After 2 days of rest it was time to get back on the road. But we had only just left the town when Linda’s bike started to cause problems. It made a rattling noise, wouldn’t shift anymore and she couldn’t pedal backwards anymore. So we had to go back to town. Fortunately it’s a large town with many facilities and also some good bike shops. Those towns are hard to find along the route, so we were lucky. We went to the closest bike shop and explained what had happened. Fortunately it turned out not to be something very serious. One of the jockey wheels was completely waisted, the bearings even came out. We had never had that happen before! They had a used one lying around, so that was put in. A fast and cheap sollution. And then we could get back to riding.

It was still very hot and at some point a man crossed the road. It turned out he wanted to give us some cold drinks. This was what we’d been reading so many times; people who give food, drinks and/or a place to stay/shelter to cyclists on the route. Those people are called trailangels and there we had just met our first trail angel.

The next day we rode through the heat and beautiful nature. Through forests and fields, along lakes and on single tracks. It included a lot of climbing and descending, but the beautiful scenery made up for all the effort. We met Ray again in the afternoons at the campgrounds and had a good time together. We also ran into the ACA group a few times again and enjoyed the food they shared with us. We escaped the fire in the Seeley Lake area by being out of there just in time and continued on good and bad roads. Sometimes the road was so bad that descending took even longer than climbing because of all the bouncing on rocks and stones.

After a few days we arrived at the famous Llama Ranch. That is a place where cyclists can stay for free in one of the cabins, the teepee or in their own tent. There’s a fridge with free cold drinks and sandwiches as many as you can eat. We happened to be there on a busy day, with lots of other cyclists showing up. It’s such a lovely, relaxed place in the middle of nature. And there are llama’s of course, well they’re alpaca’s but that’s just a detail.

From the Llama Ranch it was just 1 more day to the city of Helena. It didn’t seem so far, but because of the terrible condition of the road it still took quite some time. We even had to walk some parts. But, again, the scenery was beautiful with forests, mountains and valleys. The last 15 km (9 miles) were a lovely descent on a smooth paved road. In Helena we treated ourselves to a hotel room and a hamburger in one of the restaurants.

Then it was another 2 days to get to the mining town of Butte. We spent the night in the tiny town of Basin, where we could stay in the community center. Along the route are a few places where cyclists can stay in the community center or church, somtimes it’s free and sometimes you pay a small amount or there’s a donation box to put in however much you want. This was one of those places. You can roll out your sleeping mat and sleep inside. Often there’s a kitchen where you can cook your own meal. But there is a chance that you have to share the space with other cyclists. In this case there were also 2 Swiss ladies who we’d meet again later on.

We pitched our tent at the campground in Butte and decided to stay there for a rest day. We had to do our laundry and get food for the coming days.