Today’s Date: June 3, 2024

Today’s Start Point: Darby, Montana

Today’s End Point: Lost Trail Hot Springs, Montana

Today’s Miles: Total- 54.87 Miles; From Yesterday’s Start Point- 24.8 Miles

Cumulative Miles: 1,045.45 Miles

Today was an eventful day; from multiple kindnesses, worrisome mechanical mishaps, unfortunate weather, and new connections.

When I signed off last night, I mentioned that I was waiting to hear back from Chad, the mechanic that Kevin (whom I met at the restaurant) recommended to me. Lo and behold that later that night Chad did get back to me and that even though the shop was closed, he was going to send a mechanic into the shop to make sure I could be on my way. I am still in awe of peoples’ generosity.

I anticipated that the day would be lost since I had to ride 15 miles to the shop and it was raining steadily. Therefore, I planned on staying in Hamilton, where the shop was located, and fight another day.

It rained throughout the night and the morning, so I packed up my wet gear and headed back to Hamilton. It was downhill with the wind at my back with a steady rainshower. This was great, except it meant that if I wanted to go back it would be uphill into a tailwind. Staying in Hamilton seemed the smart option.

Chad told me that the mechanic would be there at 10 am, and since I feared being late, I arrived at the shop at about 9:30 am. The shop is in a 100+ years old red barn (hence the name Red Barn Cyclery)-very cool.

While I was waiting, Kevin pulled up and wanted to know if I wanted to get some coffee once the mechanic showed up. Sounded good to me since I was still wet from the ride to the shop.

When the mechanic arrived, he went to work on my bike and Kevin and I went out for coffee. On our way to the coffee shop, Kevin asked if it would be fine with me if we went to his house instead. Again, sounded good to me.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Kevin has 11 children, from one year old to twenty-one years old. All of the children are home schooled. When we arrived, the younger part of the clan, about six kids all appearing to be under eight or nine, tumbled out of the house. The kids were great, open and smiley.

We settled into Kevin’s kitchen and he told me a little of his backstory. He grew up in the Los Angelos area and went to bible school in the midwest, where he met his wife. They eventually settled in the Hamilton, Montana area, where he started his own paint contracting business. The business has thrived and he has started an assortment of other businesses, as well as owning some multifamily properties in the area.

To instill this entrepreneurial spirit in his children, each child must start a new business when they turn 18 years old. So far, his kids have opened a handyman service, a bagel business and craft chocolate endeavor. In their home the oldest boy built out a commercial bagel making kitchen for his sister (I had some bagels and some of her other baked goods and they were delicious).

As it was getting time to go, Kevin prepared me a goody bag for the road consisting of homemade chicken, assorted cheeses and some more of his daughter’s baked goods. Let’s be clear, I am a cynical person, always have been, probably always will be. However, even my cynical heart is touched when you see someone with a philosophy for life, and not only talks it, but puts it into practice.

After this great interlude, Kevin gave me a ride back to the shop. The bike was fixed and the mechanic even put all of my luggage back on the bike. To everyone at Red Barn Cyclery, thank you so much for going out of your way to help a tired and mechanically impaired traveler. Bike people are the best.

It was time to say goodbye to Kevin and make a decision: stay in Hamilton or try to move on up the road. It was still raining hard and it would be a headwind. The smart money was on staying in Hamilton until the promised better weather arrived tomorrow.

By now you should have picked up that I don’t always do smart things. I got out my rain gear and set off south, 15 miles back to Darby (where I stayed last night) and then another 25 miles to Lost Trails Hot Springs, where I had rented a cabin.

To say it was a slog is an understatement. To have to retrace the same 15 miles that I rode yesterday was discouraging. Add in the wind and rain and it bordered on comical.

At this point, I want to apologize in advance for the minimal pictures today. First, the low cloud ceiling was not optimal for the scenic vistas of days past; second, at a certain point I just wanted to get through it; and third, my hands were too cold to handle the phone.

When I talked to the manager of the cabins he told me to pick up food in Darby since there would be nothing to find near the cabins. I dutifully stopped in Darby, picked up a sandwich for lunch and a frozen burrito for dinner (ah the life). While I ate my lunch while on a bench outside the store, hallealuya the clouds parted and the sun came out. This next 25 miles was going to be a piece of cake.

So me and my frozen burrito set off for the cabin. What I liked about the location of the cabin was that it was located one-third up a 13 mile climb out of the Bitterroot Valley. Carving the monster into bite sized chunks seemed to be a reasonable strategy.

As I travelled south from Darby, I came across some sections of road stating no photography permitted and even had private security to enforce it. It turns out that Darby and its surrounding area is where they shoot a good portion of the outdoor scenes for the TV show “Yellowstone”. Sorry, I didn’t see Kevin Costner or anyone else of celebrity caliber.

As so often happens, the sunshine at lunch was only a ruse, it started to pour down rain. I love it, rain, wind and climbing. Back home, we would call riding on days like this: EPIC. Boys, today qualified as epic.

I would love to describe the scenery around me, but most of the time I was either looking at the white line on the road or my Garmin telling me how many more miles to go. Occasionally, I would look up from the task of moving the bike forward and see something worthy of a picture. After careful consideration, my response was usually “heck no!”

I finally arrived at the cabin and it was great. It had a kitchen, family room, bedroom, screened in porch for my bike, and a bathroom with a shower. It was very rustic but did I mention that it had a shower, with HOT water?

At the end of the day, I am worn out and cold (what an old Welsh cycling buddy would term “knackered”), but happy that I accomplished so much today-bike fixed, had a fascinating encounter with a great individual, and squeaked out 24 more miles toward North Carolina. Epic!