Two and one

We wake up and pack up camp quick. 'The Pirate' and Darrel show up at 8am, we load Jeff's bike and gear into the truck. We say our goodbyes and Jeff leaves for Dillon while Fred and Paul venture onward towards Idaho.

The story doesnt end here, dont worry.

Jeff will go to Denver, get another bike (hopefull Specialize will deal with their failure of a bike and get him a new one) and he will rejoin the others in about 2 weeks in Wyoming or when they arrive in Winter Park, CO. Until then he plans on hiking, mountain biking (more extreme), rock climbing, and enjoying the freedom of life.

Fred and Paul will update the blog as they go while Jeff makes an offshoot for his own adventures (if you are interested in reading them). Those two are gonna have good times and meet amazing people and I (Jeff) wish them luck, and until I catch up to them, best wishes.

Caption- Jeff rushes to beat the storm by Wise River and thinks to himself "Damn Z-Spokes!"

The party continues to Lima (Lime-ah)

A sunset at 945pm

We wake up and hit up the RatPod breakfast. Biscuits and gravy, hashbrowns, eggs, oatmeal, banana bread, cereals, fruits, juice, and again all free! We have thrown donations towards the cause to help it.

We call up Joe, the local bike shop owner and he opens on Sunday just for us. We buy the right spokes (they're even made in Montana unlike those damn Z-Spokes), the spline tool, and some tubes. We head out and take the interstate all the way to Lima.

Halfway there, Jeff gets a flat up front. We stop and fix it, seeing a piece of glass caused it. Then another hole is on the tube. Two flats on a brand new tube. Just as we are putting the wheel together, the back tire blows out! As if it was stabbed!!! Nobody touched the bike, we all just stared at it. We took it apart and found a big hole, but no cause. We peddal on. 2.5 miles from Lima the front tire goes flat again. The patch didnt hold. We use another. Now there are 5 patches on the new tube from that day. We arrive in Lima as the tube goes flat again.

After buying food we are going to pump the tire and go to the park. We get near the bike and the back tire blows again!!! WHAT THE HELL!? Nobody touched it, Fred and Paul just stare, and Jeff breaks something and smashes another thing. We walk to the park.

After learning and accepting that things happen for a reason, Jeff feels that because of his knees and all the problems with his bike (for no reason and without provocation), he must make the adult decision to pull out. He gets a ride back to Dillion in the morning with "The Pirate" and his friend Darrel. We hit up the local saloon, have a farewell drink, and head to bed in the town park.

A clear night with plenty of stars in the sky, and the sun still setting at 10pm.

Rat Pod! Dillion to Dillon?!

We wake up to a gorgeous morning, hot sun beating down on us. We see road cyclists going by, about 20 or so before we head out. Then more come around the corner. And more. And more. We begin yelling a question to each group to find out whats going on. We find out its the Rat Pod charity ride. Another yells there are 550 riders. We were very confused when we asked where the starting point was (Dillon) and then the ending point (also Dillon). This ride is a charity ride that is 130 miles in a day around the Pioneer Mountains to raise money for Camp Make-a-Dream. A very cool event and so many bikers. They all claimed we were headed the wrong way and food was back the other way.

At the top of the peak, Jeff hears a ting and realizes he blew a spoke on his back wheel. Without the right tool we cant fix it. We flag down the mechanic thats for the ride, he helps us, only to realize that the spokes Jeff got from his mechanic back in RI were the wrong size. Great. Thanks to Richie, the mechanic for the help on the mnt.

We head down the hill and hit up elkhorn hotsprings, and asked the two colorful individuals working where the nearest bike shop is. 45 miles away. Damn. We make a sign out of a pepsi box, and after several cars, one stops. Its perfect! Three empty bike racks and he was in the RatPod ride, heading to dillon. Kevin is a true live saver, driving us and saving us a day and a half of biking.

We make it in time for the party! And what a party!!!! We dine on pulled pork, pasta salad, cookies, pie, ice cream, cake, chips, soda, free beer! I make tons of friends, all crazy bikers who did the 130 miles. And take advantage of all the free beer! I meet the people working the event, JB who works for adventure cycling and Leta and Marissa who work for the camp. Another crazy biker is Don, a mechanic from Missoula who fixes Jeff's wheel for FREE!!!!

Jeff gets on stage with the band and asks the crowd about free camping or a place to stay. We are told we can sleep at the football field at Western Montanta Univ. where the party is.

We hang out and meet more people, have more beer and food, get free bagels and bananas, and sleep for free. AMAZING DAY!! For everything bad that has happened, something amazing comes from it.

Goddamn Z-spokes...

Wise River

We leave the KOA campground and gather supplies for the day. A quick stop at the bikeshop and hotel to update the blog and we go. We ride the frontage roads for the whole day, skipping the incredibly steep Fleecer Ridge, and putting us ahead a day. We take the highway along the river and see many people in boats fly fishing! What a cool site. We race through the valley and just miss getting hit by a rain storm, only to be faced with an intense headwind that takes a lot out of us.

