July 6, 2003 As we left Darby, this bear at the local Taxidermy loomed out at us from behind the tree. The Bitterroots are still in the West. The cattle are out and about on a glorious morning. As we get closer to Hamilton, industry replaces the fields along the way. The Bitterroot river is still in view at times. Some of the log buildings are still made with cement chinking. This horse is galloping along with its foal that you can't see. They're bronze and quite the horses although they don't eat much. At one point we stopped and I was able to take this picture of the Bitterroot river. It runs swift and clear. This was one of several log homes being built in front of a sawmill/lumber yard outside of Hamilton. Hamilton is a growing community of several thousand with the first stoplights we've seen since Helena several days ago. We had gone east at this point to catch a side road that runs parallel with 93, having missed the turn in Hamilton. The road was not quite as well paved but there was definitely less traffic and the scenery was great. In addition we saw a swarm of beaver hustling towards a creek that fed into the river. This shot of the river shows how diverse the banks can be. The valley opened and I was able take this shot of the Sapphire Mountains that line the East of the Bitterroot Valley. There were a number of these older barns along the road as we headed to Stevensville, one of our water stops. This larger home was one of several as we headed towards downtown Stevensville. Stevensville is smaller than Hamilton but has many of the services you'd need if you wanted to live here and not go to either Hamilton or the much larger Missoula. This is a shot of the Bitterroot River as we headed into Missoula having had a remarkable "downhill" tailwind most of the morning. It pays to leave early. The bike path across Missoula is one way to traverse the city. I took this shot with the camera on my shoulder as we were headed northeast. A nice residential neighborhood was just to the right of the path -- the streets were full of mature trees and well maintained older homes. We crosssed the Clark Fork River on the Orange Street Bridge, one of three in the downtown area. In addition to the other bridges, this foot/bike bridge (converted rail it looks like) is near the University of Montana campus. Although the Holiday Inn Express was about 10 blocks from downtown, it did sit perpendicular to the Clark Fork River. This shot of the river was taken from the Waterfront restuarant about 3 blocks from the Holiday Inn Express.