We got a very nice breakfast in Sheridan before getting a good early start. We’re planning to ride from Sheridan to Cameron on Rt 287, splitting up out total remaining distance to West Yellowstone nicely and putting us in position to get to Yellowstone right on schedule. We have a motel and rental car lined up in West Yellowstone for end of day Thursday so Leah can see a little of Yellowstone on Friday before her return to Albany.
We saw a fully loaded solo rider zip by our motel just as we were loading up but he didn’t stop or even notice us.
A very pleasant morning, great weather and the ride to Laurin and then to Alder is relatively flat and easy going. Very shortly into the ride, I snap the cable to my front derailleur and we stop so I can replace it. We’re at a historic marker that explains the history of bandits, robbers who regularly struck stage coaches in this area and the subsequent rise of vigilante groups. Cool history. Around Alder we also see markers explain big time prior mining and the extent that it tore up the countryside. Soon we come across current small time mining doing the same and making all sorts of noise and dust, etc. Pretty messy and wild. About this time we are passed by a solo rider, who just waves going by until I notice he is riding a Rivendell (our bikes) and I call out to him. He turns out to be a young guy in his 20s from northern CA, near the Rivendell shop and quite talkative. He says maybe he saw us earlier and is the rider who went by our motel room. Says he had been “stealth camping down the road” (hates to pay to sleep) but had missed a sprinkler system when he set up so had gotten an early wake up call. Exchanged some horror stories about traffic and drivers then restarted. We offered that he was welcome to ride with us if was willing to go slow, he said thanks but I have to get to Yellowstone tonight, (our destination for tomorrow) says he’s doing pretty big daily rides, did 107 miles the day before and needed to keep booking. Then he disappeared into the distance.
We reached Nevada City and took a short break. This is an old time western town, assembled from historic buildings from all over MT, diverted and reassembled here, used for film set purposes and as a working village with hotel, saloon, bakery etc. Pretty cool. While hanging out here I happened to talk to one of the workers and when she heard we were targeting Cameron for the night, she said, geez, I don’t think there’s anything there anymore. Oh, oh. Need to check into that later today.
Leaving Nevada City we then went thru Virginia City which is a similar deal and then attacked another big climb. This is a pass that reaches 6400 ft but doesn’t even have a name. The indignity. We worked pretty hard getting up this one and at the top christened it “Cookie Pass”, celebrating with cookies. The descent from here extends about 6 miles and is very fast and even scary and takes us into Ennis. Ennis is a good sized tourist town with lots of fly fishing guides, shops, etc. We got a nice little lunch and I tried to find out more about Cameron, about 12 miles further and our planned destination. According to ouir waitress there is nothing there anymore and nothing for about 40 miles. I double check across the street at the Chamber of Commerce. Oh, yeah, there used to be a store, a campgrounds, a café and a convenience store. He gave us, everything is closed. That will not work for us, in terms of time of day, etc and so we decide to stay in Ennis but that means we’ll have a +70 mile day into West Yellowstone tomorrow.
We find a pretty nice little RV campgrounds with great facilities and a restaurant right next door so we’re good for today.
Two notes – during the night I am outside the tent for a while (nature calls) and the sky is absolutely stunning. We’re a long ways from any city of any size so there is no light pollution and it is so clear it’s like going to a planetarium. The milky way is awesome.
In the morning, Judith reports that we must have set up out tent over a gopher or mole because she has had something poking up at her through the bottom of the tent during the night! Too funny.
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