Day 64: I Met a Camel in Montana

Of all of the animals I expected I might encounter in Montana, let alone on this trip, a camel was not on the list. Yet today, I met Alice, a camel, in Montana. 🐪

My Turn for a Tailwind

This morning, Rich cooked up French toast and sausage for breakfast, one of my favorites. Jack and Matt were also leaving this morning, so we all said goodbye. It turns out Matt knows a professor at Brown I know a bit from his grad school days. Small world. Kevin gave me a ride down the driveway and I continued biking west.

I finally had a tailwind today after many days of head or cross winds. Tailwinds make biking so much easier! I got to Winnett in great time and got a chocolate milk and a couple post cards at the general store then went and snacked and rested in the little park in town.

Grass Range was the second stop of the day. It was a little off route, but there’re so few towns out here that it’s worth detouring to get a proper rest break. I got a milkshake at the truck stop and sat in the shade for a bit. There’s no shade on the road, so getting out of the sun for a while is almost as important as the food and rest.

I climbed over the Judith Mountains en route to Lewistown. It was a long slow climb winding through ranch, farmland, and some woods. It was also a nice long slow descent into town - I only braked once when my speed hit 43mph and it felt a bit too fast.

Alice, the camel, lives a couple miles before town at a Vet’s. She’s very friendly and came over for pats as soon as I rolled in. Rich and Maria had told me about her and that I had to stop and say hello. Apparently, the owner trailered her to Montana from somewhere on the west coast when she was young and she’s lived here ever since.

After a quick visit to the city museum and grabbing some groceries, I headed out to Aaron’s place a couple miles out of town. He has a motorhome and is parked on his dad’s land for the summer. I got my tent pitched in the yard and we set off on an adventure by car.

First up was a visit to the spring that is the source of the creek the town gets their water from. Apparently it’s some of the best water on earth. There’s also a trout fishery there and we got some food from the dispenser in exchange for a few nickels and got to feed the fish.

A storm was threatening to roll in, but we decided to continue on anyway. We drove up into the Judith Mountains to Point Judith. The point was windy and much colder so we donned blankets from the van and took in the view. You could see the storm raging nearby and also a calm beautiful day in the other direction.

On the way back, we stopped off in town and picked up a few ingredients to make burritos for dinner. I chopped and Aaron cooked. We chatted and traded stories of bike touring and hosting and had a great evening. Aaron has done a lot of hosting for both warm showers and couch surfing and had met a lot of interesting folks along the way.