Day 20 – Sula, Montana to Wisdom, Montana

Crossing the Continental Divide

After leaving the warm environment of the restaurant in Sula, I headed out for the 13 mile climb to the top of Chief Joseph Pass. This pass goes over the Continental Divide and is the first of several crossings of it in the next couple of weeks.

By 10:30 when I finally was on the road, the temperature had warmed up to where it was comfortable riding. The elevation change over the 13 miles was around 2,600 feet and soon after leaving I got into the now familiar routine of chugging along at around 5 mph or less.

Looking back down at where I had ridden

Two and a half hours later when I rounded a corner and saw what was the top of the pass, I also saw a sign which said to take a left to go to the town of Wisdom, which is where I was going.  I had forgot about this turn and, while now I was at the top of Lost Trail Pass, I needed to ride another mile to reach Chief Joseph Pass, which meant more steep climbing. This caused thoughts along the lines of “Are you kidding me?” But it wasn’t long before I was there.

After leaving behind what is called the Bitterroot Valley, you can tell a difference in the area.  The winds seemed more gusty, clouds filled the sky and you generally got the idea that winter in this part of the country must be absolutely brutal.

The last 27 miles of the 40 mile day (and where I went over 1,000 miles for the trip so far) was smooth and I made good time as it was mostly downhill, with one steep climb exception.

When I arrived in Wisdom the clouds had cleared, for the most part.  It’s a very small town and I ran into Anja, the girl from Belgium who had the horrible start to her trip with having her bike stolen. She had run into Paul, Al and Tim (the three guys mentioned in yesterday’s post).  They were staying at a lodge.  After last night’s interrupted sleep with the deflating air mattress and cold temperatures, indoors sounded good to me.  While she checked on prices there I went up the road to check on the Nez Perce Motel.  The lodge was full while the Nez Perce was not so we got rooms there.

There are two places in town to eat.  A bar and another bar. So it was the Antler Saloon for dinner. (If you look at the cover photo for this post you can see the antlers on the left above the building.)  Here there were a couple of guys, Tony and Dave, who live in Missoula and Butte. Tony is the head recruiter in Montana for the National Guard and Dave is a recruiter as well.

Tony arrived 34 years ago from northern California and said he wouldn’t live anywhere else.  From the people I’ve spoken with who live here, they really love Montana and the way of life. The population of the state is only 1 million (as opposed to Florida’s 20 million).

Tony and Dave were telling stories of how people don’t lock their homes and leave the car keys in the ignition with the windows down (or even the engine running) while shopping. Dave said, “You picked a good place to ride because if you have any problems with the bike through here, you won’t have any problem with someone stopping to help you out.”

Listening to those two guys and some of the others at the bar who chimed in, you do get the sense that life is different here, but for the better.