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One beautiful morning in Montana, I woke up feeling the worst I've ever felt in my life. If it hadn't been for Nick, Fu-ping, and Ed I probably would have stayed in my sleeping bag and wasted away. Thankfully they packed my stuff up, pulled me out of my bag, and threw me on my bike to ride the 40 miles to Lima, Montana. Luckily, most of it was down hill, but it was still the most excruciating bike ride of my life. I didn't know it at the time, but I was severely dehydrated. I kept trying to drink water, but couldn't keep it down. Vomiting clear water is not a good feeling.
Ten miles from Lima, I stopped the only truck we saw all day and got a ride. In Lima I made a few desperate attempts to get somebody to take me to the nearest hospital, which was in Dillon 70 miles away, but I quickly gave up and called for an ambulance. |
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Once at the hospital, they gave me around 6 liters of saline to get me re-hydrated. They then did the tests and found that I had Giardia.
At this point I was really discouraged. Once again, I was by myself and in no shape to ride for at least a week. I think my parents wanted me to come home, but my dad offered to put me up in a cheap motel to get better and think it over. After 3 days at the motel, I hit the road once again. |
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Too many cows. Cows, and other animals carry a parasite called Giardia and I somehow managed to get it through the water. I always filtered my water, but should have been more careful when swimming in the creeks to get clean.
Apparently, Giardia is pretty common throughout the rocky mountains. Doctors say that if you live up there long enough, you'll eventually get it.
Next to Texas, Montana has the largest cow population. A lot of the route cuts through open-range cattle fields. Sometimes the roads would be covered with cow manure and it was impossible to keep from riding right over the cakes. |
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Once back on the road, I met these guys from Calif. travelling south to north along the GDMBR. We met between the entrances of Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton NP. Despite the beauty of this territory, we weren't glad to be around so many tourists. Me and these guys rebelled by camping in front of this building for a couple of hours as the tourists walked around us. They had an electric hair clipper and we gave each other buzzes. It was really nice to be around some other guys doing the same thing I was.
The dude on the far right used to be a professional road bike racer and he road side by side Lance Armstrong, he said.
The next couple of days were on pavement. Most times I welcomed the pavement, but the roads throughout this area are extremely narrow and windy. To make it even worse, huge RVs and buses driven by retired folk barely fit on the pavement. After nearly getting killed 50 consecutive times I seriously thought about hitchhiking. |
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Holland Lake, one of the most beautiful scenes of the whole trip, huge fish were jumping right out of the water, I wished I'd had a fishing pole |
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