Day 53/57—West Yellowstone to Missoula MT
Yellowstone’s beauty quickly fades as you leave town. A few Bison dot the road outside of the park’s safety as with a few campgrounds and hotels along Hebgen Lake. Making Yellowstone seem more like an oasis than a park.
Back in full gear on my first day on the bike as I rode past another familiar mountain, Big Sky Montana. There wasn’t much to see of it from the valley but I’m sure the Snowboarding is great. Big Sky was always a place I’d imagine myself snowboarding in my youth. And now I was cycling past the peak before I had dropped in on its powder.
The Trans American Trail takes you on a nice downhill into Virginia City and Nevada City. Both preserved old west mining towns either shut down for the season or closed that particular day I blew through town.
Town's like Nevada City are part of the charm of the Trans American Trail; you'll criss-cross through many historical West locations. Parts of the Oregon Trail, failed mining towns, and a section of the Louis & Clark Trail. It's out here, on my ride, I learned how Buffalo Bill got his name by way of hunting Buffalo and selling the meat to Soldiers. All that from an uninhabited historic pull-out.
Another pass from Nevada City and I was on my way to the first days stop.
Chick’s Bar, Alder MT & Michael Keaton
A triple threat bar. Chick's is a restaurant, a handful of hotel rooms, and a makeshift campground. I snagged a room for less than $40.
Breakfast at the restaurant was when I might have encountered Micheal Keaton. Meeting Micheal never happened, sadly. I just overheard the waitress talking about him.
A few days prior he'd been in for breakfast. Yes—that’s right, Micheal Keaton was something of regular there when he was in town vacationing at his getaway home. So the waitress said.
If you're trying to get away from people Montana has thousands of miles of no one and a beautiful landscape to enjoy. Where his house was—Hmmm, I wonder.
You can imagine I stuck around for longer than I needed in hopes he would come in. Then I had to fix a flat. Ugh.
Over A Mountain and Into A Bear
Outside Dillon, MT there’s an arduous 14 mile (maybe more) climb over Badger Pass. Even worse, the wind always blew against me. At every turn the wind seemed to reroute itself, maximizing my struggle.
Towards the top pine trees thickened along the peaks. And at the crest as I was winding left on my right a skulking Grizzly headed up the right side embankment. Roughly 25 yards to my right slightly front.
Oh SHIT! But instinctually I already pulled out the bear mace and armed it—walking over my bike—hoping I wouldn't have to use it. Because that wind I mentioned earlier would be blowing a good bit of the Mace back into my face.
In case, you're thinking, "why didn't you just out ride the bear?" It's because it would have never worked. At my pace, uphill, against the wind with a bear that can run upwards of 30 MPH, my odds were better on standing ground.
It just happened that this bear wanted to cross the road where I wanted to go. She wasn’t coming down for me. No cubs in sight. Good news for me. Possibly scaring her, that's not good for me. A bear might turn aggressive when scared.
What to do now.
Calmly I called out to her. Hey, bear, bear, bear. Hey, Bear. Yes, I read that's what you should do. Let her know you’re not food.
That started to work, and the bear turned back for the tree line. Bad news. She hit the barbed wire fence and to avoid crawling back through came barreling back towards me.
UHHH. Unconsciously, I was more road central now, and I called out louder this time. HEY, BEAR BEAR BEAR. HEY. At the same time she was closing in, a semi-truck and two cars rounded the turn and blew their horns—at the bear or me, I don't know—scaring the bear into a triple take before rushing back and through the barbed wire fence.
Slightly shaken and electrified by the encounter, I was alone on the mountain top again. Back to a windy downhill, where you’d think you, I would be going down faster than I came up. No, no such luck in this wind.
Jackson, Montana. Population 24.
I cruised down Big Hole Pass, just before Jackson, for a moody Valley ride at sunset into Jackson, MT.
No joke, this town is tiny. A population so small I was lucky to ride in on a Friday night. Everything is closed Tuesday-Thursday otherwise.
I camped out back of Jackson Hot Springs Lodge for $10 and ate inside next to a couple having an Anniversary dinner. I enjoyed their company and his laugh more than the food. I went out of my way to try and make him laugh. The food was excellent.
