Tuesday July 19 - Day 24 Jackson to Whitehall

Tuesday July 19 - Day 24
Start - Jackson, MT
End - Whitehall, MT
Miles - 103
Start time - 832am
End time - 730am

The day started with a one mile climb into the wind up Big Hole Pass at 7400ft.  It was hard but I was smiling and praising God because he provides my strength and protection.  There are a lot less pleasureable things I could be doing than riding even up a tough hill.  The view of Big Hole Valley at the top was beautiful.  It was also our last head wind for the day!  In the past I never paid too close attention to the wind forecast when looking at the weather.  Now I do every time.  Winds out of the west are great! As you will see when looking at the rest of the blog we can really move with a wind at our back.

We saw five groups of westbound touring cyclists.  One group was supported and raising money for cancer.  One group was not wearing any shirts, except for the girl in the group.  No thanks for me I would burn my belly pretty good without a shirt.  I sometimes wear my longsleeve shirt for sun protection.  One guy, Corey, was on a recumbent bike.  He was having fun and well equipped on his bike.  Recumbents, I hear, do well except they are tougher when going up hill. 

This was my last day of cycling with Caleb, James and Zoe.   Thank you guys if you read this blog.  It was nice to meet you, and I appreciated the company on the road.  It was a blessing for me.

We saw some Pronghorn just outside of Dillon.  The first Yellowstone type wildlife I had seen other than deer. 

We stopped for lunch in Dillon and then headed north.  The plan was to ride 28 miles and stay in Twin Bridges.  We had the wind at our back from just south of Dillon all the way to Twin Bridges.  It was great.  In a lot of sections we cruised along on the flats at close to 20mph.

Once we got to Twin it was 530pm.  The wind was still out of the south and I knew that if I went the 28 extra miles to Whitehall I could use the wind to my advantage and also log my first 100 mile day.  It took me 2 hours to get to Whitehall.  The last 6 miles I was really tired but I made it!

We stayed at the RV park in Whitehall and had dinner in town at a cafe and got a root beer float at A&W. 

One more thing - I had a close call not with a vehicle but with one of my fellow riders.  When we were riding between Dillon and Twin Bridges we were going up a hill and thankfully the semi truck behind us waited to pass us until we crested the hill.  I turned to my left to give him a thumbs up and then when I turned back forward I realized the rest of the group was stopping.  Uh oh.... No time for breaks with both hands.  I swerved right of Zoe and squeezed the break with my right hand as I skidded to a stop in the gravel.  A good wake up call thankfully no harm done!