Butte

We made it to Butte.

We started at 5:30 to beat the heat. It was nice and crisp as we rode out of Boulder, MT.

Our plan was to stop in Basin for breakfast.  It was a dumpy little town with not a stir at 7am. There was a cafe that said open at 8. We didn't want to wait, so we had a bar and headed on.

About halfway to Butte we ran into a cattle drive. Three cowgirls on horses were taking the herd up the narrow dirt road we were riding. It took us about 5 minutes to ride through this herd with cows on both sides of us. It was a little intimidating but fun.

The river we were following was going the opposite direction - north,  which seemed weird to me.  I kept thinking Butte was downhill. I forgot we had to cross the CD again before Butte.

A 10 mile ride on a siding road brought us to our 4th CD crossing.  Then a glorious, long descent into Butte.

I have decided I LOVE downhill. It's just so nice after all the climbing with our heavy loads.

It was 10:30 when we arrived but we had already been riding for 5 hrs. So we'll check into a hotel and rest.

In Butte we stopped at the Outdoorsman,  Rob Leipheimer's bike shop.  Super nice guy. Very accommodating.

The photo shows 8 days of beard growth. We are going to shave and clean up today. :-)