Whew boy. The weather was not great this morning. Not bad enough to warrant a rest day, but bad enough to know that I was going to get wet.
The plan was to start a little late so I would get to the town of Jackson around lunch time. This worked out pretty well since it was only 18 miles and I arrived on the wet side just as I thought. There was a nice little restaurant so a hot meal was just what the doctor ordered. Fellow cyclist Paul was also there so we had lunch together. That might be it though. He had already decided to stay in Jackson for the night and I was probably going to be ahead of him from now on.
So after lunch I began the climb up to Big Hole Pass. Right on schedule, it started raining, luckily not very hard. Then something odd happened. Right as I reached to top of the climb, it stopped raining and the sun came out.
Big Hole Pass was now the new high point of elevation for the trip. It seems every new Pass was higher than the last. With Yellowstone and Colorado further down the road, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Now it was decision time….. Where to camp tonight. My choices were to put in a long day and ride to Dillon or to have a more reasonable ride and camp at Bannack State Park. The only thing was that Bannack SP was 4 miles off the route. This is where I needed to remind myself that this trip is about more than just riding. I also want to see the sights along the way- so Bannack SP it was!
The old town of Bannack was a town established in the early 1860’s after gold was discovered near by. Today, it is a true ghost town that is now obviously a State Park. There must be close to 100 old buildings of which most you can go inside of. It was really interesting.
You can really get a sense of what life there was like. And apparently it was pretty wild with nightly gun fights in the saloon and the streets.
The camping area was nice too. There was a bike/hike area and two other cyclists showed up. They were doing the Continental Divide Trail like a lot of others I have met.
So off to sleep I went. And guess what? Another Pass tomorrow awaits.
Reminds me of the old Republic I told you about. You can just sense what it was like back in the day. The old buildings still standing and where the salon was. Hard to believe these were booming towns with like thousands living there. Love the Montana skies, nice pic. Glad your taking in the sites as they come. Stay safe and bike on✌️