Start: 7:25 AM

Finish: 1:45 PM

Saddle Time: 4:52

Ascent: 726 feet

Descent:  1,018 feet

Miles: 57 miles

Total Miles: 1,157

Highlight: First hour of the day climbing into the Judith Mountains.

Lowlight: I could easily say headwinds again but it’s getting redundant.  I’ll go with grasshoppers.  These little guys have been pelting me for day, mostly just my legs.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Todays ride started with a modest climb up into the Judith Mountains.  When not riding my legs ache so the early morning climb actually felt good.  It wasn’t steep, just 2%-4% grade gaining about 700 feet over about 8 miles.  The scenery was pine forest mixed in with rolling hills of grass, a nice change from the grass and wheat plains I’ve had the past few days.

Once over the top the rest of the ride, all nearly 50 miles, is gradual downhill.  I started out cruising along effortlessly at 15-20mph for good 15 miles then the headwinds started.  I don’t want to sound like a broken record complaining about headwinds but if anything on this trip has been consistent it’s the headwinds.  I have it almost everyday, the only question is how strong.  Most days have not been burdensome like the last few but today was another strong headwind day, the kind that makes me pedal hard on a -1.5% grade just to maintain 10mph. It is frustrating but I’m able to put myself in a mental space it is what it is.  Just keep peddling but I can’t stop my mind from wondering how much easier this ride would be if there was no headwind or better yet a tailwind.

I met a couple west bound cyclist.  We stopped and talked on the road for a good while.  They started in Washington DC in early May and have been piecing together their ride largely using the site traillink.com.  They were able to travel on rail trails about 70% of the way from DC to Fargo, ND but west of there and into Montana they have largely been on the road.  They are taking a more southern route through Washington where there are substantial lengths of rail trail taking them to Seattle.  I think if I do another cross country or long distance tour I will go that route, try to stick to rail trails as much as possible.  It is hard to enjoy yourself when cars whiz by at 70mph but I’m not complaining, still happy to be out here.

They recommended a restaurant in the small town of Grass Range that had good food and pies.  I didn’t want to stop long for a meal but a slice of pie or cake sounded good.  Grass Range is another tiny town with just a few roads and an old grain elevator.  I rode through but didn’t see the restaurant so I stopped at the Little Montana Truck Stop for a gatorade, moon pie, and cheese snacks.

Saw my first dead rattlesnake on the road, directly in my line of travel.  It made me wonder what would I do if it was alive and trucks were coming up behind me?  It’s not easy to clip out of my pedals and raise my feet hoping the critter doesn’t bite me.  It also made me more concerned about stopping or even riding next to the grass.  Am I going too fast for them to strike?  Whenever I slow down to stop I eye ahead to see that it’s snake free.

The rest of the ride into Winnett was uneventful, just riding into the headwind.  I have defended another 1,000 feet or so and the terrain is starting to look a little flatter.  I’m wondering if this is going to continue for the rest of Montana and into North Dakota.

I made it to Winnett by before 2:00 which is plenty early but the wind probably added 1.5 hours to my ride, at least.  Winnett is another small town with just one motel, one restaurant/bar, and a market. The restaurant had good reviews online for their burgers and steak so I had a burger for lunch and a steak for dinner.  Both were tasty.  They were out of sirloin steaks with the only other steak an rib steak sandwich that turned out to be more of a steak served on two slices of toast and fries.  Still very good.  I don’t know, something about the steak around here makes it taste better than home or maybe anything tastes good to me at this point.   I scoped out the market for breakfast foods, grabbed a large breakfast sandwich and a yogurt plus a gatorade to top me off for now.

The place I’m staying, the Northern Hotel, is very small just about 8 or 10 rooms.  The buildings look fairly new, everything is in good shape.  I’m in a double for $75 since the singles at $60 were full. Very comfortable place.  I slept well.

Around 5:00 it really started to pour with thunder and lightening.  I started three weeks ago today and this is the first rain I’ve seen day or night. Glad I’m not riding in it but it does make me wonder about late afternoon thunderstorms around here, maybe another reason to be done by early afternoon.

I’m hoping the wind works out for me tomorrow since I have a 75 mile peddle to Jordan.  There’s a B&B 30 miles from here, where I considered staying tonight but decided against it because of the wind.  The forecast is for winds out of the north to northwest so either broadside me or maybe a little tailwind.  Hopefully that holds up because I can’t do 75 miles into a headwind making 10 mph.  If I get early headwinds I may consider bailing at the B&B if possible but I really don’t want to make this a two day trip.  We will see how tomorrow goes.