Day 57 Week 9, Sunday 15 June 2025

Today we ride from Darby to Missoula Montana, a distance of 66 miles and only 490 feet of ascent. It was mostly a downhill ride straight North into Missoula, pretty much a straight shot along Rt 93. Easy ride- there is a bike path along much of it but I elected to use the wide shoulder on Rt 93. It was a very busy 4 lane road and very noisy, so not that enjoyable, but the shoulder was wide although with a lot of debris that you had to watch out for. I averaged 14 mph- the first 40 miles or so was quite fast but the last 20 miles there was some headwind that developed which slowed me down quite a bit. No issues with the group except that Tom got a flat after our stop in Hamilton for a breakfast break. I got a nail through my rear tire riding on that junky shoulder, but it missed my tube! Went straight through the outer rubber on my tire. I have a pretty thick Schwalbe Marathon plus on the rear, so that might have saved me.

We all ended up at the Adventure Cycling Association headquarters. I got there about 1:15 and by 3 PM everyone was there. ACA had prepared some taco fixings for a lunch out in their courtyard. The director of tours, Corbett Hall, gave us a tour of the facility and then we had a group photo taken for posterity. They have a nice office there- a former Christian Science church, so a rather unique layout for the office area. A lot of cool bikes hanging on the walls. We are staying at a Days Inn for two nights there in Missoula with a day off tomorrow which will be nice before we hit the final hard two weeks into Idaho and Oregon.

Here are the RidewithGPS stats:

It is quite a bit warmer today, starting out in the low 60s and getting into the high 70s, so a welcome change waking up in the morning and not having to put on a ton of clothing for breakfast today in Darby! No rain!