We reach the "town" of Wise River. The only thing going on there is a mercantile where we buy microwave dinners and sit outside to eat. We meet a group of people in an RV who are traveling, one who biked from Pennsylvania to Oregon back in the 70's, and then hitch hiked back! Cool group of guys. We also take a generous helping of candy from a basket at the post office. Thanks U.S. postal service!

We bike 10 miles down the road, slow from the wind and dinner, and find a nice clearing off to the side with people's camping gear there already. It looks as though the wind destroyed half of it, and we set up on the other side. The guys come back later in the night from fishing and we chat for a bit. Again, no tarp tonight, only a clear sky filled with stars. And Jeff's knees are doing great.

Butte

Fred and Paul head off on the trail while Jeff takes the interstate to favor his failing knees. They take a wrong turn yet still have an amazing time even in the rocky mountainous terrains, at times having to throw boulders into creeks so they can make a bridge and cross.

We all ended up on the interstate and arrive in Butte, after some monsterous wind going uphill. Paul and Fred run into a nice lady after using the casinos for free food. They ask her for directions to the local bike shop where they will meet up with Jeff. She unexpectedly arrives there and offers to buy us all a large pizza, plus a six pack of Pepsi. We head to the local park where she tells us stories of the town and we chow on food.

That night we decide to stay at the hotel and have a rest day the next day. We eat a gallon of ice cream, rolos, and some green apples while watching our old friend television.

The next day Jeff hangs around in the park to rest his knee while Paul and Fred try and get more free casino food, to no avail. The town is interesting, split between historic buildings and scary places. We see Transformers 2 (AMAZING MOVIE) and head off to the KOA campground for the night.

Almost 500 miles down so far. Off to Wise River tonight.

Helena...and TOM!!

Toms House, the white roof house, 3rd floor

We leave Deadman's creek to Helena. The roads are washed out and are totally mucky and muddy around 7000 feet. As Jeff slogs on in the front, he stops and sees a bull less than 20 feet away staring right at him. We freeze and grab the bear spray (if that'll even do anything), and back up to work our way around him.

By now our bikes and shoes are covered in a mixture of mud and cow poo. The fire road has vanished and become a dirty farm road. We spot a truck down the way and head to it, only to be stopped by more scary dogs. The cowboys are asleep on the side of the road and wake up, giving us directions to Helena. We avoid more cows, at times having to hop over barbed wire fences. We finally hit Helena.

At the local outdoors store we ask about lodging/ cheep camping. An employee, Tom, tells us his house is a block away and we can crash there. The third floor of an old building with tons of space and even a view from the roof over the entire town of Helena and the mountains. Its almost too perfect! We walk to the store and freak out a bit more as a car of teenagers come by yelling Paul's name, multiple times and following us for a few blocks.

We hang out with Tom for the rest of the night and in the morning, after grabbing breakfast, we hit up Glacier bike shop. Jeff has his drive train changed, Fred gets new tires/tubes, and paul has his rack fixed up. Awesome shop and employees! We check out the town while we wait for the bikes. We grab lunch and depart to Park Lake, only to find it closed due to danger of falling trees from Beetle Kill. We must push on to Basin, another tiny town, to camp. At this time its already 6pm. We still have uphill, difficult single track forests to go through, almost all uphill.

The ride down was scary and exciting, not really being able to see without sun. Paul takes a graceful spill, Jeff loses his sunglasses, and we see a few elk/deer.

We roll into the Merry Widow Mine campground around midnight. We cook in their rec hall and hang out before going to sleep (difficult not to sleep on the couches). In the morning we depart early so we dont have to pay, but nobody even came to ask us for money. We were'nt the ones to find them.

Deadman's Creek

We leave after saying bye to Andrew and buying a huge floor pump at the local hardware store. The ride to Deadman was quite difficult with steep continental divide crossings...and we mean steep!!

We come down from the mountain into a dry farm land with shotgun shells echoing off the nearby hills. As we round a corner we hear a voice asking if we want water. Jeff gladly accepts and we all ride in. The man who owns the farm, Kier (K-ear), talks to us about our trip. He then offers us a box of powerbar gels. Then asking about our Ramen dinners, leaves and returns with 2lbs of frozen, fresh ground beef. Then follows that with a bag of homemade bread, onions, ketchup, mustard, and a bag of cookies. Our tears of happiness could not be stopped. He would have given us a stove if we asked (and maybe his car), but his wife dragged him off before he could.

We looked for the campsite after making a small wrong turn, yet we could not find it at all. A couple driving down the road with mean looking dogs informed us of some areas by the crick (creek in western terms), where we could sleep. We find a nice spot by the stream where we make a great fire and enjoy lots of beef!