Day 63: Ennis, MT to Dillon, MT

Saturday, July 21, 2012,  71 miles - Total so far: 1687 miles*
    * Miles ridden on the TransAm route
    Odometer miles - Today - 72.2 Total to date - 1760.9 miles  

Another tough day!


We got started about 7:10am in the morning for what was expected to be a pretty long day.  There was only one pass to climb which came at the 12 mile mark, but we were warned we could encounter headwinds later in the afternoon.

Heading out of Ennis on the way to the day's climb.

Old piece of farm equipment beside the road on the way out of town.

The climb up to 6932 ft. at mile 12 was one of the harder ones we've encountered.  It was about four miles with a pretty steep grade near the top.  And the pass doesn't even have a name.  After the top we had a nice steep downhill into Virginia City, MT.  Unfortunately, Simon had a blow out on his way into town doing 46 mph.  Luckily, he was going straight and was able to get stopped without a fall.

View back toward Ennis from the turnout, 3/4 of the way up the pass.

We all stopped at a cafe in Virginia City for a bit of breakfast while we tried to contact Nicole to bring Simon's bag with his spare tire.  Unfortunately, what seemed to be the only open cafe in town only had one waitress working - and she wasn't very good.  We all spent about an hour getting food and eating.  We ended up paying for it later in the day.

View heading down from the top of the pass.

Another of the cyclist's favorite signs.

View from the ride down the pass toward Virginia City.

The courthouse in Virginia City.

A pink fire engine in Virginia City - the sign in the window says it's For Sale.

Stagecoach rides are offered in Virginia City

The sign on this building reads "Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Co."  - part of AT&T?

The Mount Vernon Dredge - outside Nevada City - early gold dredge which worked the Alder Gulch.

After Virginia City and Nevada City, two historic, touristy towns, we continued on through Sheridan (where we stopped for ice cream) and Twin Bridges (where we ate our lunch).  We left Twin Bridges about 1:00pm, where our route made a big turn to the southwest.  There we found the wind blowing directly toward us and increasing as the afternoon went on.

View of mountains in the distance beyond Nevada City.

Old Baldy Mountain - between Sheridan and Twin Bridges

The last 26 miles were completely without services.  I rode on ahead of Wendy and Gina since it was my day to cook.  I gutted it out into the wind, moving slowly, but making steady progress.  The nice thing about this part of Montana is there are beautiful mountains in the distance everywhere you look.  But it loses some of its appeal when you're only moving at 8-10 mph and the view isn't changing much.

This part of the country has quite a few sheep farms - with the mountains in the distance.

An information board in the area talked about Sandhill Cranes - I'm guessing that's what these are.

The plaque describes the history of Beaverhead Rock - the feature in the distance.

I made it to camp about 4:00pm - taking 3 hours to do the last 26 miles.  I set up my tent, took a shower and started my laundry.  Nicole swapped cooking duties with Paul because Paul was riding with Simon who was several hours behind.  He'd been able to get his tire swapped, but didn't leave Virginia City until after noon.

Nicole and I cooked while I finished up my laundry.  I made pork cutlets seasoned with lemon, sage and rosemary.  Nicole made a cucumber and tomato salad and rice and we also had a veggie mix of corn, black beans and salsa.  Paul and Simon rolled into camp about 5:20pm.  Wendy, Gina and Judy came in about 6:00pm - they'd have been in earlier, but they stopped at the Patagonia outlet store on the way into town.

Paul and Simon were really beat when they arrived.  It had been a long day for everyone and the later you arrived the more you fought the headwind.  But dinner went well and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Our campsite was a KOA on the north side of Dillon, directly on the Beaverhead River.  My tent was pitched about 40 feet from the river, which provided a mellow background noise throughout the night.
It was a tough day and one we're glad to have behind us, but the camp was nice enough that it helped everyone to recover.

Entering Dillon - at last!

A neat old hotel on the north side of Dillon, on the way to our campground.

Our KOA campground - my tent's at the left, alongside the Beaverhead River.