Day 17 Sheridan to Gillette WY

We made  it!

One hundred and twelve miles. 3,900 feet of climbing; the 2nd most we have climbed thus far in our journey across the USA. To be honest, I still cannot believe we did it. It was quite the challenge. We've done that kind of mileage before, and we've done that much climbing but not both in one day. We are officially 1/3 of the way through our trip; we've traveled 1,190.8 official miles. In reality, the number is higher since John and I have accrued "bonus miles", a result of missed turns and screw ups.

This was a good news/bad news day. Good news - 30 mile of generally down hill riding from miles 20 through 50. Bad news? The rest was generally up hill, beginning with a 15 mile climb to begin the day and 62 miles of hills that where mostly up and some down. As I said before, we gained 3,900 feet of altitude today - that's a lot of climbing. Traditionally the weather for this day of the ride is 110 degrees with a headwind. Good news? We had no wind to speak of and temps in the mid to high 80's. Hot enough for me. If it had been a 110 degrees, I am not sure how I would have done it.

Wyoming, like Montana, is a lot of land with not a lot of people in it. For that reason, there are not many cities or services. There was literally one restaurant between Sheridan and Gillette today. (Did I mention that was a hundred and twelve miles?) It came at mile 72 and is called The Spotted Horse Cafe. The good news? It has great burgers and onion rings to die for. I ate them both with gusto. Both John and I felt renewed afterward. Bad news? A storm was coming and we had to get our butts on the road before it hit. We still had 50 miles to go!

Inside the cafe.

Outside the Painted Pony Cafe

In the end, we beat the storm in, took showers and headed out for a steak dinner at a local Sheridan eatery. We ate our fill and are about to fall over. I will add more thoughts on Wyoming, but right now I have to sleep. Tomorrow we have a mere 75 miles of "relatively" flat roads. Should be an easy day.

Day 16, Hardin, MT to Sheridan, WY

Yes indeed, the picture tells the story. Our support crew painted this message on the road at the 1,000 mile mark.

We were talking about 2005 today, the year we decided to get back into biking. That year we were Soooo proud of bicycling 500 miles total. Just incredibly full of ourselves. This year we have bicycled over 1,000 miles in 13 days on the bike, 16 days if you count the rest days. I don't know where we go from here, but I bet it will be fun.

Today's ride proved to be a bit of a challenge. Everyone in our group seemed a bit punk, us included. No one could come up with a reason other than that we have had a rest day, followed by a very light day - 56 miles down wind. Perhaps, the thinking goes, our bodies just forgot what we were doing and decided they no longer had to work hard. During the Tour De France, the cyclists always do a training ride on a rest day. Perhaps we will follow their example in the future.

The ride itself today was fairly flat and on lightly traveled roads. We did have a 5 to 10 mph head wind for most of the day, and it was HOT. Temperature into the low 90's. I think the heat will be our next challenge. Riding in the cold? Got it. Climbing long hills? Got that too. Riding in the rain? Piece of cake for Michiganders. Riding long distances in 90 to 100 plus temperatures? We'll need to tackle that next.

We will be getting up at 04:00 tomorrow with the idea of getting on the road by 05:30 to get some miles in before it gets hot. We ride 112 miles tomorrow from Seridan to Gillette, WY. Wish us luck.

Day 15 Billings to Hardin, MT

See the itty bitty city below? That's where we started!

Life is good. I am sitting at a KOA camp site in the shade. I've been here since 11:00; it was 56 miles from Billings to Hardin which feels like nothing at this point. Tomorrow we do 85 miles, the next 112, then76 and we will round out the week with an 85 mile riding into Rapid City, SD. This week we break the 1000 mile mark and move into a new state. (South Dakota, not confusion or hopefully exhaustion)

Down we go!

Of course we began with a climb... a 5 mile climb, but the scene of Billings below was worth it. It took us 50 minutes to climb the hill and 8 minutes 30 seconds to descend. It was a great decent through hill and valley. The rest of the trip was rolling hills and sunshine. We got in before the heat really set in. Tomorrow the heat will be more of a factor. John and I plan to leave early: between 5:30 and 6AM. Argh A necessary evil. I cannot believe we are almost 1/3 of the way through. Well I am off for a swim. Talk again tomorrow.

Day 14, Rest day, Billings, MT

Billings is a large and beautiful city of 200,000 people, about 25% of the population of the entire state. The town was founded by, and is named after Frederick Billings, who was president of the Northern Pacific Railway from 1879 to 1881. I assume he did some other stuff in his life to merit the statue on Montana Street that was erected in his honor in 1993. Apparently, "HIS FORESIGHT AND KEEN BUSINESS MIND RESULTED IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BILLINGS - THE MAGIC CITY - WHERE IT IS TODAY." So sayeth the plaque on the statue.

We are again staying in a dorm, this time at Montana State University. No air conditioning, but they do rent fans for $3. Margaret got one before they ran out. Free laundry again, so all our clothes now smell as though we eat with forks and belong in polite society.

