Monday: On to Helena

On Monday morning we woke to clear skies and rode on to Bozeman.

Of course in Bozeman we had to stop at the Pickle Barrel for sandwiches and ice cream. Hands down, nobody beats the Pickle Barrel.

Usually we take I90 to 287 to Helena. But today, since we had time, we decided to take a more circuitous, less interstaty, route. We took 86 to 89 to 12 to Helena instead.

The Bridger Bowl ski area is on 86. The first part has some very nice corners but we were held up by a horse-drawn livery wagon. It had four horses pulling it, with two more in tow. It was NOT a small wagon (and the camera malfunctioned ... so no photos.

86 turned out to be a very good choice:


The twisty part had brand new fresh pavement and very little traffic.

89 went through a small town called Ringling, named after the Ringling Bro's circus. It was no more than a twenty buildings - the entire town could fit into a couple square miles.

It was also a very straight and boring road:

Despite a strong headwind and a full load and at higher altitudes, I managed to break the speed limit by a large margin ;-) Chuck did too - but he decided that doubling the speed limit (70mph) wasn't a good idea, so he backed off at 1.5 times the speed limit. There was one bicyclist on the road .. imagine his surprise as I blow past him .. and then Chuck a few seconds later.

Once in Helena we pulled into Abbey's (Chuck's mom) home and found this guy lounging in the yard:


After unloading the bikes we walked down to the Brewhouse and was greeted their "three for three" special, i.e. three 10oz brews for $3. We did not hesitate to enjoy our libations.

The next several days were spent in Helena hiking, resting, visiting Don (Chuck's grandpa), visiting the Brewhouse daily, etc. Our anticipated departure date will be Friday 8/7 .. so stay tuned!