Wednesday 7-4 Day 10

Start: Missola
End: Avon
Scheduled: 98.6
Actual: Yea, that sounds about right

This morning we are on breakfast and lunch duty, half the team does breakfast, cereal, Hot oatmeal, juice, and coffee, while the other half puts out the sandwich fixens: Bread, wheat and white, peanut butter and jams and jellies, Little snacker packs and clementines. After everybody has had breakfast and made their lunches, we clean up and then get to leave ourselves. This morning it is Kari, Ben, Sean and myself. Going out of town we see a sideways Sunrise. As we round a bend the sun comes into view from around the side of a mountain. Very cool. Kari drops out for a bit, but us boys don't even slow down, cause we know she is fast and will catch up with us eventually. At the first water stop we catch up with Mike, Liz and Ane. And take off with them so we have a nice herd of 6. When it was Ane's turn to pull at the front she surged ahead and picked up speed. Too fast for me and I had to yell at her to slow it down a bit. Soon Ben and Mike went ahead and it was just Ane, Liz, Sean and me. It was nice riding two x two and conversing, these kids have got their whole lives ahead of them which is just so exciting.

The route today was Hwy 200 to Hwy 141, and traffic was light with good road surfaces. The scenery ranged from following large rivers hemmed in by mountains on either side to open ranch lands with the mountains still on either side but further out. Cattle country, but we did not see very large herds like I thought I might. According to the locals the cattle were up in the mountains rather than on the plains. The high plains that is, which is what we were going through.

We kept seeing these unusual wood structures (see photo) These are called beaver slides and they are used to make large stacks of loose hay in the fields, just like in the movie "Oklahoma" The lift the hey up the slide using ropes and pulleys to stack the hay way tall. Most farmers don't use this anymore and are going with the hay rolls. It's amazing what you can learn if you stop to ask people.

As it was getting very hot we discussed stopping and dipping our feet in a stream we were following. Which is exactly what a group in front of us had done, so we joined them. Aaaawww, nice cold water!

Soon Liz and Sean sped away and then after a while riding with Anne, I too went forward eventually, and Ane then rode with Greg and Trish(They're doing this on a tandem). The last 25 miles was all scrub land, with a few hay fields. The last three miles were the toughest. Hot, tired, and uphill. Finally we pull into the Echo Valley campground.

Had my first mechanical failure today, the post holding the computer to the areo bars came loose. The allen wrenchs I had weren't long enough, so using what I had on hand, I used a pair of band aids to hold it on till I got to a rest stop, where I used what else, Duct tape. After dinner I fixed it proper like and cleaned off the gummy residue left by the tape.

Dinner was catered by the Avon Cafe, which was probably the best spaghetti ever. (Except for Barbara's) and O did they have some good pies! (Except for Barbara's)

9:15 and I'm in bed.