June 22 - Jeff

June 22, 2013

Left Dillon this morning about 6:10 headed for Ennis, Montana.  Trip of 74 miles.  Little chilly.  Rained during the night but dry in morning.  Pretty flat most of the morning.  Stopped for coffee in Twin Bridges at a place called the Wagon Wheel.  Got our pancakes and coffee in less than 10 minutes.  Unlike yesterday.   Jack thought it was the biggest pancake so far, and they had blueberry syrup.  Nice change of pace.   Wagon Wheel was very rustic like you would think most things in Montana are.  Made our way through Sheridan and Nevada City and then into Virginia City.  Both were   tourist traps.  Many of the buildings were shipped in.  Courthouse in Virginia City has evidently been used in several movies, but the lady telling me this did not know which ones, only that Steven Seagal was in one of them.  If you need anything poured, don’t ask Jack.  He had a pouring issue today.

Lot of dredging has occurred in Montana when they were looking for gold.  The remnants of this are still evident from the road.  Just piles and piles of rock where nothing can grow again.  Left for many years.  Some of the dredging yielded gems called garnets.  These were evidently used to finance Harvard in the 20^th century.  Of course that reminded me of the movie Legally Blonde which of course Jack has not seen either.  I had to describe the ending, think “We did  it!!!!”.

We  had lunch in Virginia City.  Few sprinkles.  We  had avoided a storm earlier just by luck and the direction we were going.  Jack decided to go ahead because we only had 14 miles to go and had a climb.  He went ahead and Jerry and I stayed about 10 minutes longer to talk to a couple from Helena.  Jerry and I passed these two women riding recumbents (?) which means they sit when they ride like in a chair.  They were in their 60’s and do 3 weeks of the trail per year.  Tying to finish by their 70^th birthdays.  Anyway, by the time Jerry and I got to the top, rain had begun and it turned into sleet and then to ice and hail.  Jack was riding just ahead of the storm, but Jerry and I were stuck at the summit.  No shelter anywhere with ice accumulating on the road.  It was difficult to walk on the road much less ride on it.  We had to bail and call our Project Manager who had already secured a campsite in Ennis.  We had cell phone reception fortunately and Sue performed a search and rescue.  Not sure what we would have done if we did not have support.  Everybody was safe.  Of course, now sun is shining and it is a beautiful day.

Hope Hannah ‘s gradiation party goes well.  We probably won’t make it.

Tomorrow we head into West Yellowstone.