The Centennial Valley

Yesterday,  we rode from Elk Horn Hot Springs to Dell, MT. We stopped in and walked the old ghost town of Bannock which was very interesting.

We stopped for lunch in an old school house called Calf A.

And we stayed in a very nice inn in Dell called the Stockard Inn. They served us a very nice meal. We stayed in the Shishone room. And the room had tv! So I finally got to watch the Tour de France highlight show. So no blog last night.

This morning we headed south to Lima - our entry to the Centennial Valley. The town was busy getting ready for the fourth of July parade.  It would have been fun to stay, but we had miles to ride.

We headed east on a gravel road. It was 2 hrs before we saw another vehicle.  To the right or south we paralleled the Centennial Range, the border of Montana and Idaho and the  Continental Divide.  We rode past rolling hills of sage and passed gulleys coming down from the mountains that brought the melting snow.

As the day progressed,  it got increasingly  hot. I saw a small cabin off the gravel road and decided to stop and knock and ask if we could eat our lunch in the shade of their trees. To my surprise,  a nice fellow came to the door, offered us drinks, and invited us to sit on the porch.  We stayed there for 2hrs and had a fun visit. Thanks Jerry Schneid for the hospitality!

As soon as we set out, the thunder clouds began to look ominous.  We pedaled hard to outrun the rain and stopped briefly in the small UofU environmental campus of Lakeview until the thunder subsided. 

Our campsite for the night was 5 miles up the road at Upper Red Rick Lake.  We got there at 5 and quickly set up the tents and dived in to avoid the mosquitoes.  Doug fixed us freeze-dried stew and we were going to 'hit the sack' when a nice couple camping in a trailer next to us invited us over for campfire and smores. How can you refuse that? We chatted until 11. Thanks Mike from Helena!

And that was our 4th of July. Hope you had a good one too.