The first thing I noticed when I woke up this morning was the bluebird skies. The second was the vestigial soreness from my last couple of rides. I decided that I needed to ride, needed to get out in the sunshine, and Julian DEFINITELY needed to get out of the house, but I didn't want to do anything too strenuous. I needed a mellow ride. I needed a road ride, spinning for a couple hours without a big mountain to climb.
Now, I am not a very good roadie. I can't seem to keep a cadence for more than 5 miles without stopping to take a picture of something or dart off on some dirt side track. I find myself getting bored easily, evidenced by thoughts like "Aabear Lane is kind of an amusing street name" ... right. In the end, we only made 26 miles in 2 hours, headed east out MT-200 toward Potomac. It is a very pretty stretch of road, and the wind blows in all directions simultaneously due to the local topography.
We started out of Missoula and passed through Milltown, and then Bonner. It really is quite amazing how quickly the city just fades away, and looking back, you would never guess that it was there.
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| Bridges over the Blackfoot River near the confluence with the Clark Fork. |
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| Quite scenic |
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We stopped for a water break, and soon after a sign warned:
"Watch for Bighorn Sheep" |
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Sure enough, they were right on the road in front of us.
They moved en masse up this unbelievably steep talus slope as we approached. |
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| Powered by nature's own anti-gravity |
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| This small roadside waterfall marked our turn-around point. |
All in all, just what you might expect 26 miles of western Montana pavement to be... the sun is out, warm and brilliant, doing its job of melting off the snow from the high country. Soon there will be dirt under the tires and mountains to conquer... but for today, I feel blessed to have had the ride I did... even if it was on the road.
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