Epic Bike Ride Day 43 July 10
Thoughts from Kelly: Happy Birthday Kim! The hustle and bustle of everyone waking up at the crack of dawn woke me up, but not Mark. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t, so I just relaxed in bed and let Mark get his needed sleep. We got up and moving after 8:30, and there were two hikers and one cyclist still there. We chatted and ate breakfast with them, and slowly got ready. Another hiker showed up and happily accepted some snacks from us.
We finally hit the road around 11am. It was another day of majestic mountains, streams, trees, flowers and other riders. It started to get very hot today, I guess we are getting the heat wave everyone has been talking about, it hit the 90’s, even in the mountains-in Montana.
Stopped in Lincoln for lunch at a restaurant/bar/casino (a common scene in this area). Mark ate, I am still trying not to eat ate restaurants to save my belly from hardship. We were also able to get groceries at a very small but well stocked store a couple doors down from the restaurant.
Between the heat and the early wake up, I was getting quite grumpy and very tired. We found a very tiny camping/fishing area south of Ovando and enjoyed the river as we set up camp and ate dinner.
Thoughts from Mark: Leaving Llama Ranch was very hard, psychologically, and also physically. Psychologically, I wanted to stay and rest, and enjoy the “vibe” some more. Physically, the ride started with an immediate climb of at least 2,000 feet, and it was very, very steep. I had to hike-a-bike quite a bit, and just felt all of my energy draining. It was also getting very hot, and the riding turned into “work.” We finally made it to Lincoln, and went to a saloon for lunch. They offered huckleberry flavored chicken wings, so I had to try them, along with a half order (which was huge) of nachos. One of the best parts of this ride is being able to eat just about anything I want, as I am burning thousands of calories with all of the climbing. Huckleberry is an interesting fruit that I really wasn’t too familiar with. It is similar to blueberries, but more tart. The flavor is really good, and I’ve now had it as a wing sauce, ice cream, and soda flavor.
After lunch we restocked the truck with some groceries, and I started riding again. I felt much better, and the miles went by much faster (it also helped that there weren’t any more major climbs). I decided to ride on the pavement, slightly off of the main route, which meant more traffic, but it was a more direct route to the Ovando area. We originally planned to stay in Ovando, but realized we would be arriving after everything was closed (it’s a very small town with just a couple of well-known businesses - to the bikepacking community, anyway). We decided to head to a campground about 5 miles south of Ovando, and arrived to find there were only three camping spots. Luckily, we were able to get the last spot, which was right next to the river. We had a nice, quiet night.
Miles for the day: 53.27 Feet climbed today: 3,223
Total miles ridden: 2,020.98 Total feet climbed: 125,452
