Lincoln, MT June 26

Lincoln, MT -- Saturday, June 26
Simply put, today was a neat day! The weather was near perfect. We had a great tailwind assist for 2/3s of of 61 mile day to counter balance our constant uphill climb as we approached the continental divide which we will cross at Rogers Pass (5615') in the AM tomorrow. We crossed paths with another cross country cyclist (a 60 year old male 5th grade teacher from WV) and shared many stories. We visited Garnet, an old mining ghost town, eleven miles off our route and 1500' higher in elevation. And lastly we had this great, late afternoon lunch at the Stray Bullet Cafe in Ovando.
If this cafe were near Iowa City it would be a frequently visited by many of the bicyclists that I know. And at the end, we found an RV Park with showers and a great green space to set up tents. It would be hard to have a better day than this.
The trip to Garnet was a spontaneous 2 hour detour. We were no more than 10 miles into our ride this morning when we came across a round side sign stating that today was Garnet Ghost Town Day. We pulled into the area only to learn that Garnet was an 11 mile uphill ride; however a free shuttle ride was being provided to the top. The shuttle van driver offerred to haul our bikes to the top (bikes, trailers and all) and then let us ride down. About 4 miles into the upward journey, the paved road turned to gravel. With that change the driver also agreed to drive the bikes back down. To do this meant we had to leave our biks on the shuttle while it went back down the mountain to pick up more people while we spent an hour touring this ghost town, having hand churned ice cream using ice blocks that had been cut from a nearby lake in January and stored in an ice house using sawdust as insulation. It was a great diversion.
The Stray Bullet Cafe in Ovando was also off the beaten path but by only a 1/2 mile. In this town it was as if someone turned back time with a General Store, a museum and the cafe. I probably had the best cold meat sandwich that I've had in a long time that was garnished with all sorts of fresh cut vegetables and trimmings. The old west ambiance of the place was amazing with all sorts or historical photos and artifacts adorning the walls. The bicyclists that we meet at our campsite in Lincoln had other great stories to tell about the town too.
I've been surpised at the number of other cross country cyclists that we have been meeting over the past 5-6 days. All have their stories and adventures as well as the stories and adventures of thei encounters with other bicyclists. Randy, who we meet today (we saw his picture on the Adventure Cycling wall yesterday) carries a 45 caliber hand gun in his front handlebar bag to help ensure his safety (he is riding alone) and told the tale of having to almost use it on a moose near Kamiah, that he was in a standoff with on the road going out of town. We've had no such enounters.
As noted earlier, tomorrow we are crossing the Continental Divide. It will be the highest pass that we will cross. Based upon our maps it does not appear to be as steep or long as the other passes that we have crossed. We hope that is the case. If all goes well, we should be in Great Falls on Monday, three days ahead of schedule. This sudden change from being behind schedule by approximately 1 1/2 days to being ahead is due to a course change. We are still doing an Adventure Cycling route; however it is a route that is more direct from Missoula to Great Falls. If the schedule holds (60 - 70 miles per day) my new ending point will be somewhere in mid ND.