Eastern MT and ND is Soooo Boring

Ok, Im sorry to all those who live in and love eastern MT and ND, but really, there isn't much out there. I left Billings after a couple days off from riding. It was great to take a break, but Billings was a bit lame.  A sprawled out death maze full of insane drivers would be the best way for me to describe it.  So I wasn't too sad to put it behind me.  The next few days were spent heading East along the interstate.  I stopped in Custer, Miles City, Glendive and a few other towns along the way.  Not much to say about 'em, really.  Miles City seemed pretty OK.

There were a few fun moments.  I stopped in Terry MT at a bar to refill my water.  The people inside started asking me about the ride and when I told them what I was doing they were so impressed they gave me $20.00!  My first Sponsor! That felt pretty good.  So if any of you are ever in Terry MT, get yourself a drink at the bar-- good people there! 

It took about four days to ride from Billings to the border or ND.  Then another four days across ND.

One of my worst days of the entire trip was riding from Glendive North up to Williston along highway 16.  Just about everything that happened to me was bad.  I woke up with terrible back pain and feeling a bit sick.  I drank some mediocre coffee in a cafe and planned my route.  By the time I set out the wind was blowing strong from the North, so I had a good headwind to contend with all day.  And of course, the shoulder was quite narrow and the traffic was terrible.  A lot of oil trucks, the drivers of which do not feel it necessary to move over for cyclists.  But whatever.  Add to that a couple miles of construction to ride through, dodging semis, dump trucks and steam rollers, but again, whatever.  I stop to get some water and looking ahead to the NW and I see rain clouds forming.  I decided to press on, hoping that I can get to the next town (Sidney) before the rains hit.  Of course it is slow riding because the wind is still blowing.  I'm about five miles from Sidney when the downpour hits, and I am soaked.  Then it lets up a little.  Then it hits me again, this time just two miles from town.  I arrive right when the rain stops for good.  awesome.  I rest, eat a little and decide to press on, but of course the wind is still blowing.  So I ended up camping in Fairview MT, right on the border of ND.  Shitty day, I suppose, but they are bound to happen.  The next day I turned east, only to find that the wind shifted and is now blowing out of the east.  Awesome.

But overall, I kicked ass in North Dakota.  Crossed the whole thing in four days!  I stayed in Tioga, Minot, Rugby, and of course, Grand Forks.  But it wasn't much more exciting than Eastern MT.  Highway 2 was fairly dangerous West of Minot due to the oil traffic and the tiny shoulder, but I survived.  Minot looked like a war zone with entire neighborhoods abandoned due to the flood.   The highpoint of ND was definitely the last day.  I finally had some luck with the winds: about 30 mph blowing straight out of the west!  I rode the 153 miles from Rugby ND to Grand Forks in just over seven hours.  It was pretty incredible.  Most of the time I was cruising around 25 mph on level ground.  Great fun!

So here I am in Grand Forks.  I am going to take a much needed break, eat some much needed pizza and drink some much needed beer for a while before heading out again.   

 

Yellowstone, Land of the tourists

We rode into Yellowstone the next day.  Thankfully, the campgrounds (which usually fill up by 11 in the morning) always keep a few campsites open for hikers and bikers.  This was the first time I had to pay for a place to sleep since the start of the trip, but we figured that stealth camping in YS (land of the super bears) would probably be a bad idea.  Shit, its probably even a felony.  So we paid up.  But the campgrounds were quite nice and only five bucks a night for cyclists.
We spent the next few days riding to a campsite, setting up, then riding on, unloaded, to check out the sights.  Let me just say, that Yellowstone is an awesome place.  There is some incredible scenery and a great deal of wildlife cramed into that park.  We saw hot springs, gysers, canyons, waterfalls, elk, buffalo and I even got to see a grizzly (though it was pretty far away).  Here are some pictures:

But Yellowstone did have a few drawbacks.  Unless you go on some serious hikes, you never really get away from the most abundant animal in the park, Homo Sapiens.  Cars everywhere, busses, RVs, children, the elderly, the obese, the ignorant, Yellowstone can proudly claim them all.  And they're not bad people, I really have nothing against them, I was just kind of expecting a more personal and intimate experience with the park.  But Oh well.  I would love to come back some day and do some real backpacking/camping.

