Wrong turn

Hey everybody. We're back!

Thursday we left Lincoln expecting a big day in the saddle. Potentially,  we had 3 crossings of the continental divide.  Our first big climb was up to Stemple Pass.  There were 3 possible routes and we made the mistake of asking someone.  Unfortunately they pointed us the way to Helena via the road system.  Our route was thru the mountains.  We descended about 10 miles.  Funny thing, the cues lined up and it took me a while to figure out we were too far East.  We then faced a dilemma: follow the 270 down the road to Helena; or climb back up and get on course. Tom L-S, you'll be proud to hear we did the right thing. Lucky for us,  about 1/3 the way up we got a lift in a pickup to the top.  :-)

I've done these sorts of things in adventure races. When you make a wrong turn you stress about it. But this time it really didnt bother me. Oh well, so we were 3 hours behind. This isn't a race, and that's part of what makes it so enjoyable.

As we descended our first continental divide crossing,  we were so happy we retraced back to the route. Marsh Creek Canyon and Prickly Pear Creek were gorgeous! Both Doug and I couldn't stop smiling and exclaiming around every turn.

We turned up Lost Horse Creek and started to climb towards our second crossing.

At 5pm we spotted a small pond with a place to camp. It was super hot so we both dropped our bikes and stripped down for a swim. It was burr cold but felt SO good!

After that, we were finished for the day. We washed our sweaty clothes and set up camp in a beautiful spot next to a creek and cooked dinner. Despite our 'detour' it was a great day.

Montana,  all I can say is, "wow!"

For those of you watching online and noticed we were heading off course, sorry if we worried you. We did send a "we're ok" message from the Spot out families to let them know there was no trouble.