Saturday, August 15th, 37.8 miles and 2483 accumulated vertical feet up.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/56549911
Use John’s link above to find my location on the route maps
Today we went immediately from sleep to packing to cleaning the areas we have been in at the Church basement. We over paid because they were only asking $10/ person. Then over to the Stray Bullet for breakfast.
Here’s something I learned today, typical food that we eat along the trail such as Cliff Bars, Beef Jerky (beef sticks), Dried Fruit Bars, Tortillas, Energy Bars, Dried Mango, etc. is generally called by the riders out here “Flat Food” for obvious reasons. Then there’s another category which is “Spoon Food”. These are things like Dehydrated Meals, Nutella, Peanut Butter, Canned Refried Beans etc. Then there’s “Real Food” like when you stop at a restaurant to eat….Yes tonight I wheeled up the street to Montana Steak House in Lincoln Montana for their special—giant baked half chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes…. It was delicious! I brought the leftovers back for Scott!
Sunday, August 16th, 25.8 miles and 2450 accumulated vertical feet up.
There are 4 Southbound GDMBR riders here at the Alpaca Farm Bicyclists Hostel. This place is run by a woman (Barbara Nye) who has set up a corner of their farm into the perfect overnight respite for touring cyclists. They have smallish cabins spread around, each equipped with 2 bottles of wine, a sink, counter, table with two chairs, one burner gas stove and varying amounts of bunk beds, each cabin is stocked with food, dishes, rags, towels, clean bed linens, they are all theme decorated, they all have solar powered lights and charging stations for our stuff. They are clean! There’s a central shower house with a Bath Tub, the water is solar heated and the shower room is about 95 degrees inside. Towels and soap are furnished. There is room for multiple tents on the lawn and last season she was host to about 900 cyclists! Get This!! She lives here in a very nice house with beautiful views and a wrap around porch on 3 sides of her home, on the North side there is a refrigerator stocked with sandwiches, soft drinks & beer. She encourages her guests to come and sit on her porch and make themselves at home!
Yes I did say there are 4 of us here tonight: Me, Scott, Justin the guy we have been hopscotching since Banff, he’s from Chicago? Young nice guy, and now we met Brandon, he’s about 40 and from San Diego. Easy to talk to, he Started in Banff also but not sure what day he started. We all have our own cabin!
There was more to the day:
Today Scott and I stopped just a mile or so South of the top of Stemple Pass for 2nd Breakfast. An older couple on Quads came over the pass and stopped to talk to us. He has hiked the CDT and several other trails. They talked to us about packing for these trips and planning for trips similar to ours, they live in Helena but took their Quads over to Lincoln to see friends. Great to have these casual encounters with other wonderful humans! At the breakfast restaurant this morning the couple sitting at the next table saw me roll up with my loaded bike and started talking about the amount of cyclists they see coming thru Lincoln…. We seem to be easily identified and almost all the locals want to know something about us.
It’s 9:00 here, time for sleep.
Ken's Adventures 
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