Day 8 - Wisdom to Darby - 58 miles, 2800 ft elevation gain

 Today we stopped by the Big Hole Batteground, where US troops and volunteers launched a surprise attack on the Nez Perz Indians who were already leaving their home lands due to the discovery of gold in the region. Prior treaties were broken as the white guys moved in... Conflicts occurred as a result and the white guys decided to take out the Indians in a pre-dawn attack. The troops killed any Indian they could, but the Indians rallied and the white guys took heavy casualties, too. Ultimately, some of the indians made it to Canada and some surrendered and where sent to reservations on the Southwest.

It wasn't exactly a light way to start the ride for the day, but we met another rider from Santa Barbara area who had been touring for some time and rode with him off and on for the rest of the day. 

We rolled over several passes- Badger,  Big Hole, Chief Joseph and Lost Trail then had wonderful decent for a reward!

7 miles @ 6% followed by a slight downhill or flat ride into Darby - very nice!

We're getting close to the end of the ride,  

with only two 1/2 days left...

We're back on Highway 93 the rest of the way into Missoula, but this far away, the traffic is light. We can use the whole lane to descend, checking our rear view mirrors for traffic.

We stopped for a burger and fries on the way into Darby, so after we set up the tent in a nice RV camp and had the best showers of our lives, we set out to wander around town and find the best beer we've ever had! We found one at a local bar that had lots of character and characters...

We've mostly been doing our own cooking, eating back-packing style... freeze-dried meals, supplemented with things we pick up in the destination town.       We don't carry much extra food with us, just some snacks and a little lunch stuff - we carry a couple of full water bottles and have an extra empty one if it we have a long stretch ahead.