Day 7: Tourism and Route Planning in Missoula

 

The past few days of headwinds combined with the need to figure out a few routing and lodging issues gave us reason enough to use today as a rest day. The day off the bike felt surprisingly good. We took the opportunity to sightsee in Missoula and were fortunate enough to have Steve, born and bred here, give us a tour of his town. It is a really great place with an infectious outdoorsy vibe. (Tom K was spot on in predicting that we’d like it in his comments.) We would have missed out if we missed Missoula, as one of us had voted to just push on without taking time to smell the roses. And the roses did smell good. 

We also needed to stock up on a few supplies and spend some time figuring out routing.  As we mentioned yesterday, tomorrow’s route is only viable if its successor also works, and so on.  We think we’ll be ok route-wise for the next week - that’s quite a feat for us - which, if all goes according to plan, will have us leaving the Big Sky state late next week. Even then, though, we may find ourselves somewhere in North or South Dakota with little idea as to where to head next. But we are content for now. (But then the ignorant are always content with what they don’t know.) 

On to the Garnet Range and the Blackfoot River tomorrow.