills, going too slowly to climb, and cross winds. Nasty. Gregg always complains about headwinds but these winds are almost worse for me. We are carrying so much stuff that we are like sails, I also don’t have the strength and weight to keep the bike steady. Great, winds will be some thing we will look forward to for several weeks to come.

The day also gave us lots of climbing. Up, and down, and then up again. We met Sam from the UK who was riding from Omaha to Seattle. He had tried to do NY to LA when he was younger and “thinner,” just 8 years ago. He only made it to Omaha. So, he decided to try it again and this time he started in Omaha headed for Seattle so he could finish his coast to coast trip. We shared our knowledge of the west that we just toured and he shared his stories of the roads just ahead of us. That’s what we do, when we meet other bike tourists we ask “how steep is the grade on the next pass? and where is the next place for food, and water, and shelter?” and bid our goodbyes and go on our way. Some times we wonder about the cyclists we meet. Sam was on his own but went out of his way to talk to us, just like the young mountain biker who we met yesterday, whose buddy bailed on him. Brave, adventurous but somehow lonely characters that we meet along the way.

The rest of the day was uneventful except for a lunch at the lake. We stopped, pulled out our picnic table cloth, sat on it and ate our tricuits, cheese, apples, and some of our venison sticks. It was peaceful, a bit zen like.

The end section was hard. Those hills and the afternoon sun. The sun was blazing and then disappeared suddenly, strange. And about 2 miles from our intended destination Avon, it started to pour rain. We jumped off our bikes to cover our panniers and put on rain jackets. Gregg said it was too much trouble to cover his. We rode quickly, but when we got to town there was nothing. We followed a street to nowhere and then I spotted a gazebo, we ducked under it to escape from the rain for a moment. A miracle, the gazebo of Avon.

The rain did not let us so we decided to move on. Gregg put his covers on. We were getting wet. At one point a nice man beckoned us to his garage. We ask where the nearest campsite was and he didn’t know. We rode on, and just a mile down the road we stopped at the local cafe. The cafe lady was a doll. She gave us our options after first telling her bear stores. Yes they had bears, most of them you just need to smack on the snout and shoo away. But, then she mentioned that just 2 days ago a Grizzly took the neighbor’s Llama. Oh great, no camp grounds and Grizzlies!! She did offer for us to pitch our tent behind her cafe, or go to the Christian camp down the road, or go to Elliston 8 miles away, and stay at the Las Chance Motel. We heard from Sam that there was an issue with the hotel. I had phone service so Gregg called. Yes, the motel was fully booked because a family’s house has just burnt down. But Elliston had a little store, and a tavern and maybe an RV campground. The waitress called ahead and asked Billy at the convenient store to stay open, Billy also offered the option of pitching our tent behind his store. Well, we went for it, another 8 miles.

We got to Elliston just before 6pm closing. Billy’s offer was nice but his grass was about 3 ft high. But just across the fence was the Post Office of Elliston. Sure enough the lawn was neatly moved, we said this is our spot. Billy said many people have pitched their tents there and the post master was the local pastor and surely wouldn’t mind if we were their in the morning. Our intention was to get up and out early.

So here we are, camping in the back of a post office. But the post office is only 50 meters from the local tavern, the Lawdog’s “Home of the Bigfoot Hunt”. We had dinner there, a few beers, and a small shot of whiskey to warm us up before we headed out to our tent. Here at 4700 ft it gets a little chilly at night. Tomorrow we do the McDonald’s Pass at about 6000 ft. Oh boy, so excited.