We had one full day to see Missoula, Montana as we passed through on our trip out west. Barry always does a thorough job researching the cycling options in any area we stay in or pass through. Whatever did we do without the internet? Since Missoula was named a "gold" level bike friendly city in 2012, he easily found plenty of bike routes, lanes, and bike paths. We made a day of it with plenty of stops and saw an awful lot of the city in a 41-mile ride. There was plenty of cool stuff to see! We started out riding the bike lane on busy Reserve Street right outside our hotel. The morning was a little chilly, so I had to don arm warmers and a vest. The mountain view featuring snow-capped peaks to the south was excellent. Soon we crossed over the Clark Fork River for the first time. We'd cross this beautiful river many more times during the ride on several different bridges, both pedestrian-only and shared with motor vehicles. The river and Missoula itself were featured in the Oscar-winning 1992 film, A River Runs Through It. I've never seen it, but now I want to! There was a great view from the bridge. We took a bike path for a short bit and checked out a nice garden to the right. Then back to the road and approached the cute and artsy downtown area. Thanks to the warm sunshine, I've now been able to shed my arm warmers and vest -- sweet! Crossing the river again, downtown awaits on the other side. This was a super bike friendly downtown with marked bike lanes and crosswalks everywhere. Many cyclists and bike racks were in evidence as well. Nice! Here's an interesting sculpture downtown. I had no idea what the four x's signified, but found this online (see what I mean about wondering what we'd do without the internet?) Crossings -- N. Higgins. And here's the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot right behind the sculpture. X marks the spot! Continuing our exploration of the downtown area, here's more of what we saw.
I loved this sculpture too. Entitled Wooly Rhinoceros, it was designed by Drummond artist Bill Ohrmann and stands in front of the Art Museum on the corner of Pine and Pattee streets. Across from the rhino on Pine Street, we found the Adventure Cycling Association -- we've been members for many years. They have an excellent magazine promoting bicycling (especially cycle touring) if you join. Moving on and in need of a pit stop, we found this lovely park. I love the timberframe architecture of the shelters. Here's an attractive (well, except for the graffiti) pedestrian bridge over the river, and a nice river view. Naturally, when we rode by the Big Dipper ice cream parlor, there was never a question of whether we'd be stopping in. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that we love our ice cream! No visit to Missoula would be complete without checking out the University of Montana. This was the perfect time to do it as there was only a sprinkling of people around, perhaps for summer school or doing research. The attractive campus sits in the valley right in front of the large hills surrounding the city. Had to get a photo of Barry in front of the grizzly bear statue in honor of the U of M Grizzlies. Football is a big deal here, and you can tell they love their Grizzlies. I, on the other hand, was more interested in the fact that the entire campus, including the grounds, is tobacco-free. Heck, my dorm wasn't even tobacco-free at UNC-CH. How far we have come! I was also enamored with the Prescott House, formerly a private residence but now owned by the university and used for special events. Charming, no? This older bike path we rode was a rail-trail. On the back of a building along this bike path, we were stunned to find this exquisite mural. This is one of those "hidden gems" you just don't see if you're driving in a car. We felt so lucky as it was one of the most memorable things we saw all day. Dated 2014, the colors were incredibly fresh and vibrant. It appears to depict native flora and fauna in this area. I had fun trying to identify as many of the flowers as I could, but I certainly don't know them all. By this time in the afternoon, traffic was picking up when we got back on Reserve Street. Glad to have a nice wide bike lane to get back to the hotel along this busy road. That night we treated ourselves to an excellent "Caribbean" pizza from MacKenzie River Pizza Co. and some cherry ale. We were able to walk to pick up both from our hotel thanks to the pedestrian crosswalks. Thanks Missoula, we wish more cities were as bike and pedestrian friendly as you! Stay tuned...Idaho is up next!