I'll give you two reasons to stop here. Number One: The steam swirled glassy water of the hot springs pool. Up until I got here, I thought all hot springs smelled like rotten eggs. Maybe I've been living under a rock but, this hot spring was pure fresh water. The concrete pool is huge even though I might describe the outdoor area as rundown charming and I watched the steam roll around for hours.
Number Two: The lodge is huge, fitted with giant taxidermied beasts. The bar to taxidermy ratio is spectacular. Whether it was the time of year or just a slow night, the people to bar ratio was perfect. Enough to get a conversation going but not so many that you had to squeeze through a crowd for a drink.
At night, I could here two wolf packs howling from their territorial bounds. Possibly reason three to visit—Atmosphere.
More Delicious Country Fried Steak in Wisdom, MT
I skipped breakfast at the Jackson Hot Springs so I wouldn’t have to wait the extra hour for them to start serving and to try somewhere new. Wisdom, MT took about an hour to get to as well.
I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll mention it again—chicken fried steak get better the further west you go. This meal also summed up how much food I’ve been consuming. A full chicken fried steak meal—chicken, home fries, and two pancakes—and I added a double order of Texas-sized French Toast. I left nothing to clean.
Chief Joseph Pass
The ride up over Chief Joseph from the east to west is surprisingly smooth. You have little elevation gain headed over from the east. It's all downhill from there and almost all the way into Missoula, MT.
Avoiding the ride up from the west is one point for riding east to west instead of west to east. Unfortunately, instead of finding the cause of my slow leak, I refilled the tire with air every half-hour or so.
If you have the time and are riding over Chief Joseph Pass, there’s a trail at the top of the pass. I didn’t have a chance to hike it, but it looked beautiful.
A Sore Ass, A Slow Leak From Hell, and Just Shy of Missoula MT
I’ve been on the factory saddle for almost 4,000 miles at this point and until recently it hasn’t bothered me that much. Here and there the seat adjustments I did make seemed to work, but always temporary relief. I also cannot find the cause of my tire leak. Not a fast way of riding.
Eventually, I stopped in Hamilton, MT, just shy of Missoula. I rebooted with a burger and beer from Higher Ground Brewery. Good beers, typical brewery fair.
After shlepping into a Super 8 for the night, I scoured my tire for the cause of the slow leak without luck. A bucket of ice from the lobby helped cool my buttocks.
Missoula, MT A Small City Worth Visiting
A very sore ride into Missoula was manageable by the short distance to town. There’s a decent bike path that takes you into the city as well. A close to finished trail looked like it would take you all the way into the city as well.
I stayed with a cycling host in Missoula. I didn’t see much of him of my gracious host. But he was real laid back type without the traditional hippy look. I laid out on his couch, did some laundry, and walked around town.
Missoula is situated in a valley surrounded by a river on two sides. Famously where Louis & Clark successfully crossed after warned not to go there. A hot spot for Native American attacks, not so much a dangerous river. I found the town small village quaint with larger city amenities. Chill. And bike friendly. Not surprising since Adventure Cycling is HQ'd there.
No building in town topped three or four stories. Maybe more, but the relatively low height of everything added to the small town feel in a bigger city footprint. Granted my view of a big city has skewed over the last 57 days.
If you ride into Missoula make a stop at the Adventure Cycling HQ. I did, and got my photo taken for the visiting cyclist gallery. Touring cyclist can use their lounge for free and eat their ice cream and juice for free. They hadn’t seen any touring cyclists for a while so the selection was minimal.
I primarily stopped in to purchase a new Brooke’s B17 Saddle! The best in touring cycling seats because the hard leather brakes into the shape of your butt. They do take about 200 miles to break in. No problem there; I still have around a thousand miles to go.
My second primary stop in Missoula was at one of the many bicycle shops in town. Finally, someone solved my slow leak nightmare. My mechanic found a tiny piece of glass stuck in the tire. It's back to smooth riding to Idaho. ⬪
Do you have any favorite parts of the Trans American trail yourself? Want to know more about the ride between West Yellowstone and Missoula, post your comments below.
