July 3, 2008 Avon to Townsend, MT 61 miles (66)
Today marked a major milestone in our ride east – we crossed the Continental Divide. Its all downhill from here to Washington D.C.! Yeah, sure….except for the Black Hills, the hills in Wisconsin, and the Appalachian mountains. We’ll deal with those when we get there. The climb up to MacDonald Pass was fairly long, steep and steady topping out at 6,350 feet above sea level, the highest point on our cross-country journey. Due to the fact that today was a short day (only 60 miles) a group of us decided to ride a gravel road further up to a lookout on a peak adjacent to the pass. From the top the view was 360 degrees of spectacular scenery.

On the way through Helena, the state capital, Doug, Tony, and I detoured from the route to view the capitol building and some of the historic sections on downtown. Due to our extended stay we, along with Ed and Austin, were the last ones out of town. We hammered to catch up with some of the other riders. In Winston, at a small store (beer, wine, groceries, souvenirs, camping supplies, and US Post Office!) we met some of the other Big Riders. From that point on it was a fast paced ride to the finish in Townsend.

Daniel cooked a great meal of shrimp linguini, we had some drinks to wash it down and then settled in for the night.

Right now, as I sit here in my tent, Mother Nature is putting on quite a display. Thunder, lightning, and ominous clouds are moving in. Not to be outdone, the locals are setting off a variety of fireworks of their own. So, all in all, tonight should prove to be very entertaining!

(Written the following evening) Little did I know what was in store for us last night. A fast moving, Violent storm moved in necessitating our evacuation to the safety of the high school. After the rough stuff had passed, we went out to survey the damage; two tents down, one was beyond repair, and one other tent full of water. Luckily, my REI Taj 3 survived intact. Those of us who could settled in for the night, the others made the best of it in the school. Later another barrage of bad weather hit the camp but caused no further damage.