Day 19--A Two-fer Day

We really enjoyed the cabin last night. We built a fire in the wood stove, and slept warm (actually very warm). This morning, Chef Derik made pancakes!

It's a little dark, but he is making pancakes, frying Spam, and scrambling eggs.

John and Barbara came down before we finished packing up. We reiterated our thanks for having the cabin available, and let me take this photo.

We headed out around 10:00. We had a small amount of downhill left before beginning our first climb up to Divide crossing number 3. The map said the climb was steep. I was hopeful because it didn't say "extremely steep". Although it was steep in places, it was doable because, unlike yesterday, there were some flat spots! 

See? Not bad!

I caught up to the guys at the old Empire Mine.

The steep climbing actually started after the mine.

Somewhere in the middle of the photo is Derik.

At the top, the map said to veer right. When I got to that turn, the guys weren't there. I was pretty darn sure that was the turn. Again, like before, I was tempted to just wait until they figured out they had missed the turn. But, no, I continued on climbing. Sure enough, a bit later, they came riding back. 

We made the correct turn, and crossed the divide.

We are pretty sure this was the divide crossing.

We came down, but then had to go back up again and cross Priest Pass.

That space in the trees is almost the top of Priest Pass, and the second divide crossing of the day.

Then we had an over 5 mile descent to Hwy 12. It was awesome!

The view from the beginning of the descent.

At Hwy 12 we got on the highway to ride into Helena. The guys got ahead of me, as usual. As I was riding along, my back tire started feeling bouncy. Uh oh...I pulled off, and sure enough, the tire was flat. There was a place that was under cover, so I pulled over and texted Derik. They rode back. By then, I had the wheel off, and the tube out. There was a staple (always with the staples!!!) in the tire. We got everything back together, and continued into town. 

Tonight and tomorrow night we are staying with some friends of Derik's, Yvonne and Andy. We are taking a day off so Derik can replace my bottom bracket, and we can generally have a rest day. Yvonne and Andy are great. They have two sweet boys, 4 and 10 years old. We will greatly enjoy our time here!