Start: 7:16 AM

Finish: 4:00 PM

Saddle Time: 6:27

Ascent: 1,183 feet

Descent:  888 feet

Miles: 65

Total Miles: 1,416

Highlight: Entering North Dakota.

Lowlight: Have to go with the wind again.  Almost made today unenjoyable.

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.

One of the things I like most about traveling is breakfast, getting a good breakfast in a restaurant.  Great way to start the day. Unfortunately on this trip if there are any breakfast restaurants around they typically don’t open until 7:00 AM, too late. No 24h diners in rural Montana until today.  The restaurant attached to my motel is open 24 hours probably because it sits on the interstate. Last nights steak was good so I have high hopes for a 5:30 AM breakfast. It didn’t disappoint but the serving was HUGE, of course I ate it all.

When I opened my door at 7:00 AM the wind was already blowing hard, it’s going be a rough day.  I don’t even need to check my Windy app, it’s going to be a headwind because it’s always a headwind. Turns out it was blowing out of the south-southeast so a slight headwind but kept shifting to full on headwind from time to time.

I started the day riding on Interstate 94 for about 10 miles which isn’t as bad as it may sound.  I spent the last couple weeks traveling through Montana on highways with 70 MPH speed limits and at best a few foot shoulder or often none at all so a massive interstate shoulder was awesome.  I was a good 6 feet from traffic and oddly enough most cars and trucks moved over to the other lane when they passed. They gave me more space than on rural Montana highways.

The elevation profile called for a long 30 miles of climbing out of the Yellowstone River valley, so the opposite of my descent into Glendive yesterday.  At 1.5%-2% grade it should have been barely noticeable but I spent a lot of the morning in my climbing gears, sometimes making only 6-8 mph. Super frustrating.  I was hating on Montana something fierce.

I crossed the North Dakota border on the interstate around noon then soon exited the highway to follow a road that paralleled the interstate which later turned into Old Highway 10, the original highway through the region. The road was similar to what I experienced in Montana but I was glad to see 55 MPH speed limits.  It was a nice ride.  I kept telling myself that as wind was blowing in my face. 

Like Montana this is also farm country.  I’m seeing a lot of colors I recall from western Montana and Washington, shades of green and brown.  I also saw corn for the first time. Eventually the scenery changed again, gone were the farms replace by more of a western movie look. Much more arid but with patches of green in the lowlands including trees. I’m definitely seeing more trees than in Montana. The soils is taking on more of a yellow tone with striations of grey and red.

In addition to the wind it was getting really hot but fortunately there were enough places I could stop for water.  Twice today people asked me if I needed a cold drink (well I did but not what they were offering). While on the highway I saw a truck pulled over way up ahead so I assumed he had mechanical issues or something.  As I approached he stood behind the truck with a bottle of water.  I stopped and talked with him for a while.  He was from Nebraska and had done a number of cross country rides in the past.  Seeing me peddling out here he thought this area would be tough to cycle through.  I know that.  Later in the day while only about 5 miles from Medora a car pulled up along side of me and asked if I needed a cold drink.  I was singularly focused on getting to town and I did have water so I said no and thanked them.  Later I regretted not stopping and taking them up on a cold drink.  They probably wanted to hear about my ride and it would have been good for me to meet more locals.

It was about 4:00 by the time I made it into town, much later than I wanted.  I hoped to get in a couple hours earlier so I could walk around.  Medora is a gateway to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and is done up to look like a western town, touristy but still interesting. I’m staying in an RV park walking distance from town since the only rooms available were over $200/night. By the time I setup camp, took a shower and did laundry it as time for dinner then soon after bed.

It is hot.  The highs are not crazy but low to mid 90’s means it’s not cooling down into the low 70’s until after midnight. I do want to get back into camping especially as I get to areas that have better campgrounds rather than the RV parks in Montana which were mostly just dusty parking lots.  Not much for trees out here. I still would like cooler weather.

Start: 8:00AM

Finish: 1:30 PM

Saddle Time: 4:00 PM

Ascent: 718 feet

Descent:  954 feet

Miles: 50 miles

Total Miles: 1,350

Highlight: Decent road to ride on all day.

Lowlight: Visiting the dinosaur museum in Glendive that presents dinosaurs in a biblical context.  FYI, man and dinosaur coexisted thousands of years ago. Wow!

