The riding started out pleasant enough with the cool morning air and quiet gravel roads, but then we turned on to a "rough four-wheel-drive track." Good thing our two-wheels added up to four. Ha! But what was even better for us was that it was early Sunday morning and all the ATVers were still sleeping so it made riding and (mostly) pushing our bikes through this uphill, rutted, mosquito-infested (the first real bug problem we've encountered), three-mile section much easier.
We finally emerged into the long awaited "6.2 - Enter large meadow" that signaled the top of the hill. Only took us 2.5(!) hours.
Of course every up brings a down and the down was no less rutted than the up.
It took awhile, hours really, but we finally made it to our fourth crossing of the Divide.
That's Mount Fleecer (tomorrow's second climb) looking pretty friggin daunting to our eyes.
After a surprisingly hot (102?) hilly rode along Orofino Gulch Road into the high side of Butte--a new section of the route that thankfully avoided the highway-- we reached our home for the night! The historic Copper King Mansion. Before the trip I (Paul) had read Empty Mansions about the life of Huguette Clark and the empire her father built. One of the family homes still stands and is a B&B.
We had worked hard to make it to the last tour of the day (4pm) before they start checking people in for the night (we had 10 minutes to spare), but we were so utterly spent that the only thing we took a picture of inside was the odd shower - too bad considering all the artistry that went into the place.
Day 10, Park Lake to Butte, MT
56 miles, 7.5mph avg. (even with all that pushing)
7:20 ride time!
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