Day 7 –Jackson, MT to Ennis, MT 120.79 miles

I awoke in the morning yet again with my mouth hanging open without a drop of moisture. There must be a remedy for it. I hit the road at 9am with the intention of taking it slow to help the knees again. I was really worried the prior night that I wouldn’t make it to Denver. Images of me buying or renting a car entertained my mind. Fortunately, the knees were fine. I took more and longer rests while coasting longer down hills and it seemed to help. The pain is due to the rotation, not putting pressure on it.

I had 3 passes today. In Montana they don’t bother putting signage with altitude at the pass, I presume because they consider them hills at a paltry 7,000 +/- feet. I think the west to east route is an easier route to take, I probably coasted for about 40 miles today, which would have been a long day going the other way. The wind was with me today, and not a cloud in the sky.
I stopped for lunch in Dillon at a diner and picked the chili hamburger under the sandwich section. Unfortunately it came out looking kind of like a cheesy brown Salisbury steak without the gravy. It did the trick though, presentation aside I devoured every bit of it. From Dillon to Twin Bridges was actually mostly flat, for 28 miles. I finally saw this Beaver Head rock outcropping too, the namesake of so much national forest around the area. I’m never much good at making out our animal contrivances of nature’s rock formations but this thing actually looked like a beaver head.
The wind was with me again and 25 mph was the norm to Twin Bridges. Between Twin Bridges and Ennis I got my first finger from an oncoming motorcyclist. I laughed because he had work gloves on and his indignant motion was caught up in the glove fabric so it was awkward and took some time to get it done right. When it finally came to form the glove made the hand so big on such a little dude that it looked like Mickey Mouse. Why wear work gloves and no helmet? He must have pretty hands. The laugh from me was not the reaction he wanted I suppose…

Highway 278 is a road I’d like to spend more time on, there’s a lot of history here with some cool little towns. I got chased up the last pass into Ennis by a storm brewing so I couldn’t take a lot of pictures. Usually on a downhill my max speed with the load was 43 mph, the storm winds were 28 mph which pushed me to between 55 and 60 down the hill. Not cool with the occasional crosswind beating at the front wheel. It reminded me of the motions of recovering after hitting someone’s back wheel in a race.

Uneventful dinner at the sportsman lodge, I asked for an end piece of the special smoked prime rib. It tasted like a giant piece of jerky which was unique. $54 for a cabin was good too. If I planned this trip better I would have found more places to put up a tent, but getting mileage is the priority at the moment.

Early to bed this evening for an early start to beat the winds into Yellowstone. I can’t decide where I’m going to stay, since it’s Saturday I’m expecting that it’ll be tough for me to find something. Plus all the RVs on the road will make things interesting. It seems like the park caters to RVs. Randy from Hamilton told me to stop in West Yellowstone at a local shop there. Need some new bartape. I’m looking forward to the rest day with all the bison.
Calories today were 3 servings of Endurox, a whole lot of water, the chili burger and 2 fountain pepsis, 2 clif bars, the prime rib with clam chowder, side salad, and mashed taters. All good here.