Helena – Missouri Lake – Three Forks – Somewhere along the Madison river – Bozeman – Big Sky – Yellowstone NP

553 kilometers

After our Warmshowers-stay in Helena our clothes are clean, bikes are washed and oiled up, we are clean and most importantly: our batteries charged again. We set off early for a relatively easy day. We climb a small pass where the Missouri lake awaits us on the other side. The rest of the day we ride alongside the lake, rolling hills on the left through green fields.

Our goal is to camp at some of the dispersed campsites (meaning legal, free camping in national forests with no services) next to the lake. We find a nice spot and put up our tents. Minutes later we are attacked by armies of ants and mosquitos. We try to deal with it. Take a ‘shower’ in the lake and make our infamous sausages over the fire. We enjoy a beautiful sunset. Next morning I find out I became half-man half-mosquito bite.

Today is, I think, the first time I put an alarm clock this trip. Why? Tour de France! After our nice routine in Spain and Portugal where, after a day of riding, we used to watch the Giro d’Italia in a pub in a small town now it’s time for a new routine! The only thing is the 8 hour time difference which makes it a morning routine watching it on our phone when we have cell coverage (thanks for the data bundle, Jeroen K.). After watching the pro’s ride their bikes, we set off doing the same (but slower and probably less elegant, but: can they do it on a 20kg Koga Miyata with 31kg of bags??). After reaching Townsend and having lunch I discover I have a flat tire! After 2740km (partially over gravel) my first flat! Praise Schwalbe. Our goal for tonight is the town of Three Forks and Komoot (our navigation app) gives us a nice gravel section alongside the Missouri river. It starts off nicely with good compact gravel. The further we go the worse the road gets (like always): steep sections, blazing sun, sweat everywhere, wheels slipping over loose rocks. At one point we have a very, very steep descend over the same bad gravel path. Our arms are hurting from squeezing our brake levers. Then our navigation says we have to turn right, but all we see is closed gates and a river. We climb over the fences to check it out. Climbing over fences is always a bit scarier in the US then it is in Europe (you don’t wanna get shot while ‘trespassing’). A motorized vehicle appears on the other side of the river. Hesitant we approach him, asking if this is his property. No it’s not. Less afraid of getting shot we continue asking him about this road. Turns out that there used to be a bridge here but it got washed away after a flooding years ago. Seems our navigation app is a little bit outdated.

We hesitate, but I tell Jacko I’m definitely not going back over that hellish gravel climb we just descended on. That means there is only one option left: we lift the bikes over the fences, take off our shoes and socks and push our bikes through the river. The road continues through grazing fields for cows. Some climbs later we are back on the asphalt and we are reluctant to see the sweet, smooth, black tarmac as always. After sheltering for a little rain shower we reach Three Forks. I’m exhausted, the last kilometers were hellish having the “hongerklop” (EN: hitting the wall). Problem is solved with a rich carbohydrate meal consisting of some beers at the local pub. We ask around about camping possibilities in town. We did see some nice patches of grass and little parks when cycling through town. One guy recommends us to go to the local Baseball field and pitch the tents there. Baseball field? That’s new on the list! We go there and indeed encounter some nice patches of grass just besides the boards of the baseball field. We pitch our tents, cook and go to bed. Then, in the middle of the night, we are woken up by a loud sound right next to our tents. The canvas of our tents is shaking heavily. What the hell?! We both zip out of our tents in record time trying to see what or who is doing this. There we are, in the middle of the night on a baseball field, in our underwear, being attacked by the 03:00am sprinkler system. Once it all sinks in and the adrenaline flows away we laugh hard. We put some trash cans in front of the sprinklers and move Jacko’s tent out of the front line and go back to sleep.

A few weeks ago when we realized a US national holiday was coming up we made plans to diverge from The Great Divide and spent the 4th of July in a big(ger) city. Our eye caught Bozeman. We heard good stories about the city and it was not to far away from our route to the south. We contacted some Warmshowers and Lucy was kind enough to respond that we were welcome. We kept in touch and when we came closer to Bozeman she texted us: “me and my friends will be rafting tomorrow but you are still more than welcome, we will leave the door open”. Turns out they we’re going to raft on the Madison river and guess what? We were going to cycle next to that same river on our way to Bozeman. So we planned to meet at a place called ‘Blacks Ford’. When we arrived Lucy already spotted us and waved us towards her and her friends. We were met by Lucy and boyfriend Tymer, Billy, Tom, Allison and Matt. Not to forget their two labradors Wally and Levy.

