I had a nice sleep in my tent in the little Basin park. I like having the fresh air. I packed up early again and headed for the little cafe for breakfast when it opened at 7am. However I was dreading the 50’s country music they kept playing. 😬There were three other guys camping out as well. They started in Eureka (near the Canada border) and were just planning to go to Butte where their wifes planned to meet them. One of the guys lives in Eureka, and shared some interesting history about Montana, and Butte specifically.
There was of course a “good ole boy” breakfast table in the cafe. I made sure I was a good distance away in case any conversation got awkward. Marek, from Czech Republic showed up (he had camped outside of Basin) and walked to the GOB table, maybe thinking they were bikers too 😄. He was talking in his broken English to them where he was from. The main GOB kept talking about he knows someone from Czechoslovakia (which no longer exists). Marek, tried multiple times to correct him that it is Czech Republic, but GOB kept saying the wrong country name. I finally got Marek’s attention since had not seen me and rescued him to my table. Phew!😅
Marek is a big guy and I have been surprised that he has gotten this far, and doing some high mileage days with his heavily loaded bike. He is a really nice guy, and I hope to meet him again.
The route today would be a lot tamer than yesterday, and I did look forward to the luxury of a hotel room by myself in Butte. Butte was and still is an active mining town (copper mainly). Ciaran, who I incorrectly spelled as Kieran really wanted to spend an extra day in Butte since it has a rich Irish history to it. Many Irish migrants moved to Butte in the 1800’s to work in the mines for the Copper Barons. The working conditions were terrible, and as a result this was the first organized labor movement in the US. The guy from Eureka told me most of this.
Butte hill (I initially thought I would need to bike up there to get to town 😳)
I rolled into Butte looking for a bike store that carries wax based chain lube since I am running out of mine quicker than expected. The stores in Helena didn’t have it, and the same seems to be true in Butte 😡. I hope my lasts until Pinedale which is the only bike shop before Steamboat Springs. I did run into Ciaran who was biking around town on his unloaded bike, taking pictures of some of the old structures around town. He gave me the hotel name where he and some other GDMBR’ers were staying, so I headed that way. He said that he had his first wipeout of the trip in downtown Butte when he didn’t pay attention when looking at the buildings.
We all later met at another Mexican restaurant, but this one was not as good as the previous ones. Dave and Debra from Wisconsin, Sean from Seattle, Ciaran, and I were there and had a good time despite the food. I liked the character of the town, but would never live there..
Pics compliments from Ciaran
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