My last day in the park I rode out the North East entrance through Cooke City.  It was the first time in a while that I could get cell reception or check my email, and I was a little disappointed to be connected again.   I stopped for a little while in Cooke City before riding up and over Coulter Pass (around 8800') to my campsite on the other side.  The next day would be probably the biggest physical challenge of the ride so far:  Beartooth pass.  Topping out at just under 11,000 ft, I had been dreading this one ever since arriving in Yellowstone.  I honestly wasn't sure if I would be able to get over it.  And what would I do if I failed?  Would I have to stealth camp with the bears somewhere halfway up?  Would I become sick with the altitude and have to ride all the way down?  What if I had to turn all the way around and go back through Yellowstone?

I didn't sleep too well that night.
But I did oversleep the next morning!  Pop quiz, folks: Was Greg (a) early to depart the campsite (b) right on the desired ETD or (c) late ?

If you answered (a) or (b) you clearly haven't learned anything about how Greg works.

I was a little late to start to the day which wasn't good because I was worried that Thunderstorms would pop up in the afternoon.  But I rode on.  I started the day looking up at the Mountains surrounding the Clark Fork River around my campsite and by late morning I was looking down on them and I still had at least 1000 ft to climb.  It was a slow ride to the top, but it was honestly, a lot better than I thought.  The grade was steady and the road was in good condition.  And the view all the way up (and going down) was sooo incredible. 

 I received a lot of encouragement and looks of astonishment from the drivers as they passed me by, which was fun.  I also received a lot of mosquito bites.  I was only putting out about 6-8 mph on the way up and with the slight tailwind I had, the mosquitoes where able to keep up with me.  So I had to try to swat them away as I churned up the never ending pass.  (I later counted over 80 mosquito bites on me, mostly on my back.  They had no problem poking me through my jersey)  But it was all worth it at the top.  What a view!

That's me at the top

See that road down there? That's were I will be riding in just a few minutes.

And the ride down the other side was great! I rolled into Red Lodge around 4:00 PM.  I took a little break and looked around for a place to camp.  I didn't have much luck, So I decided to make a run for Billings.  Its only 60 more miles.  So a little before 6:00 PM I set out for Billings, where I knew my man, Danny W, would have a place for me to crash.  I made good time to B-town, but i was sooo tired by the end.  120 miles by the end of the day.  I slept well that night.

Through the Storm, to Yellowstone

By a show of hands, let's see how many people in the audience think of me as a punctual person.  Ok, can we turn down the spot and bring up the house a bit?  Ok...I am seeing about...zero...zero people think I am punctual. Wow, what a sharp audience, you guys are with it.

So, I left Bozeman about 5:00 in the afternoon.  The plan was for me to leave just after noon so I could meet up with Daniel and Liz in Livingston (they were taking a bus for that leg) then we would ride south toward Yellowstone together.  But guess, what?  I was a bit late leaving Bozeman.   Maybe it was all the Schlitz.  Whatever the reason, I left late and had to make up for some serious lost time.  So I took a bit of a short cut. This short cut would take me up and over Bozeman pass along a gravel road, but it would cut many miles off the total distance-- so I took it.  It was a beautiful ride, and I was very grateful to be off the Interstate, where the drivers are all more than happy to kill a cyclists rather than change lanes.  I made it up and over the gravel pass, no problems-- but then the weather stated to take a turn for the worse.

Thunderstorms were forming behind me and starting to catch up.  Soon the wind was howling; it was all tailwind, but it was blowing at least 25-30 miles an hour; much faster than I could ride fully loaded on a gravel road.  Thunder was rumbling directly overhead, and here I am in the middle of the mountains, no cars, no houses or shelter, wind roaring around me blowing dust in my face.  Not good.  So I am bombing down this gravel road in an effort to get off the mountain before the real storm sets in.  The whole time I am praying for no flat tires, no wipe outs or any other mishap that would leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere during this storm.  It was intense.  The dust was bad enough that at times, I couldn't see more than 10 ft down the road and the wind kept trying to blow me off the edge of the road down into the ravine.  Then the rain started up and I was still not to the bottom yet.  At least the rain stopped the worst of the dust.  A fork in the road comes up that was not on my map.  I go left.  It got so steep toward the end I could smell my brakes and all I want is to not get hit by lightning.

