Today’s Date: June 2, 2024

Today’s Start Point: Missoula, Montana

Today’s End Point: Darby, Montana

Today’s Miles: 66.21 Miles

Cumulative Miles: 1,086.86 Miles

It was a straight shot south today to Darby, Montana. Amazingly, most of the 65 miles was on a cycleway. Unfortunately, it ended with my first real setback (self-inflicted at that).

I started early and headed out to a cloudy day with a mild headwind. I knew I had to backtrack on the ride from yesterday by taking the cycleway back out to Lolo, and instead of continuing on to the pass (as much as I wanted to do that again), I would turn south at Lolo to Darby, Montana.

I would be remiss to not mention that Missoula is a great little city. They have the University of Montana and a great area with restaurants and bars. It seems like it is busting at the seams. I should also mention that every block has two or three casinos. According to Bruce, if a bar has more than 20 gambling machines, the bar can call itself a casino. Every bar must call itself a casino.

Once I got to Lolo to make my turn south, I was pleasantly surprised that the cyclepath also went south. I was even more surprised when the path stretched to Hamilton, Montana, a distance of 37 miles from Lola added to the 12 miles of cyclepath from Missoula to Lolo.

The road hugged the highway and was relatively flat, with a series of mountain peaks on each side of the road. I was riding down the Bitterroot Valley, between the Bitterroot Mountains and the Saphire Mountains. It was spectacular-if I looked left or right there were mountains.

After the cycleway ended, I was back on a highway but fortunately with a huge shoulder. The road rose a little and on the day went up about 2,000 feet.

My home for the night is Darby, Montana. It is a nice little town with some nice restaurants for a very small town. I wish I wasn’t so tired because there is a rodeo tonight, which has drawn a lot of people to town (after sitting in a saddle all day for the last few weeks, I am not sure my idea of entertainment is to watch cowboys do it as well-too much empathy).

The bad news for today is that I was having some front brake rub which was causing an irritating squeaking noise. When I got to the campsite, I monkeyed around with it and voila, no more squeaking. Unfortunately no more brakes either (a relatively important feature on a bike in the mountains).

As I was eating dinner in Darby, I started talking to another local cyclist named Kevin. He was out and about on his mountain bike. He is a paint contractor in Hamilton, Montana and is the proud father of 11 kids (gulp). He was a nice guy and I told him of my bike woes. He took a look and concluded whatever I did was not to be fixed by mere mortals. He graciously provided me with his bike mechanic’s contact information and as I am writing this, I am awaiting a call back (hopefully) from him.

This will put me back at least a day and I am scrambling to change the reservations I made for the next few days. The mechanic is in Hamilton so tomorrow could be my first negative mileage day. I always knew I would have some issues, so nothing to get too frustrated about. Tomorrow is supposed to rain all day anyway.