Day 3: There's gold in them thar hills! Or at least some abrasives.

Today's route from Butte to Ennis Montana (87 miles, "4662 calories") landed me in another Madison County. Madison County, Montana takes a bite out of Idaho, helping full-width Idaho slim down to panhandle Idaho. Like much of the state, there is lots of evidence of past mining, and some evidence of current mining.

Before we got to Madison County though, we had to leave Butte and climb over Pipestone Pass which is the continental divide. The smoke was pretty thick in the valley bottom when I set out at 8:20AM.

The big boys group caught me after a few miles and I started sucking their wheels (i.e. drafting behind the group) as we rode up the valley which goes south from Butte. After 8 miles the road pitched up to 6-7% for the climb to the continental divide at Pipestone Pass. Of course I was dropped immediately, but after a mile of climbing I found the group at a red traffic control signal with a "Wait for Pilot Truck" sign next to it.

 

 

After being led out by the pilot (when I was again dropped unceremoniously - see photo below), I was happy to see that the pilot was not waiting for us as we pedaled up the 2 mile "construction" section. He went to the top and brought the opposite traffic down as we were still climbing, which was fine because for almost the entire distance both lanes were available!

 

 

 

As I reached the top the pilot and another batch of cars going our direction came by including the PacTour hotel truck. After a while you learn to expect to see the tour vehicles leapfrogging you, which means if you have a showstopping problem there will probably be one of them coming by at some point to help out.

 

  

 

At the pass the queue for the oncoming lane awaits the pilot truck.

All this land is within the Beaverhead-Deerlodge national forest.

Here is a map showing the difference in how a raindrop would flow on one side of the pass (black triangle) vs the other:

After a splendid descent and a couple of power rollers on the east side of the pass, we turned south to meet our morning's nemesis: strong cross-winds followed by strong but uneven head-winds. Although I found fellow rider Mark to draft behind and he is 6'2" or taller, there was no "sweet spot" to be found, just buffeting one side or the other. With all the wind, we know the air is dry, but luckily the folks in this area have an program to inject humidity straight into the air:

 

After dropping into the Ruby River valley and stopping for water and food, I decided to stop fighting the wind and just go slower, which resulted in a long and enjoyable conversation with fellow rider Drew as we moseyed down the road, fulfilling the critical role of being the last of the tour group riders.

The mining history was on display as we went. 

 

Sizing context:

The winds abated as we entered Madison County and proceeded upstream in the Ruby River valley, dramatic 11,000' peak ridges on both sides. At the next rest stop at mile 55 I found Rachel so we could model Tami's fundraising socks:

 

Then we set out together for the lunch stop -- I'm ALWAYS aware of how far it is to the next spot to gorge myself! Rachel spotted a continuous huge pile of gravel on our left, and after a bit it was clear that it was the remains of placer mining. Eventually the road crossed the area:

All was explained on a roadside plaque:

These days, all the processing of gulch rocks is for industrial grade garnets whose chief use is for abrasives like sandpaper.

Other entertaining photos from the day:

Bald Eagle:

Subject of above plaque:

 

As we wondered downtown metropolitan Ennis looking for an open restaurant for dinner, we came upon a doe and fawn blacktail AKA mule deer:

This is a video of the doe:

A smokey moon to match the morning's smokey sun: