July 17th/Day 45 – Hamilton to Sula, MT – 35 miles (Group blog)
Here we sit, the three of us, in a tent … under siege. Zoe’s very upset. She is too full to drink her beer. There are 14 mozzies sitting on the tent mesh above her face. James and Caleb can count at least another 20. We’re surrounded. Caleb is typing, and something is wrong with his pinky. It is no longer independent of his ring finger, and this is very distressing. Something to do with his position on his handle bars. But we’re loving our tour. Seriously. James stated earlier today that it’s not the hills, the camping or even the lack of showers that are wearing on him. It’s the little things. In his case, he mentioned sunscreen. Constantly applying sunscreen. Constantly swatting mosquitoes. Constantly sweating through the sunscreen and mosquito repellent we’ve already applied. Today was an especially tough day on both of these fronts. But it did start well.
Terry made good on her promise of pancakes – with applesauce and walnuts - and kept them coming until none of us could eat any more. It should be mentioned that this was on her way to work in the local ER. We met Carl, her husband, who was every bit as hospitable as Terry – and incredibly keen to meet any potential Virginia Tech fans, or college football fans, period. Sadly, we go to Columbia. After a stack of pancakes each and lots of good vibes, we were on our way, feeling incredibly thankful that there are such generous people in the world.
(Zoe) We began making good time – but a two inch nail skewered our plans, and at 11.30 we were still on the sidelines after riding only 10 miles. This pretty much put paid to our plans to climb the Chief Joseph Pass today, though it took us most of the afternoon to acknowledge this fact. We cruised down the Bitterroot Valley and into the foothills of MosquitoVille, Montana. We met Larry and Marcee, a couple who are riding across the country with two bikes and one car. Each day one of them rides, and one supports. We were lucky enough to benefit from Marcee’s support wagon in the form of cold water and sports gel (a big nutritional improvement on the 8 donuts we were carrying). A quick stop at a riverside park to stick our feet in the water led to some extended sitting, and three miles up the road in Sula a chat with the store owner led to some more sitting… I realized that it was 92 degrees in the shade, and soon enough we were camping right here rather than making our last 6 miles. I’m sure it would have been exactly the same up the road, but… we are now camped in a swamp, under siege. While setting up camp and cooking dinner we collectively killed I think a hundred mosquitos, and I am honestly not exaggerating. Now, trapped in Caleb’s tent, the boys have cabin fever and the giggles. Up early to make the pass before the heat kicks in again, we’ll head to bed early – especially since we can’t move without fear of being eaten alive…
