Bannack to Lima 7/18 58 miles

Well, after a great camp in Bannack(so much history), we headed out to Lima.  This ride goes down as one of the worst so far.
It started out innocent enough, riding through huge swaths of range land with the Beaverhead Mountains to our right.  We ticked off 25 miles with little effort.  Then the wind started to pick up.  Those endless miles that we could see before us, stopped going by so fast.  We tried to keep our heads down as much as possible, hoping that if we just peddled harder we would be done.  But the wind was really howling.  We found ourselves pedaling hard downhill just to go 6 miles an hour.  NOT FAIR!  Side gusts  practically knocked me off my bike.  Daren turned his back slightly to try to become a sail!  Our water was getting low, the heat was on, and pumping water in very questionable pasture land did not seem like a good idea.  With the fear of running out of water, and 33 miles to go, we slowly made our way.
We had a nice diversion, when two horses decided to run with us along a quarter mile stretch.  They were so beautiful, and of course undaunted by gusts.  They came to a fence, and then a herd of cows had to cross in front of us.
As we started up into the Medicine Lodge Sheep Backcountry, we met two motorcyclists traveling the Divide route in reverse.  So far this trip we have met up with at least 8 motorcyclists doing the route.  Most are riding BMW dirt bikes, well loaded, ready for the long haul.  We were slightly envious of their mode of travel on this stretch, but couldn't expend too much energy dreaming about what was not going to happen.  At least now the scenery was changing.  We made our way into a canyon of beautiful  rock faces and out croppings.  The Big Sheep Creek flowing next to us.  At this point we noticed that the wind was shifting, and we had the most glorious tail wind, YEAH!  The final ten miles were almost delightful.  We could see fish in the creek to our right, lush pasture land before us, beautiful canyon walls starting to surround us.
We ended in Lima(not a highlight), way worse for wear.  Sarah said the RV park owner hears comments from other cyclists that this area is the worst of the ride.  At least we weren't the only ones!


More pics here