Kiki Bikes Across America

Monday, July 27th – Virginia City, MT to Jackson, MT

Had a bit of a rude awakening as we camped out inside the community center after receiving permission from someone in town. However, this morning a woman came in and in a nasty tone told us we shouldn’t be in there and that it wasn’t allowed, but that she “wouldn’t bust our balls” for being there. What a whack. Not very friendly at all and woke us all up at 7am. It was, me, Chase, Craig, and the 5 JMU guys from the “Z team” camping out there. Jacob  was also camping out there, but he was outside camping, not in the gymnasium.

So the day started about 8:45am and Craig, Chase, and I headed for Twin Bridges and eventually Virginia City. We had 106 miles to cover and 2 fairly big passes to cross. We got caught in a rain storm in the late morning around 10-11am, so we took cover in Sheridan and hung out there for an hour or so for the storm to pass. The guys had some breakfast and what not and then we headed on to Twin Bridges (a quick 10 miles or so downhill with 20-24mph pace going). It was a nice ride. Then the ride to Dillon was pretty good as well – fast riding again with maybe a slight tailwind that helped. We arrived to Dillon just after 2pm and had McDonald’s for lunch (YUCK, never again). We left Dillon around 4pm and had another 48 miles or so to go before reaching Jackson, where there were supposed hot springs.

We had two passes to cross, both pretty significant climbs (2,000 feet for one, the other at 1,800 feet or so). The first pass was pretty grueling as it was 14 miles of uphill and the winds were coming from the side and they were strong! Craig disappeared way off in the distance – he left us in the dust. So Chase and I climed the passes slowly, but su.rely. After the first pass, we got rained on again and saw a rainbow (woohoo, or not), and then climbed the second pass slowly for another 10 miles or so and then we were freezing cold because we had gotten wet. My feet were frozen beyond frozen – I was miserable and we had another 11 miles to go and it was 9:30pm when we finished the second pass. At the top, we put on all our warm clothes (socks, hats, gloves, long-sleeve shirts, jackets, pants,etc) in preparation for che 11 miles of downhill we had coming. Unfortunately, the 11 miles of downhill had a few bumps in it so it took about 45 minutes or so from the top of the pass to Jackson.

We rolled into Jackson freezing cold and miserable at 10:15pm to find the bar still open. We went in there to warm up and hung out and Chase celebrated the end of 106 miles and nasty weather with a couple beers and a double shot of whisky. Chase decided to go ahead and get a room there which was much appreciated at this point – so we got a cabin room with fireplace and two beds, shower for $4 0. It was excellent and we crashed after showering and woke up at 7:30am the next morning.