Cow poo pies, cattle crossings, poo-phoriA, poo-phobia.

Wednesday 8/31. 40.7 miles. From the Alpaca Farm with Barbara Nie and John, to BQuick Running in Helena. Cows, bellowed most of the night because they wanted grass on the other side of the fence. Tara said they sounded like Chewbacca. The accommodations in the covered wagon were great. Complete with a very large jar of m&m’s. We left around 9 am, a bit late for a hot day. Almost immediately we saw a giant pile of bear poop with lots of berry seeds in it. Road alone today, as John and Louis stayed in Lincoln. We crossed two divide crossings, making it four continental divide crossings in total so far. We are about 522 miles into a 2700 mile adventure. Over the last couple days we’ve learned that as you keep your head down watching the road surface, as you’re breaking downhill for eight or 10 miles, and only looking up intermittently at the scenery and sometime scouting the side of the road for bears, you also have to look forward once the cow Poo becomes pretty regular in the road. Saw lots of beautiful black cows brown cows and white and brown cows. The cattle guard crossings are quite frightening. Metal bars going perpendicular to the direction of travel, that are widely spaced so a cows hoof or a bike shoe or a bike tire could slip through them if positioned wrong. We ride over them slowly. I am quite certain I saw a grizzly today, but we stopped well before approaching it and when we did approach that spot there was nothing to be seen. Yeah! When we topped out on pass number three we did the happy dance with two new friends Kenny and Stephanie. Arriving in Helena it was 95°. One of Tara‘s panniers had broken so we went to the bike shop for a repair. Great accommodations sleeping in BQuick running’s yard.
poo-Phoria: Tara heard this word somewhere. from my definition is enough volume to know that you’re done for the day, and it happens before you get on your bike for the day, and you feel cleansed.
poo-phobia: after you’ve had a bad burger and you are afraid you’re going to have to stop to poo every 20 minutes all day long on the bike and you might not get to your destination at all!
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