We had an early breakfast and were on the road by about 8. It's not light much before that, so no point in eating ridiculously early. It was a tad chilly at that hour though. One lonely degree C for quite a while. Good thing we started with an 8 mile uphill; good for warming up the whole body! At about mile 8 we reached the Continental Divide at Chief Joseph Pass. I almost missed the sign. It was tucked away on the far side of the road.
Time to put on a layer and start the descent. It was still a bit brisk out. I don't think the temp got over 4C until about the 20 mile mark. At about 23 miles we came to the Big Hole Battlefield National Monument and Visitor Centre. In the space of about 10 minutes the temperature rose from 4C to 17C. Now - that's more like it! The Visitor Centre was really well done, and sobering to read about so much carnage in 1877 on this lovely landscape.
I also found it interesting to see the map of the full Nez Perce Trail and see both the sites we've seen the last few days as well as where they crossed the Missouri River (which we saw on our Missouri River paddling trip in July).
I didn't stop for very many pictures today for various reasons - lots of miles to cover, I don't normally stop on the uphills (although the views on all the climbs today were glorious), and the tailwind-aided downhills were just too fun to stop. I saw lots of pronghorn, including these at about 30 miles.....
And these just before coming into Dillon at the end of the day.
At 33 miles was the town of Wisdom. Even though I found Wisdom, I kept on biking anyway. As did Minnesota Sue and Caillie.
I took a few shots of some typical scenery for the day. We are definitely in big sky country. The wide open expanses were incredible! And after each of the three rather intense uphills, the downhills were to die for! They went on forever, and we had a substantial tailwind almost all day. Together with very little traffic on the roads, it made for a truly magical ride!
We stopped at Jackson, where our cue sheet promised lunch at Rose's Cantina & Cafe.
Super-guide Cy, though, had called ahead and realized they too were going to be closed. So - she set up a table of goodies to fuel those of us who were going further. About 10 folks decided they had had enough biking for the day and jumped in the van for the shuttle to Dillon.
So - it was on to cue sheet #2. 49 miles to Dillon. Two climbs, but nothing as big as the one first thing this morning. Here are some pics on the way up to Big Hole Pass.
Magical sweeping downhill for about 15 miles and one last climb to Badger Pass. Another almost 15 miles of more magic. Just one stop for a couple of pictures (plus the second batch of pronghorn).
In the end, my average speed was the fastest yet - even with all that climbing and distance. When I checked the bike computer at the end of the day I found that my top speed was over 76 kmph. That was without even trying! The final tally was about 15 women who did the full century. Far more than the number who set out to ride the full distance this morning. It was just that good!!
Stats for the day:
161 km / 100 miles
4956 feet up, 5001 feet down
Temps: 1C to 24C. Just about a perfect day. Cool for climbing, pleasant temps for most of the day, sunny, TAILWINDS!
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