Day 9 was a rest day in Missoula and I had a lovely day! Walked around the town a bit and ended up stumbling across the Missoula Art Museum which we decided to check out since it was free. I wasn't expecting much because I wasn't sure what kind of art is produced in the middle of Montana but I was blown away! One of the exhibits was a really criticial political collection and probably cooler than any I've seen in NYC. It was by a local guy and was all about the corporate statehood and about what a load of poop it is enslaving yourself with massive amounts of debt to attend art school. The other exhibit was old photographs that were embroidered with quotes from famous authors which was also pretty neat. Then we stopped at the office for adventure cycling, a nonprofit that promotes traveling by bike and produces a lot of the cross country bike routes. We got a tour and they put our picture up on the wall as they do for all the cross-country travelers who pass through. They had some bikes hanging up that had gone crazy distances, one of them traveled the entire length of the African continent (through the Sahara and everything)! We met a fellow traveler who was moving back east and decided to ship her stuff and ride her bike back all alone. Admirable, but I don't think I could do that by myself! I really hope this isn't the last of my long distance biking though, I think it's such a wonderful mode of (free) transportation. After that we headed to an event for the American Lung Association at a local bike shop where some riders and senators talked about the importance of clean air. We finished the day off with dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant as a group before heading back to the dorms to sleep off our food comas.
Day 10 was a century ride from Missoula to Avon. It was a long day but an enjoyable ride since the 50% chance of thunderstorms didn't end up happening. We climbed about 5000 feet yesterday in preparation for the Continental Divide. We stayed at a Mormon summer camp with delicious food (lots of pie) and pretty nice acomodations. We've been spoiled so far this trip! We haven't had to camp as much as I thought we would and most of our meals have been prepared by the places we stay. I am trying to enjoy it while it lasts because I'm sure soon we'll be sleeping outside and cooking for ourselves. Avon didn't really have much of anything going on except some houses, a cafe, and lots of "don't try meth not even once" signs.
Today was an easy 60 mile day from Avon to Townsend. It's nuts that 60 miles used to be a long day trip for me but now it's nothing and we're settled in camp by early afternoon. We passed over the Continental Divide this morning about 10 miles into the route. The last bit of the climb up was not as bad as I had imagined and the 12 mile downhill that followed was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far. Partially because it's like "holy crap I just biked over the Continental Divide" which sounds a lot scarier than it actually is, and also because the view was incredible and we were able to get some serious speed (I got up to 40 mph before I started freaking out that I was going too fast). We are camping on the luxuorious football field at the high school in Townsend tonight and it's perfect camping weather. The next 2 days are century rides so the rest day in Billings will be a day of doing as much nothing as possible.
I m intrigued with the mention of the Mormon summer camp. Would like to hear more about it.
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