It’s the 4th of July! I woke up today to freezing temperatures with a light frost instead of dew on my tent and bike, it gets cold at night in the high desert. I packed up and tried to warm my hands back up on my coffee cup.

Today started out crossing over a pass from Bannack to Dillon, where I was able to get back online and stock up at Safeway. From Dillon I took the alternate route to Twin Bridges, instead of following the highway it takes an older highway that runs parallel to I-15 so is only used by local traffic, and then takes a dirt road that follows Big Hole River pretty much all the way to Twin Bridges. Twin Bridges is at the confluence of three rivers, including the Big Hole River and the Ruby River which I’ll follow upstream tomorrow.

The alternate route, while a little longer, was definitely the more scenic option. The highway took me right up to the base of the mountains, which must be in a rain shadow because they’re very dry. Big Hole River snakes along the base of the mountains at the edge of the plain and passes through farmland and nature preserves. I again saw a herd of bighorn sheep, grazing in an irrigated field and darting up the rock walls beside me as I approached. I also saw a large golden eagle sitting on a rock watching the river, which also took flight as I approached.

Once I rejoined the main highway it was only a couple miles into Twin Bridges, where they have a biker specific facility that I’m staying at tonight.

Tomorrow I should approach West Yellowstone and spend my last night in Montana. I’m not sure where I’ll be able to stay tomorrow, while there’s a lot of campsites it’s July 4th weekend and none of them outside of the park appear to have hiker/biker sites, so we’ll have to see what’s available when I get there.