Day 28, Sula to Jackson, MT

Miles – 58

Ave Riding Speed – 3-24 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 8

Weather – Sunny and 81

The early morning daylight was sneaking through the green curtains of our open cabin window this morning. I stood up, pulled another blanket over Kim and I and crawled back in. We rolled over a couple time and figured we might as well get up and get ready for the early climb.

We’re getting somewhat of a routine down. Kim fills the water bottles and I strap on the rechargeable USB lights to our bikes. We had leftover eggs and hotdogs and buns for toast so I started breakfast while Kim walked up to the little camp store and purchased a couple cups of coffee. We ate and I did the dishes while Kim hopped in the shower. I showered then we repacked our saddlebags and loaded our bikes on the cabin front porch. We walked our bikes up to the store and We took a few pictures with Becky, the owner.

While we were taking pictures the road crew was filling up with gas and one of them comes over and said, “this is going to sound kind of weird, but you look just like a guy I work with and can I take a picture and show him that I met his twin today.” We laughed and he snapped a picture from his cellphone. We then departed Camp Sula at 8:30am.

We were still heading south on Hwy 93, 12 miles up to Lost Trail Pass. It’s named that due to the Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1805. Our dinner partner from last night, Mike, said that Lewis & Clark couldn’t find a way through the pass to the Bitterroot River. We’ll have to do our homework on that. The first 7 miles of the climb were manageable. It amazing what fresh legs will do. For the remaining 5 miles of the climb of 2,500 climb we rode at less than 6 miles and hour or did the old lean & push at just over 3 miles and hour.

About 2 miles from the top of Lost Trail Pass, Kim and I had pulled over at a roadside pullout for a break and a big white pickup truck was coming down the hill in our direction and pulled in next to us and asked if we could use a cold bottle of water. We said we’d love one. Out stepped Michael from his pickup and he swung back behind his truck and opened the tailgate to grab his cooler. He was reaching in and said he’s a little on the short side so I needed to help him pull it back over the tailgate. We did and he pulled our 2 cold bottles of water from the ice. We chatted and learned that he’s in construction and stops and helps out the bicyclists, on anyone else he sees that might need a hand. He told us to be safe, enjoy the ride and moved on to work. Pretty cool!

We reached the top of Lost Trail Pass at 11:45am, took a picture of the sign and then took a left, going east on Hwy 43.  2 miles up and 200 feet, was Chief Joseph Pass and the Continental Divide at 7,241 feet. The back side of the pass was one of the nicest we’ve been on. The first couple of miles was pretty steep as we worked the breaks every couple second to keep it under 25mph. Then we began a steady decline for about the next 20 miles maintaining a speed from 16-18 mph. There were a couple one lane stretches where they were laying down new pavement on our side of the road. We rode 15 miles of newly tarred roadway and it was awesome. There was little to no traffic so we rode side-by-side for most of it.

Rolling into Wisdom we stopped at the Mercantile for a snack and ran into our rider friends, Frozen, John and George, from back in Hamilton. They said they were taking a rest day camping at the American Legion supported bicycles only campground outside of town, but headed for Dillon tomorrow. We said that maybe we’ll see you there.

Kim and I sat on the picnic table out in front of the store and noticed the mosquitos seemingly multiplying in front of us. With that we headed out, going south on Hwy 278. We were in the prairie lads of the Big Hole Valley. As we were riding, with a slight wind at our backs, sun shining, we noticed the mosquitos had found us again. We couldn’t ride fast enough to get away and they were chewing us up. Kim had a slight clicking noise coming from the rear of her bike, but we really didn’t want to stop and be swarmed, but I thought we should take a look. We pulled over on a ranch driveway approach and I dashed for the bug spray in my front pack. I lucky opened the right one first, pulled it out and gave a myself a quick few spirts to slow the swarm and then I sprayed Kim who was already covered with at least 100 mosquitos. Kim does not like bug spray, but was happy to have it this time. I returned the favor to myself and then looked at Kim’s rear tire. I noticed the rear derailer cable end was clicking against her rear tire spokes and simply bent it away from the tire. Bingo!  We’re back in business.

We rolled into the one-horse town of Jackson, MT, at 4:30pm. I noticed the hostel/camping area on the right and then the open restaurant one building over. The proprietor was sitting in the porch and we asked if he would be open for a while. He said he keep the doors open while we went across the street to Jackson Hot Springs Lodge. Kim had heard from the Life Cycles group that stayed at Camp Sula last night that it wasn’t normally open on Tuesday, but they had a group and managed to get in. We tried our luck and met the manager, Hille, who said he would rent us a room and the hot spring was open to us also. We checked in and walked back to the restaurant across the street. Kim had a grilled cheese, baked potato and side salad. I had the Salisbury steak, baked potato and side salad. Plus, waters all around.

After our early dinner we tried out the Hot Spring. It was hot, hot, hot. Almost scalding, but also felt good. After 5 minutes of cooking my already sunburned skin, we retired to our room. After a few minutes we noticed our friends that had planned to stay in Wisdom tonight for a rest day as they were walking their bikes to a cabin behind our room. Must have changed their minds and sleeping indoors sounded pretty good!