Aug 31st Missoula to Hamilton, 89km 451m

Today we changed the route and instead of heading west to Hell’s Canyon we are heading south. We are leaving out the Canyon to make sure we have enough time for Teton and Yellowstone parks so instead of turning right in Lolo we carried straight on. It was a cool start and the showers that we could see to our right on the Bitterroot Mountains soon engulfed us so we stopped to put on the rain jackets until they had passed. After 34km we decided to leave the busy US93 and crossed the Bitterroot River to use the East highway. This kept us parallel with the 93 but out of the showers. It was well worth the detour. It was a quieter road, we saw our first herd of buffalos, TimB had to be nice to some horses, there were some deer and in Corvallis we saw the Brooks hotel which is over 100 years old (not bad for Montana) and in fully restored order.   

Next door to the hotel was a small gift shop and now somebody has a present coming. It was only another 10km to Hamilton and by 6pm we had checked into a central motel, showered, changed and were on our way to, yes, Hamilton’s very own micro-brewery for a burrito supper.