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.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was almost completely terrible while today just the opposite. It wasn’t fantastic but in comparison to yesterday anything is great. I started the morning with coffee and a breakfast sandwich from the gas station next door.  It didn’t open until 6:00 AM so I was in no rush to get up, since it was a short ride if I get out by 8:00 I’ll be fine.  The ride was only about 50 miles with a moderate climb to start, well I can’t really call it a climb but more of an elevation gain over about 10 miles.  Super gentle grade with some hills but net up followed by about 40 miles of gentle downhill to the Yellowstone River in Glendive.  Of course my friend the headwind returned late morning but it wasn’t all that bad, slowed my progress but I’ve experienced worse.  I’ve resigned myself to this fate, I will have headwinds for the next 1,000 miles until I get to within 1,000 miles of the east coast. I have no idea, just making that up but it seems to make sense with how this summers weather pattern is abnormal.  I’m supposed to have a tailwind by now. It’s the reason why the preferred direction for this route is west to east.  Not this summer.

Compared to yesterday the road conditions were great.  I had some kind of shoulder the whole way and strangely light traffic but it is a Saturday morning, I often loose track of days. I continued through prairie with sections of badlands like terrain.  I’m also back into grain country, seeing more fields of crops, grain elevators and such.

At one point I came across a train that went on over the horizon. I stopped to take pictures then continued on noting my odometer.  It went on for 5 miles.  The tracks had weeds growing up around the cars so I don’t think it has moved for a very long time.  Later that day while in town I started talking to a guy who worked for the railroad.  He said they park unused cars along that track, leaving breaks for side roads.

I crossed over the Yellowstone River on a bridge that dates back to the 1920’s, now just a pedestrian bridge.  Even with my somewhat late start I was getting into town pretty early around 1:00 so I stopped first for a Gatorade at a gas station followed by a food truck selling Mexican food.  Wow! Food other than steak and hamburgers.  I happily grabbed a burrito for the road.  I’m staying at the Yellowstone River Inn which sounds more quaint than it actually is.  It’s a $55 night motel but quite nice for the price.

After downing my burrito and taking a shower I went across the street to the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum.  I was looking forward to this museum.  I know nothing about it but I’m in dinosaur country so it could be interesting.  I walked in and saw a sign saying “We present dinosaurs in a biblical context”.  Strange, but I went to the desk to pay my $8 entry fee anyway. The guy said “we are having a creation day sale so admission is only $5”.  Ok. He went on to say “we present dinosaurs in a biblical context”.  I’m putting my credit card in the machine and this line is bouncing around my head, what does that mean? So I had to ask.  He said there is a lot of evidence to suggest dinosaurs and humans coexisted over the past thousands of years and they were whipped out by the great flood of Noah’s Ark.  Holy shit!  He’s serious but I went in anyway.

I have to say the museum was very nice with lots of fossils, probably casts but cool none the less.  They mixed in a lot of solid paleontology and biology with complete bullshit.  It was like watching an episode of Tucker Carlson where he asks a question that’s easily answerable with a little research by any journalist but by not providing an answer he suggests there isn’t one or that the answer is negative. 

They had a good display about the cell, it’s organelles and DNA.  They talked about how the cell has repair mechanism built in to fix errors during replication or from spontaneous mutations. Then the question: “If the cell has repair mechanisms built into it then how can DNA change over time?”.  Makes a lot of sense until you think about it.  Because all mechanisms fail from time to time.  It’s why we can track the lineage of SARS-Cov2 as it mutates while passing through human hosts.  Evolution happing before our eyes in realtime. Like Tucker this place is toxic to people who don’t or can’t think for themselves, especially kids.

I finished off my last day in Montana with a large ribeye steak, a glass of wine, and a coconut cream pie at the restaurant attached to my motel.  You wouldn’t expect motel food to be good but this was outstanding.  They are open 24 hours so I’ll get a real breakfast in the morning.

Tomorrow I leave Montana after 2 weeks and enter North Dakota.  I’m also camping for the first time in almost 2 weeks.

Start: 8:00AM

Finish: 3:30 PM

Saddle Time: 6:00

Ascent: 1,411 feet

Descent:  1,560 feet

Miles: 67 miles

Total Miles: 1,300

Highlight: Talking to other cyclists I met along the way.

Lowlight: Riding the worst stretch of road I’ve encountered since the start of the trip.

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.

Hard to say much positive about today other than it eventually ended and I bought a 4-pack of beer.  That’s not totally true, I did have some good conversations with other cyclists I met along the way.  Just after leaving my motel I saw the cyclists from Glens Falls I met last night at the museum sitting outside their hotel across the street drinking coffee.  They waved to me so I rode over to say hello again.  We talked for along while about our tours.  They gave me a heads up as to what was in store for me on the road ahead, really bad road conditions including a construction site with dirt roads and one lane traffic.  I had heard this from other cyclists and locals. They talked about how much they liked the camping in the Michigan upper peninsula, one of the alternate routes I could take.  Makes me think I need to get back to camping once I can find real campgrounds that are not just dirt lots for RV’s which is all I’ve seen around here. 

