Flying from Elkhorn to Bannack State Park

With a leisurely morning of plentiful coffee and OJ and writing before the hearty breakfast that came with our room at Elkhorn Hotsprings, followed by a soak in the pool, saying goodbye to Paula and David, followed by more writing, then lunch, then another soak...and after yesterday's easy afternoon post-ride... It sort of felt like a lay day, without the "layover."

I think it was a good call after 12 straight days of riding. But it was sort of strange, getting back on the bikes (though maybe that was the beer and wine with lunch) for our short ride to Bannack State Park. Yet it all came back, and then some! With an essentially downhill ride (okay, so maybe some sub mile bumps) with the wind at our backs or slightly abeam, we flew at 15-25 mph much of it, coasting even!

We crossed paths with a Trans America Trail rider (poor sod--going hard and slow into the wind), exchanged hellos with a milling herd of cattle, marveled at the wide open floodplain turned farm country of the Grasshopper Creek, and then rolled into the campground just an hour and a half after leaving Elkhorn. We set up camp, then we strolled over to the Bannack "ghost town" to wander the street and buildings under a cool, breezy, somewhat spitting sky. Very pleasant.

Our cheesey "broccoli" packaged rice dinner wasn't anything like the Mountain House lasagne we'd been looking forward to in that lost package, but we survived.

Day 13: Elkhorn Hotsprings to Bannack State Park, 25 miles, 1:30 ride time, 16mph avg speed.

... Well heck. We thought we were being good by at least getting something about today written, figuring we'd not be able to post for some days. And then purely by accident a message came up asking if we wanted to connect to Bannack SP wireless. Who'd have thought?