Day 16
June 17th, 2007

Today we got to sleep in! So at 6:30 we woke up had some breakfast and hit the cold road. Today's ride started off with a climb out of the Philipsburg area. We climbed up a nice easy slope until we saw a daunting road winding up high on the mountain in front of us. With our luck this road was destined to be ours; sure enough it was. The final climb was not as bad as it looked from afar. Near the top the road curved along a waterfall that we stopped at to get a picture at. At the very top of the mountain was a lake with a mountain range off in the distance where we stopped again to take pictures of God's beauty. On our way down we noticed something strange was coming from the above. The sky was spitting snow at us! After our decent we passed through a small mining town called Anaconda. We then got back on Interstate 90. At this point we had received a major tail wind and were able to travel at a swift 25 miles per hour with little effort. The Interstate in this area had really big shoulders for riding but it had a lot of glass. Before the trip I did everything I could to try and minimize the flats I would have. I bought really thick tires and special slime tubes to fill small holes. Unfortunately all my planning was no match for today's road. About 15 miles from Butte my tire got slashed and blew out. Luckily I was able to stay on the bike after such a big flat and the speed we were traveling. With no spare tire to replace the torn one we had to improvise. I stuck a Cliff Bar wrapper in the tire over the rip and put in a fresh tube. This was enough to make it to Butte. In Butte we are staying at the new YMCA. A group of us immediately changed, rinsed off and hopped in the hot tub for a great relaxing soak. In the afternoon I took a trip to Wal Mart to pick up some supplies that I have run low on such as shampoo and shave cream. For dinner we were treated to a meal by a local organization that helps people with disabilities by helping them find housing and work. It was a great time hanging out with some of the people. My favorite person of the visit was a man named Ricky. Ricky was not able to communicate well but he sure did have some amazing amounts of energy.