Day 19-Butte to Bozeman MT

Today we started our day at 5:30am and got to see an amazing sunrise from behind the Lady of The Rockies monument in Butte. I rode with the other Sam and Dylan. From lodging we had another great climb to start off our ride over similar terrain as yesterday's, winding hills around this Valley called Thompson Park. The peak is also the Continental Divide, we think, we expected to see a sign but found nothing. It was, as expected, another gorgeous ride, the downhill after the climb was spectacular, mountains everywhere and we just coasted downhill for miles, a few guys have dubbed these as free miles on our trip, they feel so good. Some of the ride reminded me of biking through eastern Washington over rolling hills, only difference was this ride had gorgeous mountains and trees. We also had our first vrew chief challenge, we had a bunch of chicken left from our frienship visit that we had to get rid of so every time we passed our crew chief's van we had to eat some chicken and we had the chicken for lunch, we finished off most of it and it was a nice change from our normal sandwiches and clif bars. Afyer lunch we got to ride through this amazing valley and along a river with clifs on either side it was so cool. We rode strong all day long and helped Dylan push through some knee pain and up some hills. We were in the first 3 pace lines to finish, it isn't a race but it is a good feeling to push yourself hard enough over a 100 mile ride and ride into lodging early to see crew and cyclists waiting for you to get in.

Our friendship visit was with an organization called Reach that is local to Bozeman and this is the first time a JOH team has visited with them. They are doing amazing things, they work hard to find employment for individuals and have partnerships with Harley and Gibson which has helped them get to a record 80% employment rate for their members. They also have a small apartment building that houses many of their members who live independenly and was recently awarded a grant from Push America to help make this building more accessible and will be starting construction soon. One of their staff Dee who helped organize the event was so excited to have us and is looking forward to mext year already and making it a bigger and better event for everyone. 

We are just relaxing tonight at lodging and preparing for our 90 mile ride tomorrow. The next 2 days are a couple that everyone has been looking forward to, we ride into West Yellowstone tomorrow and the next day we have all day to explore the park, a few of us are planning to wake up at maybe 5am to start sight exploring, we have to make use of every chance we get in Yellowstone, I can't wait to see it all.