Day 14, June 10

Florence,  Mt to Indian Trees Campground at the base of the start of the real climb up to Chief Joseph Pass.
73 miles

This morning I made (and ate) this monstrosity.

Whole grain, 9 seed bread slathered with almond butter (similar to peanut butter but much harder to spread), banana slices, honey and trail mix.  I saw David eating something similar (minus the trail mix and using peanut butter) a few days ago and wanted to try my own twist on it. It was excellent.

The first half of the day I spent following a dedicated bike path along almost completely flat land between Florence and Darby.  Along the way I passed through two cool little towns; Victor and Hamilton, stopping for lunch at a cafe in the latter.

Two things I have noticed about Montana:

1) There are "fishing access points" everywhere.  I seem to see them every 3 miles or so.  Fishing and/or river access seem to be treated as a birthright here.

2) There are rivers and streams everywhere. At least in this area you can't go more than a half mile without seeing another gorgeous stream.

Later in the day I started a slow climb upward after passing through Darby. The road was horribly narrow for a bit but widened out just before I lost my patience. I was tired of dodging monster motorhomes and was ready to grab the first sleeping option in sight when a 6 ft wide bike lane appeared out of nowhere.

The mosquitos came out in droves around 4 P.M..  I thought that as long as I kept moving at 8 mph or so, that they wouldn't be able to keep up but quickly found out that the little pests can pretty easily fly at 10 to 12 mph.

After dousing myself with repellent I continued through some nice rock canyons up to my campground for the night. The campground was beautiful but lacked water and was a mile down a dirt road.

Halfway through cooking dinner it started to rain and I quickly headed into my tent thinking I could come out and finish my meal in 15 to 30 minutes but the rain just got heavier and lasted throughout the night.

Some pictures from the day appear below.

Somewhere along the bike path outside Florence.

Downtown Victor

One of the millions of streams.

Entering Darby

Rock canyon