Section 1 Rooseville Montana to Polaris MT - D8

06/17 Day 8, Montana  Basin – Butte  30 miles

We rode a short day today.  I was feeling puny.  It was cold and raining; nothing new really, it had rained almost every day so far. 

And windy.  Did I mention windy?  The Montana wind can blow you backwards. 

After a super steep dirt climb, most of the route this day followed a converted rail bed – very common on the TD.  The surface was pretty solid but there were puddles, snow, and ice and the road took us through a very cool train tunnel dated 1911. 

We decided to make a stay in Butte to get bike maintenance and run the many errands for things we had to replace.

Once in town, we made straight for the Outdoorsman.  This is a bike shop owned by Rob Leipheimer, conveniently attached to a Days Inn, and famous among Tour Divide vets.  Talk about star treatment!  They are Tour Divide enthusiasts and deftly took our bikes, any notes about issues and pointed us to the “bike lounge” where they had drinks and snacks for us.  There, sprawled about were the S Africans, Reinhold and Will Snow; all with the same idea of the day.  Hang in Butte and re-stock. 

Outdoorsman rider lounge 

Pretty sure Vance added the Austin pin

Feeling the TD love!

Rick Smith (originally from Texas) showing us the wheel of a racer who'd crashed on Fleecer Ridge the day before. 

Will and Reinhold had their own story about the crazy girl from the night before.  They were eating dinner in a pub when a crazy girl came in yelling.  She walked right up to a guy and slapped him.  Then a real bar room brawl ensued complete with broken furniture and beer bottles.  Glad the boys got a taste of the west. 

The shop lent me and STB a couple of rental bikes and we set off running errands – Starbucks for Via, a must for TD racing, the ATT store just to find out that yes, that’s right, the phone you got will have crummy reception, grocery shopping and of course dinner.  Just have to mention dinner.  We ate at the not-recommended Hanging Five Family Restaurant.  It was the sort of place where the waitress calls you honey, rolls are served cold with whipped spread, mashed potatoes are from flakes, and the pie comes out of a box.  It was, however, just next door.