Did you hear about the cyclist killed by a bear in Montana?  Apparently she had food in her tent because where are you going to tie up your food if there are no trees?  I’ve wondered about that.

I eventually started riding and about 10 miles down the road saw a strange object on the horizon.  It looked to be moving but was on the side of the road.  I couldn’t figure it out.  As it got closer I figured it must be a bicycle but looked like it had a cooler strapped to the front, reminded me of motorcycles and scooters you see in Southeast Asia with all sorts of things strapped to the back.  What was he doing all the way out here with a cooler? At about 100 yards away I realized it was an incumbent bike with a while wind shield. We stopped and talked for a while.  He started from his home in Massachusetts in early June and has been making decent time because of all the tailwind recently which makes sense with of all my headwind.  This weather pattern is not normal for this time of year. We surmised the extreme weather in the northwest is effecting regional weather patterns in area.

Before leaving I packed up an extra couple liters of water since there’s nothing between here and Circle 67 miles away other than a rest stop, don’t want to risk it not being open for some reason.  The ride started out fine, the usual pleasant Montana morning, cool and quiet. Winds were predicted to be strong but mostly out of the north while my ride is mostly east so it shouldn’t be too bad.  The road seemed fairly new with reasonable shoulders but that ended after about 15 miles when the shoulders disappeared.  The road was likely very old where they just paved over an old dirt road that went up and over the rolling hills without trying to modulate the terrain. The short but steep ascents are tiring but also dangerous with lots of blind spots.  Of course Montana keeps the same stupid speed limit regardless of how dangerous the road.

Just as I approached the construction site the geography changed dramatically into a very badlands like terrain with washed out shale with some nice colors.  It didn’t last long but was a nice change from the prairie. The construction site had packed dirt roads which were easy to ride on and the one way traffic slowed everyone down.  Well after the site I still benefited from the one lane traffic for many more miles since cars came in spurts with long periods of nothing in between. The problem this side of the construction site were tandem gravel trucks, lots of them. Seemed like a regular cadence of every few minutes, similar to the logging trucks I experienced back in Washington.  These trucks are hauling, literally and figuratively.  They were likely moving at the truck speed limit of 65mph and didn’t slow for anything, many barely gave me enough space.  When they approach you get hit with wall of wind, so much I have to put my head down and brace and also keep an eye in my mirror.  If a car is coming the other way I need to pull over which is difficult on a road without a shoulder and a steep bank on the edge.  This terrible riding went on for a good 30-40 miles, worse riding of the trip.

After the construction site I made it to the rest area, a nice building with bathrooms and cold water.  I ate a sandwich I bought last night at supermarket for second breakfast, kept cold overnight in my motel fridge.  I’m liking this for quick meal. I’ll look for sandwiches in future markets, if I’m staying in a motel

Eventually the truck traffic let up dramatically, maybe I was far enough away or maybe late enough in the day.  The road was new so in good condition but made a turn to the north into the headwind slowing my progress to about 10mph for the last 15 miles.

I made it to the motel a good hour later than I expected. It was a tiring day both physically and mentally  I’m getting closer to the flat plains of North Dakota, looking forward to fewer hills.  Circle is another tiny town with one motel, a couple restaurants and a bar.  Super quiet.  I should comment on the food.  Keep in mind I’m traveling through small towns in Montana with the only exception being Great Falls several days ago.  These towns have populations in the hundreds to single digit thousands.  There are no restaurants, well there are but typically its the local bar or in the case of Circle a family restaurant next door to the bar.  The only food you can find are burgers, steak, and fried chicken, or some variety of that.  I’ve had good, cheap burgers and some good steaks but I would really like something else.  Even the salads are just iceberg lettuce, so crunchy water.

Tomorrow is a short 50 mile day to Glendive, my last night in Montana.

Start: 6:54 AM

Finish: 2:08 PM

Saddle Time: 5:45

Ascent: 1,831 feet

Descent:  2,175 feet

Miles: 76 miles

Total Miles: 1,233

Highlight: Seeing the geography change from the rolling hills covered with wheat and grass to a landscape clearly shaped by erosion.

Lowlight: Well the only thing I can complain about today was lack of cell service all day and poor wifi in my motel so it must have been a good day.

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.

