So goodbye Helena and hello climbing. But before leaving Helena I had a little shopping to do. For those who read the Vaseline incident and about my chafing issues, you may also have seen i was recommended to get some antiseptic cream etc. Anyway I discovered the wonderful but strangely and grossly named cream 'jock itch'. On this occasion I was relieved not to be arrested for suspected public masturbation in a back alley behind a sports store, after having to get my hands down my pants in the open once again to apply. I can happily report though it does the job nicely.
Apart from one little downhill yesterday we climbed all the way out of Helena for somewhere between twenty to twenty five miles, eventually reaching over 7000 feet. It was a long tough grind, with the slow speed being the most frustrating factor. However I would have to also describe it as a great day. The achievement of getting that high felt good, and the last two miles were over some ridiculously boulder and root strewn ground, with some sections completely unridable unless you're one of those nutters who can hop your bike onto the shed roof and do a 360 off for fun (and I would like to see you try it with 20-30kg or so on the back in panniers). And the equally technical downhill on the other side was just great, slipping and sliding your way down in between boulders.
And once all the climbing was done the reward was a speedy descent for five or six miles down a gravel track to the strange and ramshackle town of Basin. And what a fun descent, racing a flowing creek down the side of a mountain, intermittently crossing over it on barrierless bridges as it gurgled on below.
Once we hit Basin, we enquired about the local campground and we were directed to one of the strangest experiences of the trip so far. The merry widow campground is a health mine. A what now!? Essentially it has a mine on site, which is a failed uranium mine, but has plenty of radon, which despite being just a little radioactive, entices people to come drink and bathe in the mine water in their droves. Particularly from Korea it would seem. The lady on the front desk was very pleased to meet her first Brits and let us stay for free. She also told us how the FDA had been hiding a cure for cancer since the twenties and proceeded to show us a grizzly catalogue of horrendous looking tumors the radon infused water had apparently cured and popped right out of people's skin. Anyway you make up your own mind if it's a myth, scam or miracle, and whether I will be ok after drinking the water there!
While we were making dinner a nice young girl called Jenna on a cross country trip through various parks such as yellowstone grabbed the pitch next to ours. She made us laugh with her habit of not sleeping in her tent, but sleeping on the picnic table in her sleeping bag with her tent wrapped round her instead. Although she seemed pretty comfortable. But she also had the coolest dog, Ivan, who's photo had to make the blog as even though he is apparently a Russian Samoy or something, he is best described as a cross between a wolf and a big cuddly teddy bear.
Talking of animals I also have to mention the chipmunks out here. They are such little characters and more than a little suicidal. The furry critters are constantly running out into the road just in front of my wheel. It's like they are all playing a big game of chicken or something.
And onto my favorite animal subject of bears, I got some crushing news... literally. As I have been sleeping with my bear spray in reach, I have been imagining that if a bear does decide to drag me from my tent to eat me, that maybe it will be polite and use the zips on the tent so I can ask 'is that you bear?', and when it goes 'grrrrrr' promptly spray it in the face. So when some guy said it will just rear up on its hind legs and smash the crap out of my whole tent and me in one movement, with no warning, it was something of a disappointment.
Anyway riding today to Butte it was a long boring stretch on which I felt rubbish, even though the terrain was much easier than the day before. Maybe it was the radon! I should mention to sign off I met nice guy called Rick who is doing the route the other way, coming from the south, on an off-road motorcycle. Somehow, considering I'm not even a third of the way there yet, it seemed unfair he was a day from finishing after starting last Monday. Bah, his loss! Haha!
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