Day 54 Jul 10: Twin Bridges to. Bannack MT Angie and Bill

 We spent the night at Twin Bridges, a tiny little town at the confluence of the Ruby, Beaverhead and Big Hole Rivers. Like a lot of towns in this region, fly fishing is <mwah>.

We stayed at a sweet bike camp started in 2009 by a local named Bill White. What a great idea, and such an oasis for the weary cyclist. It is a large single room shelter with old sofas in the city park, grass to pitch a tent, a picnic bench patio adjoining, a shower with hot water (luxury!) and electrical outlets. Free for cyclists and donations are encouraged. People are so nice! 

We pedaled out to Dillon and hit up the Safeway there. Dillon is on I-15. I have whizzed past Dillon during long road trips and it felt a little discombobulating to be pedaling through Nowheresville and come to a familiar major highway exit. Once past Dillion we hit possibly the most demoralizing stretch of ride on the tour. Straight on major headwind, and then a 10 mile climb over a pass to add to that. Halfway through I burned through two bottles of water and had to stop at a person’s house and ask for water. A nice grandma and grandpa type in suspenders. 

We crested the top of the pass and coasted down to Bannack State Park and campground, our final destination for the day. Bannack was once the Montana Territorial capital, a big deal in its day. Now it is a ghost town and a very interesting and well restored one at that. The park had a nice interpretive center and it was fun to go in and out of old log buildings, up the stairs and try to imagine gun slingers, dance hall girls, school marms, gold prospectors and boarding house proprietors going about their business. 

Pitched our tent at the nearby campground and off to bed early to avoid the mosquitos eating us alive. Bannack was a very pretty campground with a meandering stream running just past our tent. Fell asleep to the babble and gurgle of the water and the light of a beautiful, nearly full moon.