Also not to forget: two rafts, two kayak’s, one sup and a coolbox full of ‘refreshments’. They were gonna float for two days and spend the night somewhere along the Madison river. You guys wanna join us? Of course! We locked our bikes on the busy parking lot, put our bags in one of the cars and packed quickly (1 tent and some clothes). Off we went. It was amazing. A good bunch of nice people, floating down the river, one hand a beer and the other a paddle. Falling in love with Wally the labrador. We spotted bald eagles, a lot of pelicans and some deer on the riverbed. A sudden storm completely soaked us, but after 20 mins of being cold the sun came out to warm us up again. We picked a spot on the riverbed to make camp. We made a camp fire and had a nice dinner. A perfect day and night (except for the mosquitos that party crashed in the evening).

Next day we floated some more, had some more refreshments, spotted more pelicans and got rained upon again. This time the sun didn’t come back and since we didn’t pack two sets of clothes Jacko and me were kind off shivering for a bit. Billy helped us out of our misery with some dry clothes. At the end point we loaded everything into trucks, drove back to starting point to pick up our bicycles and drove to Bozeman.

The complete gang turns out to live in the same appartement complex. Not strange that I sometimes get Friends-vibes from them (the American sitcom). Jacko and me do groceries and make shakshuka for the bunch. They like it. We spend the night on the front porch making a campfire and watching some premature fireworks.

Fourth of July baby!! Me and Jacko get the feeling that we are the most patriotic out of the bunch (we’ve been cycling around with American flags on our bags for days now). Rumour has it that there should be a parade going through downtown Bozeman so we want to check it out. With bagless bikes we cycle to the centre but to our despair there is no parade. So we stroll around and drink coffee instead. Back at our temporary house things are still calm, we drink some beers at the front porch and wait for Tom’s barbeque to begin.

After some beers Jacko and me get the idea to bring out the huge American flag that we saw in Tom’s room. No enthusiastic response. A few beers later me and Jacko decide to get the flag, because come onnn, it’s fourth of July baby!! We hang the flag on the roof of the house and do a photoshoot. We love it. What we also love is Tom’s barbeque meat and the people that we meet at the small party the bunch is throwing. When it’s almost midnight me and Jacko decide to crank it up a notch and head out to the city to hit the bars. We have a fun night out.

Next morning we take off with a hangover. We say goodbye to everybody and we get two lunch bags from Alison. In two days we cycle towards Yellowstone National Park. The road we have to take is a highway with a small shoulder, which is not really fun, especially not with a headache. With these small shoulders next to the road it sometimes feels like walking a tightrope on the bike, with an abyss on the right and roaring trucks racing past on the left. You have to balance your bike constantly between those 20 or 30cm or you will get hit or and up next to the road. After these two days we enter a city called West Yellowstone, a gateway to the park. Jacko has been suffering from a crack in his frame and we let if weld by a local craftsman. In the meantime we cool off in the airconditioned McDonalds refilling our cups of Coca-Cola endlessly. (To my surprise this is the first time we set foot in a fastfood restaurant in the US).

After the crack is welded we head off to the entrance of the park and meanwhile we enter our second US state: Wyoming. When entering the park the ranger tells us that his computer just broke down so we can enter the park for free. Nice! We continue to Madison Campground. All the campgrounds in the National Parks are paid campgrounds. Therefore, to continue our streak of not paying for accomodations we want to try a new tactic: just ask people if we can pitch our tents on their spot. The first family we ask allow us to pitch our tents on their spot. This means our new tactic has a 1 out of 1 score. After we set up our tents we meet the family. Three little boys that, after a long day of riding, are taking up all our remaining energy. They are not shy and want to play games with us all the time. When the kids go to bed we have a nice talk with mom and dad at the campfire. Dad turns out to be a Navy Seal, how interesting.

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6 Replies to “Montana part II: Bike to raft & 4th of july”

  1. Weer heel wat meegemaakt en veel geweldige mensen ontmoet
    Met jullie nederlandse direktheid en vriendelijkheid komen jullie overal mee weg πŸ˜‰
    Kijken uit naar het volgende verhaal xxx

  2. Je verhalen zijn een genot om te lezen en wat goed om te lezen dat er nog zoveel behulpzame mensen zijn in de wereld. En wat een bikkels zijn jullie. Ondanks sneeuw, regen, stijle gravelwegen en muggen, weten jullie iedere keer jullie doel te bereiken. Geniet ervan en ik ben benieuwd wat jullie van Yellowstone vonden. Groetjes

    1. Hey Ans! Wat superleuk om te horen! Dit zijn de berichten die me motiveren om te blijven schrijven:) Yellowstone was geweldig mooi, soon online πŸ˜‰

  3. Marijn, wat heb ik tot nu toe genoten van je verhalen en belevenissen. Jouw enthousiasme voorafgaand aan deze trip straalt nog steeds door in de stukjes, die je schrijft. Ook na bijna 3000km. Vooral de Bear-fear stukjes zijn bijna hilarisch, al zul je dat ter plekke wellicht anders ervaren πŸ˜‚.
    Blijf vooral genieten van dit avontuur, van dag tot dag. En veel succes met de Great Divide, gravelwegen en muggen.

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