Be careful about taking roads along interstates. Paved roads tend to turn to dirt and then just end. You might have to retrace your miles for a long ways! A State Gazetteer is well worth the price! Plan where you are staying a few days in advance and make reservations - particularly on weekends in the summer. We ran into full campgrounds and motels in some towns due to things like a Jeep Rally, rodeos, a Harley Rally, and summer travelers.
BETH writes of today - Again, I awoke to the cloudy skies. At least this morning there was some blue and sun - but the weather forecast was for thunderstorms. I started late after the wonderful bike shop, the Outdoorsman, cleaned my cassette, chain and replaced some housing and shift cables. Ah, the days of getting off my bike at a hill to shift to granny gear by hand were over! They were wonderful people and the owner's brother races in the tour d'France - I am going to spell his name wrong but, Levi Lephou . . . With a smooth shifting bike I was off to Beaver Dam Campground - 37 miles. I climbed to my 5th CD crossing and the view on the other side was breath taking. I entered a high prairie with the Rocky Mountains on one side and the Pioneer Mountains on the other - Wow! Off in the distance were the thunderheads booming and the lighting was spectacular. I put all my rain gear on and yelled at the thunder to race it through the prairie - there was no way I was going to be in the fields with that lightning. The thunder boomed, but the crazy thing about the mountains is that the wind changes direction - sometimes in your favor. The storms passed without one drop of rain. I reached the edge of the high prairie and had the first view of the ever famous Fleecer Mountain. I was supposed to climb and descend Fleecer the next day - the hardest day of the whole Great Divide Trail. I descended into a valley and the sights are undescribeable - I could see for miles with more thunderheads moving in and these huge mountains in the distance. I had a nice fast downhill to the campground access road before it started pouring. Wet and cold I finally reached the campground to find Mom and Ann had taken refuge in the car. For the next two hours we sat in the car as the thunder and rain passed through. We finally started dinner, as it rained again - what can you do wet camping is wet camping and we were in the middle of no where, so off to bed early.
JAN writes of today - Rain, Cold, and Hail were the four letter words of the day. Yesterday we were in a motel in Butte, luckily. While New Hampshire is having a heat wave, we are freezing. 40 degree torrential thunder storms yesterday. They are coming out of a six year drought here, so we are the only ones who seem to be inconvenienced by this. Today Ann and I did some hiking and explored an area just south of Butte. We set up the tent at a remote forest campground and collected firewood, since there was only a 30% chance of rain. When the thunderheads rolled in and it started to hail, we knew we were in trouble! A very miserable Beth arrived in the electrical storm. She changed into dry clothes in the outhouse and we all sat in the car waiting for the rain to end. When it finally stopped we started the stove, as the firewood was soaked and the humidity level in the air was so high we couldn't even get dry newspaper to burn. As we were cooking, it started to pour again. We ate in the rain in our raingear and read in the car until it was time for bed. A cold soggy night was had by all!!! The joys of camping.
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