Did you hear about the bear attack? I was in the local bar last night and overheard local talking about how a camper was killed by a bear and now there’s a massive hunt on to kill the bear. Just wanted you to know it wasn’t me. Interesting about how they had food in their tent, something you should never do, especially in bear country. I’ve been in motels lately but wondered what would I do with food when there are no bear boxes like in Washington and no trees to hang your food.

Today was my longest ride since the heat wave set in back in Washington. No passes or anything but the terrain is rolling, the type of climbing that can sneak up on you over time.  All of a sudden you wonder why you are so tired. I wanted to leave at 6:30  but it was closer to 7:00 before I left largely because I had a long conversation with my neighbors in the motel.  Three guys, one a regional local and the other two from South Africa.  They are in the area working on installing some type of irrigation systems somewhere.  I talking to the South Africans about the time we spent in Namibia and how I would like to visit South Africa.  The regional local guy asked about my trip so I told him how I’m riding to Connecticut. He said “that’s a liberal state, right?”  I laughed, I shouldn’t have laughed but I couldn’t help myself.  Trying to regain some control and sound less offensive I said “well it’s more liberal than here”.  My motel is plastered with Trump flags. I’ve lived in Connecticut my whole life, it’s not a liberal state. We don’t even make the top ten of most liberal states but he’s not the only person who has made such a comment to me.  From his worldview democrat = liberal = socialist = communist.  Of course there are no hard equals signs between any of those, in fact some have no equal signs at all.

You can see how peoples views are heavily influenced by what they consume unfortunately now from sources like FOX News or MSNBC.  We went on to have a long conversation about the area while he gave me pointers on the road ahead.  He’s a good guy from a vary narrow world view based on his life experience. There’s a Mark Twain quote about how travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness.  Travel is the best way to understand “others” are really not all that different from you.  We may come from very different backgrounds but at the end of the day we want the same thing out of life.  The benefits of travel go both ways.  You obviously benefit from traveling with new life experiences but it also impacts the people you meet.  When we were on our round the world trip I remember telling the girls that how they act matters.  In some places the person you are interacting with may never have met an American.  That can leave a lasting impression. Same for my conversation with this guy, he may never have met someone from Connecticut.  Maybe he left thinking people from Connecticut are not all that bad and I got a better understanding that some dude from the middle of nowhere Montana wearing a black American flag is truly a good guy.

The morning ride today again was fantastic. The cool temperatures and light traffic really makes me think I should get going earlier every day.  Today was about change, the geography of the area is changing from the rolling prairie land of grasses and wheat to land clearly shaped by erosion.  Gone are the vast fields of wheat and all the accompanying hardware like grain elevators.  I’m still in the prairie but much more shaped by erosion which impacts my ride. As the guy I was talking to earlier was warning me about, the roads have a lot of blind spots as it travel over buttes, into gullies and around turns so I need to be alert to what’s coming behind me and be careful where I stop.

I stopped at a rest area about 20 miles into the day that had some information on the area. The geology is made up of shale, sedimentary deposits from the inland sea that occupied this area millions of years ago.  Embedded in the shale are lots of fossils.  I’m entering fossil country.

About 40 miles in I stopped at a store in the middle of nowhere, well it was in Sand Springs but that’s more a name on a map than an actual town. The store had a lot of miscellaneous stuff from snacks to artwork made from horseshoes. I bought a gatorade, an apple, an orange and three hard boiled eggs for $5.  Hard boiled eggs! What a great idea.  I thought if I can buy a half dozen eggs I can cook them up in may camp stove, chill them down in a motel fridge and take them the next day for snacks.

I met a west bounder there, a young guy riding solo who started in Bar Harbor on June 6th. At first I was impressed with his progress but later doing the math he was likely averaging about 80 miles a day, what I wanted to average when I started out on this journey. 

Right about when I left the winds really started to pick up.  Forecasts were for wind out of the north-northwest which seemed to hold up.  I had broadside wind that occasionally moved to mostly tailwind depending on the road direction.  My remaining 30 miles were no problem.  I had been used to suffering the second half of the day with relentless headwinds so this was super easy.

I made it to Jordan a little after 2:00.  There was no one in the lobby of my motel so I rode around town and visited the local museum. You may recognize Jordan, MT because it’s where the first T-Rex fossil was discovered back in the early 1900’s with other significant discoveries over the years.  In the museum I met a west bound couple from Glens Falls, NY not all that far from where I live.  They left in early May riding a tandem.

Today was partly a test for me, how do I feel after a nearly 80 mile day.  Can I expect to ride this day after day once I get into more populated areas with more frequent options for places to stay.  I think it went well, I can easily handle this distance. Maybe I’ll be home in a month.

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.