To Seeley Lake for Rest

Day 52 - July 28th
31.4 miles
Total: 2116.4 miles
Moving Avg: 8.2 mph
Overall Avg: 5.7 mph

Nature told us to rest today. Well sort of.

When the alarm sounded at the museum, we popped our eyes open and looked out of the barred window of our Hoosgow. It looked like the building down the road was in fire, but in truth it was just the strange orange glow of the old school street lights. It wasn't a fire alarm, but rather the security alarm for the museum. We stood outside the Hoosgow with our headlamps looking this way and that way trying to figure out what was going on. I had the sneaking suspicion that if the police came, and they saw us with our headlamps we would have been arrested and thrown in a real jail.

The police never came. The alarm did finally shut off, but only after making sure we were fully awake. Eventually we fell back to slumber land. Coffee awaited us in the morning, with welcome wafts.

After enjoying coffee, and hashing over route options, we settled for the official route. It is fairly apparent to both of us that we are tired, and ready to wrap this tour up. We do, however, know that the most beautiful miles lay before us.

We hit the road, which wandered through a little ranchland before dumping us deep into the dense forest. The road was very smooth by Montana standards, and the miles rolled past fairly easy, despite the climb. The dense forest gave way to slightly more sparse lodgepole pines which gave way to greater variety in vegetation.
We were debating on whether to side route to Seeley Lake for lunch, and a possible alternate. After running into a couple southbound cyclists, they sold us on the town. It had cheap camping, laundry, and showers. With the last two days being fairly exhausting, and a solid climb ahead of us, we settled on making the day a short one.

As if to seal the deal, the humid day turned to rain just before we hit the turnoff. It was a light sprinkle, but just enough to say: You are human, you don't belong here, you should find shelter.

By the time we made it down to Seeley Lake the sprinkle had stopped. We went to the campground, which did not have showers. Back on the bikes we rolled the other direction down the highway to the RV Park behind a motel. They had showers, and complementary sodas. What luck!

Cleaned and refreshed we went to the laundromat and to lunch. Our schedule will need a rework, but one of the last major climbs in Montana is now saved for a morning climb.

....and then the picnic table fell over with us on it.... but that's another story.

Live life at a slower place.

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