Our room included breakfast, so 7.45 saw us chomping on eggs, hash browns, french toast and cereal. The hash browns are small pieces of potato pan fried, the french toast I am not sure about but it did not taste so good, the eggs were egg shaped, actually I lie they were scrambled. And of course coffee and tea (but mainly coffee). Of course it was a little sad saying goodbye to Robin who was cycling back to Butte for her flight out of Montana, speak to you soon.

It didn’t take long to get ready (no tent used last night remember) I went off to get a better picture of the spa and lodge, whilst I did this Janet saw a hummingbird, it hovered about 2 feet from her for a few seconds then flew off. We should encounted more of these the further south we travel.

Today started as it meant to go on, with a big downhill to lose the height we gained yesterday, there were a few ups but the general trend was down.

We saw 3 huge birds of prey as we approached Grasshopper River, they must have had a 2 m wingspan, they were Golden Eagles. There were slightly different deer here, more white with a striped head,  I think they are still the white tailed deer though.

The road at this point was one of those impressively straight ones which become less impressive the further you cycle along them without any noticable nearing of the road end.

When we turned off this and were stopped (as usual) a pair of motorcyclists stopped (following the great divide by motorcycle is very popular) very impressed with us cycling it. They were doing it the easy way, with a support vehicle as well!

We also stopped to talk with a couple cycling the opposite way, they were on road bikes and followed the Lewis-Clarke trail, a long distance road route. It was nice to find out the campground at the state park had a hiker and cyclist area, which means you are not turned away when it is full of RV’s.

Arriving just after lunch at a cost of $12 we pitched our tent and had lunch.

Then a short walk and we paid a visit to The Ghost Town of Bannack. It is a town founded in 1862 on the back of a gold strike, it grew to a population of 10000 at its height becoming the state capital (Montana for the memory impeded among you or just old!). It continued of sorts until the 1940’s when it was left deserted. Today it is protected as a state national park.

And.

And.

A lazy late afternoon and evening ensued,  most enjoyable.

And, we are now on map 3 of 7 woohoo.