We had a hearty breakfast at the hotel of cheese omelets, hash browns and turkey sausages while chatting with another Divide rider.
It was 7:30 before we started and had a climb up to the historic downtown and all the old brick buildings. The climbing continued as we left town and it was a long, slow grind on legs that really just wanted to rest another day. We had a nice decent into the little town of Basin where Kathy meet us for our lunch break.
Two German cyclists rolled up and asked about food options in Basin since the cafe across the street had a “closed on Monday’s “ sign posted. We are finding some restaurants have shortened their hours or days due to lack of employees. These guys were traveling light and had planned on food in Basin and didn’t have a back up plan. We gave them water, tortillas, cheese, Fritos and Pringles to help get them to Helena. Joel has shared many stories of “Trail Angels” that have given him food or water along the way so we were happy to share.
Kathy was once again our Trail Angel and drove to Helena to get a replacement for our water filter that is working at 50%. After the errands she headed to the Moose Creek Campground and we expected to see her tomorrow morning.
We had another hot climb out of Basin but it was Lava Mountain that was the real test today. It was 4 miles for Diane and 2 miles for Joel of more technical mountain biking. There were large boulders, tree roots, downed trees and washed out gullies to ride through. I rode what I could and pushed the bike downhill but I finally made my way through that.
At that point, I just wanted to get to the campground and most of the way was now downhill. Our wildlife sighting of the day was a Moose that was standing in a patch of Fireweed with one of the pink flowers dangling from his mouth like a cigar. How special to see a Moose on the way to Moose Creek Campground.
We were tired and hungry when we arrived at the campsite and so very happy that Kathy had secured a good spot with a picnic table.
Tomorrow will be another big day with a couple more peaks to climb.
Week one is done!
