Paul calls in from Butte

So there is life on the Tour Divide! Finally after nearly five days (well I think it is five days) of riding I've rolled into Butte this eveningand bumped into Steve "on-fire" McQuire from Iowa. I think he's from Iowa not Idaho. No, that's where we're going tomorrow - Idaho. Iowa. And that's good news because when I got to the "Outdoors Man" - the famous live highways professional sports and bike shop here in Butte, I thought they'd gone through. I thought I'd missed some people by about an hour but there was no way you were going to get me out of Butte today after getting lost coming over from Helena; but no Steve's here and he's a tough guy because he's slept out rough and lost more sleep than I intend to do for the whole of the rest of the race. We've come to the conclusion that we both need to be tough, and a bit smart as well, so we're staying here tonight and hope to hit Lima in a couple of days time via Elk Court Hot Springs. A tough, tough route today - at least the first bit from Helena to Basin. Got lost up there; probably wasted about an hour but fortunately it was in the middle of the day and so at least I knew I had time on my side. The day before that though to Helena from Ovando was probably the most beautiful so far and the most enjoyable riding as well. So things going a bit better. Going to sleep well tonight and stick in some more long days. So that's it. Bye for now.