Only 6,300 feet

Today, Sunday gives us a rest day, and the cyclists are ready for that, yesterday saw the bikers complete a ride of 120 miles. Far more than would be usual for us.  The big ride gives us a rest day in the city of Helena, The capital city of the state of Montana.  The state is large, 740 miles  across with a population of less then 1,000,000.

It has the most amazing country.  We dropped out of the Rockies and the Lolo Pass to move across to the City of Helena.  The journey took all day, over 120 miles and culminated in a major climb crossing the Continental Divide to the West of Helena.

The pass is at 6.330 feet and the climb a tough one (again) What was both a blessing and a curse was the very high winds from the West that helped the bikers but was very difficult to ride in.  The photograph above  was taken from the  summit.  You can see snow storms racing across the mountain, the wind so high that standing to photograph was not an option.

Our unsung hero of the trip has been the RV, here seen at the summit if it  had a mind it would no doubt be thinking what am I doing here?

The day started like all our riding days with the ceremony  of reading the names of those service men and women from both the UK and the US that will not be returning home.  Today we were joined by the manager of the RV site we stayed in over night.  Smokey  was ex-USAF and had been stationed for four years at Greenham Common.

As we went further inro Montana we could see the country opening up to Cattle farming and ranching. 

The city of Helena is very attractive, it sits at an altitude of over 4,000 feet, the air is dry but the wind 'fresh' to say the least.  What has been wonderful has been the reception we have received by our hosts in Helena, Deb and Harry Smith.     

They have welcomed us to their home , arranged press and TV coverage and are looking after us over the weekend.  Wonderful people, great hosts. 

Last night we were joined by friends, one of which has a brother who is in the forces and was badly injured in Afghanistn.  We were able to pass to him via has sister a bottle of wine donated to us and is special as it is made and bottled by an ex US Marine.