Synopsis of our rides since last rest day. Mileage is according to our bike computer, and varies from the published miles due to impromptu explorations (getting lost) and equipment disagreements.
6/29/11 - Missoula to Avon: miles 101.45, total climb 3471 feet.
6/30/11 - Avon to Townsend: miles 61.86, total climb 2080 feet. (Including one Tour de France category 2 climb.)
7/01/11 - Townsend to Harlowton: miles 101.38, total climb 3422 feet. (Including one cat 3 and one cat 4 climb in the first 28 miles.)
7/02/11 - Harlowton to Billings: miles 92.54, total climb 1171 feet.
That's a total of 357 miles and 10,144 feet of climbing in the last four days, and a total of 868 miles since we began. (I'm too tired right now to figure out total climbing feet since 6/20.) The best part about this is that we feel really great. We pushed the last 20 miles of our ride into Billings despite the heat. I/we really are confident in our souls that we will do this ride and do it with pleasure.

What we have not been able to do is decide whether the road is ascending, or descending, and by how much. There was a down hill into Odessa on day 3. We were unsure whether we should coast or continue to pedal. We decided to try coasting even though the hill didn't look like much. We reached 37 mph. On day 8, Thompson Falls to Missoula, there was a 15 mile up hill that began around mile 60 that we perceived as flat, or even down hill. Drove us/me crazy that we could not move the bike at a proper speed. Later a fellow rider who is equipped with a Garmin GPS informed us we were going up a 2% grade the whole time.

We have decided to modify our riding to accommodate this lack of perception. Margaret and I will continue to put effort into moving the bike according to our capacities of the the moment, and the bike will go however fast it goes. We tried that approach the first day out of Missoula, and it worked better than we had hoped. If we are going only 10 mph, we must be going up hill, even if we can't see the hill. Certainly takes the pressure off.

Short day tomorrow, 56 miles to Hardin, but it is 11:52 and I need to go to bed.

Day 13 Harlowton to Billings

After a good night's rest at the Assembly of God Church, John and I headed out toward Billings. We stopped to photograph a locomotive engine that commemorates the role the Milwaukee railroad played in the development of Harlowton. Interestingly, the railroad pulled out of Harlowton in 1984, taking even the track that ran through town with it. The town's population shrank from 3,000 to a little less than 1,000 citizens in the months that followed. Some followed the railway move, others just moved on. John and I mused at the logic of a monument to the Milwaukee railroad in light of its ultimate effect on the community. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Riding down hwy 12 east was a 48 mile joy. Rolling hills, we characterize as roller-coasters, and very little traffic. We soared, losing altitude and gaining speed. We departed Harlowton at 6:30AM, cycling 48 miles through the Montana high plains, Ryegate (home of the testicle festival!) and were in Lavina for lunch before 9AM.

Lunch in Lavina..mmm peanut butter!

The high plains of MT.

We averaged 20 mph, we never average 20 miles per hour. We were elevation strong, or should I say lack-of-elevation strong. Having a mere 43 miles left, we were off to finish the ride in record time.

Notice the slight uphill nature of the land... we did too.

But all good things must come to an end, and Saturday was no exception. Billings, MT is 1,400 feet higher than Lavina and thus we began to climb. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed. The hills were never steep, they just seemed to never stop. After pausing for a second lunch and a sit in the shade of an awning (it was 85 F and not a tree in site), we continued to climb. Having been told the last half of the ride was flat, we began to resent the continual hill. It didn't care and continued to rise.

It is a lot prettier in person.

The city of Billings was a welcoming site: the hill stopped and secondly, Billings, MT is beautiful. The city, spread out below us, provided a view impossible to capture.

Gliding down a steep hill (at last!), we found the University of Montana Petre Hall easily. We were welcomed with a cold beer and later, a delicious meal (mmmm rare moo cow!) prepared for us in the park. We survive to ride again. Tomorrow a day off in Billings!

Day 12, Townsend to Harlowton - bear

Well, here are our pictures of the bear. Camera still deciding on black and white mode.








We go "92 hot, dry and often windy" miles to Billings tomorrow. Good night.

Day 12, Townsend to Harlowton, MT

We got out of camp and on the road by 06:30 this morning. The cue sheet reads, "This century ride begins with [a] 1,200 foot climb then back onto the high plains...Only services are at White Sulfur Springs." The last 100 mile ride kicked our butts, so we wanted to get an early start.











Scenery above for the first 10 miles.

After about 10 miles, we entered Deep Creek Canyon and began our climb. Grades were easy at first. If you looked to our left you would see this.











Then you could look to the right and see this. Deep Creek, I assume.


















The grade slowly increased to about six or seven percent, but we just kept spinning a low gear and reminding each other to drink water. Finally, as we got near the top of this 12 mile climb we saw this. Also Sprach Zarathustra anyone?











After stopping at the top of the climb for energy bars and sports drink, we had a screaming descent into the valley, reaching 42.7 mph. Our camera decided to switch to black and white mode, but I think this picture conveys the scene. It was the last that Margaret took before tucking in for a high speed descent.

The rest of the day was a fantastic, roller coaster ride. Charge down a hill, go as fast as you can, carry that speed to take you up the next hill. Repeat. The effect is exhilarating, much like riding a roller coaster.

Some one told us there was a two year old black bear a mile or two ahead. Margaret spotted him/her a bit up the hill from the road, and we stopped for a picture. The #)?!@# program won't let me add any more pictures. Probably something I'm doing wrong. At any rate, I'll do a short second post to show them.