August 25, 2017 - Ringling, MT to Jumping Creek Campground, NFS, MT

Day 3 Yellowstone to Glacier Bike Tour

It rained off and on through the night last night, but we woke to mostly clear skies. We were up early and saw the sunrise behind the church on the hill in Ringling. At 7:30, Tobey and Phil were off, with Jon about 10 minutes behind them.There wasn’t much traffic on the 21 miles between Ringling and White Sulphur Springs, so the guys had a pretty easy start to their day. We passed a large area that had been burned, but cows were grazing on the new green shoots which had already starting coming up.We planned a stop at the White Sulphur Springs hotel to use their hot springs pools. It was a great break! There were three pools, one was 98 degrees, one was 102, and the third was 106. We hung out and soaked and used the WIFI for a couple hours before the guys were back on their bikes. It was a good deal at $7.00 a person.After the break, the guys had a more difficult ride for their next 23 miles. They had a long hill up, then a good descent. Overall, they had a 1804’ elevation gain and 1188’ elevation loss. We are camping at a National Forest Service campground, Jumping Creek. There are 10 sites here and we are using three of them.  There is a small creek and Penny had a chance to go swimming and retrieve sticks. She was a happy dog until we made her get out!She managed to roll in stickers after she got out and we had to spend time brushing her to get her cleaned up, and she HATES to be brushed! Poor thing.

After dinner, Tobey, Marcia, Penny, and I took a walk around the campground area (twice). We spotted a deer up on the hill watching us from behind a tree. It didn’t move more than its head from the time we first spotted it on our first trip around and the second time by! I’m sure if we had made any move up the hill, it would have bounded off, but it felt pretty safe.The Jumping Creek campground has numerous felled trees and leaning trees. The forest service posted an informational sign explaining that many of the trees suffer from a heart-rotting fungi,  “tomentosus root disease,” a fungus that rots the roots of the trees. In 2016, they started cutting the rotting trees and replanting new trees and shrubs to provide shade and a healthy forest near the campground. There were plenty of wildflowers in the campground!As we returned to the RV, we were treated to a beautiful sunset over the pines. A great way to end our day!Tomorrow the guys start their day with a steep climb – almost 1300’ elevation gain in less than 10 miles. After that it should be downhill into Great Falls.