Montana

June 20 - The Big Sky State

Before entering Montana we had to climb Lolo Pass - during which I saw a Moose. At the top of Lolo we met a man who got out of his car and gave us some sodas to drink. He also took this picture of us at the Idaho-Montana border located on the summit of the Pass. We sped through the next 8 miles (5% down hill grade) at a speed of 20-45 m.p.h to Lolo Hot Springs and we just beat the lightening storm which was approaching us from behind.

The Lolo Ranch

This is an example of one of the many ranches we saw in the Pacific North West.

Those Damn Cows!

Cows take over the road again.

A Ghost Town

After following Babak's lead into a freshly tarred road, we came grinding to a halt. It took us an hour working with construction men and WD40 to get enough tar and gravel off our bikes so that we could continue to ride. (Wish I had a picture). A few hours later we came across this abandoned train in Nevada City.

	Virginia City. A few miles past Nevada City is a restored ghost town called Virginia City. Nevada City features several museums and architectural examples of the 'old west'.

	Among other things, we got to hear the beautiful music that came out of the loudest organ in Montana - what a delight!

We pitched our tents in Virginia City behind the Brewery Gardens (a local pub). We biked until 9:30 PM that day so we had to pitch our tents in the dark, but we managed to see part of a show at a local bar. The featured song was about a woman named Milly: "Come out tonight Milly we'll go dancing....because tonights a night for romancing"- perhaps this is only amusing for Babak and I. Anyway, after the show I talked with Chris & Aaron who ran a local restaurant. The next morning they gave us plenty of food to get us over Ennis Hill.

The Road To West Yellowstone

June 25 we camped in a National Forest a few miles from Yellowstone.