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Continuing westward, we hit the road for Missoula. We have been members of the Missoula-based Adventure Cycling Association for years, and I guess I'd always thought of Missoula as some little dot on the map -- I'm not even sure why. But knowing how many cyclists pass through here on bike tours and what a bike friendly city it's supposed to be, we were looking forward to checking it out. The drive over from Billings got prettier and prettier the farther west we got, especially when we saw the Rocky Mountains up ahead out our windshield. Absolutely breathtaking! Our pictures would have been even nicer if we'd had a clearer day, but as you can see, it was overcast. The closer we got, the more impressive they were. The rivers were also beautiful. I am pretty sure this is the Yellowstone River, but I wouldn't swear on it. This is what I get for not writing blog posts right away, while things are fresh on my mind. When we arrived in Missoula, I realized that this was no dot on the map. It was a real city! We stayed in a nice La Quinta, which was unfortunately absolutely chock-a-block full of people and their four-legged companions for a big dog show in the area. What bad luck...we'd thought that by avoiding staying on a weekend, Missoula would be pretty quiet, but that was not the case. There were some noisy dogs on our hall, so our sleep quality was not the best for the two nights we were here. Our room faced a nice rushing creek out back, though! After checking in, we decided to walk down to find a grocery store to pick up a few things. We were tired of sitting in the car and certainly didn't want to get back into it. It was quite a hike down a very busy street, but we finally made it to a Walmart about two miles one way. On the way back, we got caught in a sudden rainstorm, which was kind of surprising considering how pretty the sky looked when we first checked in (see photo above). Weather can change on a dime in this part of the country.
The following day, we planned to bicycle around Missoula and check it out more thoroughly. Stay tuned for much more from this pretty western city -- we had a fantastic ride and saw so much! We chose to spend a June weekend in Billings in large part because we could get pet friendly lodging there. As we discovered, weekends can be busy in touristy areas during prime family vacation season, and hotels often raise their rates simply because they can. Our first choice, Sheridan, Wyoming, had a major event going on this particular weekend, so lodging was booked solid. West Yellowstone was busy and pricey as well. Billings, being the largest city in Montana, has more lodging available and is not a tourist destination to the extent of some other western cities. But we really didn't know what to expect in the way of cycling. Turns out, we got incredibly fortunate in picking this spot to park for a couple of nights. Barry found a Billings-Molt Road Ride loop online that we could ride in Billings and out into the rural area west of the city. As the description says, "This ride offers plenty of heart pumping hill climbs, adrenaline rushed descents and fantastic Big Sky scenery." I got a little nervous about the heart pumping hill climbs, but of course Barry just saw the fun of a challenge! And as it turns out, Billings is actually quite bike friendly with some nice marked bike lanes and a good bike path that took us to the edge of town. Here's a map of the route we followed, though we modified it slightly since we pedaled to Rimrock Road from our hotel. We avoided one really steep climb into Zimmerman Park since we had no need to park there. Lucky us! First, we headed from the hotel on mostly good, flat roads with bike lanes. We then hooked up with a bike path that climbed gently the rest of the way north to Rimrock Road and provided views of dramatic rimrock that flanks the city's north side. Once we were up to the rimrock, we took a slight detour to get a closer look. Next, we turned our bikes westward and headed out into the rural countryside beyond Billings. The road was beautiful, lightly traveled, and initially mostly flat, but that would soon change. We heard and saw many Western Meadowlarks along the way. They look so similar to Eastern Meadowlarks (and their ranges overlap), so we'd never been able to say definitively that we'd seen a Western one, though we probably had. This time, we were in Western Meadowlark territory only, so we could finally add this beautiful bird to our life lists and not feel that we might be cheating! As we continued heading west on Molt Road, we reached those heart pumping climbs we read about in the route description. As the description states, "You'll pass by a golf course as the road begins a long (and sometimes steep) ascent on a narrow hogback. As the road continues up, the views of the Beartooth Mountains to the south and the Crazy Mountain to the east steadily improve." So, this must be a "hogback"! I had no idea, but it was definitely a heart pumping climb, as promised. The views were indeed great. You have to look closely to see the distant snow-capped peaks beyond the foothills in this photo. Here, I stopped to catch my breath and take a couple shots, and Barry took a photograph of me taking photographs. This was definitely big sky country and worth the suffering of the climb! Fortunately, there was almost no traffic as we slogged up the climb (Barry much faster than me). Good thing, too, as this speed limit was just a few miles per hour quicker than I could manage! Once we finally made it up to the ridge, we had a nice flattish ride almost to the tiny town of Molt, before turning on Buffalo Trail Road. Most of this road was downhill and very scenic. Time to head back east to Billings.... Close to the hotel, one more important stop was in order. I think we deserve it, don't you?! Blizzards and cold drinks all around on this hot day. Yum! Since we had to ride to and from the loop, we ended up with over 50 miles on the day.
One thing we found interesting about Billings is that nowhere near our hotel nor on the ride through the city did we ever see a single grocery store. Plenty of restaurants, but no groceries. Don't people in Billings cook?! |
Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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