Day 16: Dillon to Wisdom, MT – 68 miles
Jim had me staying in a room in the basement last night, and the lack of daylight made it exceptionally hard to drag myself out of bed. After a quick breakfast and a stop at the grocery store, I hit the road. My legs felt sluggish and I was not in the best place emotionally, so about 8 miles out of town I put on some music (not a usual thing for me while riding) and cranked until I reached the top of Badger Pass, where I had a second breakfast. At the bottom, I ran into Chuck the math teacher from Durango who I’d chatted with in Virginia City. He was in the middle of his second breakfast- not wanting my muscles to seize up I kept trudging onwards to Big Hole Pass, which wasn’t so bad as everyone had made it sound. At the top there was a cool historic pull-out with details about Lewis and Clark. Cruising down the back side I hit a new speed record for the trip: 49.7mph. The scenery into Jackson was beautiful and it put me in a better mood. Chuck caught up to me while I was eating lunch outside the Jackson Hot Spring Lodge, and upon determining that the springs were definitively not in the budget, we rode the remaining 18miles to Wisdom. Chuck opted to continue another 17 to the NFS campground halfway up the next pass; I set up camp in the American Legion Park and was promptly attacked by Mosquitos.
In the screened-in picnic shelter I found a father and son flyfishermen who were on their way back to the airport tomorrow morning and insisted I help eat up the last of their food – very kind of them to force ham sandwiches and fig newtons on me, really. I enjoyed chatting with them for a while, and then walked back to the little grocery where I met a through hiker off the CDT and a pair of Australian cyclists heading to Jackson.
Walking back to the park, I noticed big thunderheads and made a gut decision to take down the tent and move my sleeping pad+bag into the picnic shelter.
A few minutes later as I was cooking dinner, the heavens let loose with heavy rain and a little hail. I hope Chuck and the Australians stayed dry!
So here I am, dry and mosquito free, watching a stunning sunset between thunderstorms.
