A Walkabout Around Butte

I really should have posted this earlier but maybe it will work okay to do it now from home.

My first thought when I saw that our CM rest day in Butte was, well, not so favorable. Bozeman and Missoula have much more hip reputations, being college towns with much more "leisure time physical activity" going on. But I am told by my friends from Montana that Butte folks are known to be very vocal advocates for their home town. And now I can see why.

For one thing downtown Butte is situated high on a hill with a spectacular view of the valley below. It has a great stock of Victorian houses and other 19th century buildings with a large number of them on the National Register of Historic Places. Butte has a fascinating history based or the "extraction" of minerals, especially copper, and the mining industry is responsible for both the boom and bust that have obviously taken place in the area. The Montana Tech campus, where Cycle Montana set up camp, is a truly lovely place with a great view overlooking the downtown area and the valley below. I can highly recommend a visit to the campus Mineral Museum though, sadly, I did not get any photos of that. The historic hotel in downtown Butte was a good mile walk from the CM campsite so the walk back and forth offered the occasion for a look at some of Butte's old neighborhoods. I was told that young Levi Leipheimer grew up in Butte. If so, I can see where he got his legs for there are some truly scary San Francisco-like hills all over the place!

Anyway, here is a selection of pics from our layover day in Butte, Montana:

This might also be a good place to comment on the cuisine of Cycle Montana. It was just excellent! A shameless plug is well-deserved for Chef Kathy at feeding-the-tribe. Thanks Kathy... well done!

 Tour mechanic Don needs to be fed too! He looks guilty of something here....

Yum!