Day 67, a reunion

Last night I stayed at Mark's place. He consults from home and enjoys mountain biking in his back yard - the endless trails of Missoula.

He is running a test to pull heavy metals from water.

He is also very involved with a local mountain bike organization that maintains and clears trails for riding. Awesome!

Thank you, Mark, for putting me up for the night!

As planned, Debbie and I met up for coffee.

Thank you Debbie for being such a welcoming soul, you're truly amazing! I especially enjoyed reminiscing about Ireland. Did I mention Debbie grew up in the same Irish town that I lived in while studying abroad?

Once again, we went our separate ways - me to the Adventure Cycling Association to fill out some paperwork in case I make it into the magazine.

We also weighed my bike. Cast your vote (assume my bike is fully loaded, with an average amount of food and water):

I'll post the answer in the next post.

And then I met up with Dave.

Dave is the cyclist I started this journey with in early April. He is riding his motorcycle to visit family in Iowa. He made the detour to have lunch with me.

When I rolled up to the burger joint we agreed to meet at, he was already conversing with another cycle tourist - Missoula is certainly the cycle tour capital of the world.

Anyways, good memories of our ride together. Thanks for stopping by, Dave.

Leaving Missoula was tough - not because I loved the town so much, but because the only way to avoid the interstate was a gravel road.

Sections of the trail forced me to walk and even cross a pretty big ditch. I should have jettisoned some weight on the bike... Eventually I ended up on Trail Creek Road - a beautiful section of Montana following Rock Creek through a narrow valley.

I found an incredible place to camp just to the right of these trees:

More sunsets, with horses grazing in the meadow.

Joe