Missoula To Butte
Missoula to Butte was a hard slog. I was able to get onto a pace line for about an hour (Andrew, Bronywn, and Anne). I remembered the first rest stop from The Northern Transcon a decade ago. I arrived at the second rest stop and the only person behind me was John Lake. I don't remember all of the route from the Northern, but I was still on it. We had lunch at the same park. The thunderstorms rolled in while I was eating lunch. I suited up in rain gear, but the rain didn't last long.
Around mile 86 we started climbing and it was a lung buster. We climbed up to 6300 feet. On the climb a rock slide is visible that appears to me to be a heart. I took a picture back in 2001 and I took another one on this trip. When I get home, I'll post the two pix. I'm having trouble posting on the road. During the Northern, Susan was waiting for us at the top at an unscheduled rest stop. This time, I was alone, but there was a tailwind pushing me around the lake, but unfortunately the thunderstorms hit again and this time they brought their friend Hail. I suited up again, and it rained, for almost 20 miles. Luckily for me I had a descent into Anaconda and then the rest stop was just past Anaconda. I got to the rest stop and the weather got worse. I pulled off my raincoat to put arm and leg warmers on and by the time I got the raincoat back on I was freezing.
I watched the skies for about 10 minutes and it just seemed to be getting worse. I still had 23 miles left to go, so I caved and sagged in to the finish. Unfortunately, I also sagged from that rest stop during the Northern under similar conditions. In fact when we took down the EZ UP tent back then we were gutting shocked when we touched the metal poles.
Humdrum stuff: I did my laundry and skyped my parents, and sent some postcards.
