Early morning is the time I try to get caught up on writing the events of the previous day, and this morning I had a good chair in the quiet lobby. It wasn't long before an older gentleman with his riding gear began loading the lone Goldwing we'd seen in front of the hotel the night before. He asked about our bikes and the conversation started, followed shortly by the desk clerk joining in. I gave up on writing and the conversation turned to the Coeur d' Alene area, where the rider lived and he listed several routes to take. The desk clerk, a lady named Ronie, also had lived in the region and told us to camp at Prichard Tavern near where she'd grown up in Wallace, Idaho.
The older rider wished me well and headed out for Yellowstone. I packed up the laptop and Ronie asked if I'd seen the light at sunset the night before. I shared with her our experience and she said she was amazed at the sunset that night, having never seen anything like it. Kim came down and we asked about breakfast in the town. She suggested we ride a couple miles down the road to a cafe in Nevada City.
We headed out only to find it closed, so we returned to find a spot for some food and a tour of the old town. We walked until the sun got our attention in a bad way and we loaded up for the Anaconda area.
The town is a well preserved living museum full of interesting folks, items buildings and stories and well worth stopping in if you are going through the area.
We'd planned to head to the Bitterroot Valley by way of Dillon and the Big Hole, but we'd made a decision a few days before to change our route on the trip. Alaska had not been in the mix due to leaving later from Texas than planned, but after talking with a few travelers we decided to trim some time here and there and go for it. I figured if we save a day or two here and there we can get a bit further into the largest state before the weather turns us south.
From Virginia City we made Twin Bridges easily, grabbed some groceries then cut across on a heavily graveled dirt road, the heat, dust and smell of sagebrush our only companions on the long, talcum powder trail.
The day passed, with only a break along the river for lunch before rolling on to Anaconda and past, eventually ending up at Georgetown Lake for camping. The camp host warned us that they'd chased out an orphan bear cub earlier in the day right at our campsite and to be sure we got all our bear temptations out of the area.
The night passed bear-free thankfully...