Hi everyone! Welcome to days 50, 51, and 52 of our trip.

Day 50 was a long and very tiring day for our riders. It started out fairly cool in the morning as it tends to here in the mountains, but warmed up a lot during the day to the point of it getting very hot.

We met some more horses during the ride and spent a good 20 minutes hanging out with them.

We had to do some interstate riding which is generally way less bad than it seems. Wide shoulder and beautiful Montana views made it not only bearable but even pleasant in its own special way.

During the last 20 miles we had to face a very long ten mile climb. It was not particularly steep but due to its length it really took a toll on our riders, especially combined with the heat.

Since it was a long and tiring day, we did not do much after we were done with riding. We took showers at our stayover at the Abundant Life Fellowship Church and enjoyed our dinner that consisted of donated pizza (thanks to Max).

Day 51 was a short mileage day at only about 55 miles. It was a very nice ride with pretty views and very little uphill riding. We hung out with some more horses on the way (of course) but then at only 20 miles away from our destination we all had stop riding to wait out a thunderstorm passing nearby. It was quite an impressive view to see the lighting above the mountains and none of us were particularly mad at the additional rest time.

One of the groups got to wait out the storm at a ghost town and heard a lot of local Montana ghost stories.

After the ride, about a half of the team decided to go out for dinner to a famous burger place near Butte. They had more than 100 burgers on the menu so we of course felt the urge to visit. It turned out to be a longer drive and a longer wait for our food than expected but was a fun outing nonetheless.

Day 52 unexpectedly turned from a long 80 miles ride into a 20 miles ride for us. We found out that the roads we were supposed to ride on had lots of construction and would be unsafe for us to ride on, so we ended up shuttling 60 miles towards Missoula. Shuttling takes a long time, so we spent the entire first half of the day either packed in the van with all our bikes or waiting around.

The last 20 miles that we actually got to ride went smoothly but made us appreciate the fact we did not have to ride 80 miles given how unbearably hot it was.

We got to our Missoula stayover at the Atonement Lutheran Church fairly early at about 2 PM which gave us plenty of time to get lunch and ice cream as well as do the much needed laundry. Our stayover kindly provided dinner for us both on day 52 and 53 which was our rest day, so huge thanks to them!

Day 53 was our Missoula rest day. We spent the day going for a team rafting trip, getting a tour of the Adventure Cycling association, and resting before continuing our long journey tomorrow :)

-Valerie