But I made it!

Just as the really heavy pouring rain started the gravel turned into pavement and I was on the highway heading south to Yellowstone.  Some people in a big truck picked me up and took me to the nearest campground, less then a mile away.  There I met up with Daniel and Liz and we waited out the rest of the storm.  Thank you, Surly for making such a bad ass bike.  Thank you Tubus for making such bomb-proof racks and Ortlieb for your oh-so-watertight panniers.
Whew.

That evening I had a bit of a moment.  Daniel, Liz and I set up camp behind a Church in the Town of Pray.  It was dark and the next day wasn't Sunday, so we figured no one would hassle us.  Daniel and Liz went straight to bed, but I couldn't sleep so I went around the corner to have a snack with out disturbing them.   And there I was, on a dark night, behind a random church in a random tiny town in the middle of MT.  I spent the afternoon almost being killed by a thunderstorm and now here I am eating trailmix and watching the stars.  And the stars were amazing-- shooting star every 2 minutes and milky way was as bright and clear as I've ever seen it.  Tomorrow we will ride out before anyone knows we were there.

This is, without a doubt, the best summer ever!!!!

Missoula to Helena to Bozeman

It was hard to tear myself away from Missoula.  Real Hard.  I met all kinds of good people!  But it had to happen, so after four nights I rode on to Ovanodo MT.  Ovando is a tiny little town along hiway 200, but it has got style and character!  They offer free camping to anyone riding through in the town center, so I camped out with another cyclists who was riding the continental divide.  We ended up hanging out with Skip, the self-appointed town Mayor, Sheriff, and Justice of the Peace.  He was an older gentleman, and he talked very slowly.  He wasn't stupid or slow in the head, he just moved at his own small-town pace.  He had very random stories that didn't always pertain to the rest of the conversation, but he was real nice.  For those of you who know Gordon Rosinski, the manager of my apt building, it was a little bit like talking to a younger version of Gordie.  Fun times.

The next day I made it to Helena, where I met up with couch surfer Kayla and her three roommates.  We had a great time that night, eating out, drinking a few beers at the Irish pub, (complete with good live Irish music).  Then I got a thorough walking tour of downtown Helena, complete with a visit to the haunted residence of Wilson Butts. (I know, his name is Butts.  Now that's a funny name!)  Then we made it back home where Kayla read out loud from a cheesy Montana-based romance novel-- complete with funny voices! (It was deja vu all over again!) Good night!
 

 (This lovely sign was on the road into Helena...now why would you keep paying for the sign after 5/21?)

On the road the next day I hit some of the worst road construction of the trip yet!  For miles I had to ride through oily gravel, being continuously pelted with rocks from passing cars until I had to stop because my tires became completely covered with tar and rocks.  It sucked.  But by the time I got out of the worst of it I had virtually no traffic for the rest of the ride.  I camped at an airport in Three Forks and made it to Bozeman early the next day.

In Bozeman I stayed two nights with CSer Josh and his roommate.  I had yet another blast in Bozeman, which is in my opinion a smaller, slightly less good but still quite good, version of Missoula.  I hit the coffee shops and co-ops in the afternoon and in the evening ate some delicious pizza (thanks to chef and his wife for the free beers)!  In the evening I hit the town with Josh and some of his friends.  We had some good beers then went to see some live ska music by a band called Skavacado.  It was a great time and I am pleased to say that I ripped that dance floor to shreds! Shreds, I say!  Good dancin music.
Day two in Bozeman I was going to leave with Dan and Liz, and go to Yellowstone, but due to an unfortunate tumble a few miles out D and L decided to come back to Bozeman for another night to recuperate.  I stayed an extra day and took care of my CFI renewal paperwork all day.  So it was a productive day, though a bit boring.  In the evening I stopped by a bar for a drink before going to see Cowboys and Aliens and was pleased to see that they had Shlitz on tap!  On Tap!  For 2 bucks a glass, no less!  Well done, Bozeman, well done.

But tomorrow I will set out, for Yellowstone!  It will be quite sonic, I am sure and I will have to cross two mountain passes, one at 8,000 ft and the other topping it out at just under 11,000 ft!  It will be great as long as I don't get eaten by a bear or gored by a buffalo or scalded in a bubbling mud pit or squashed by an RV or pass out due to altitude sickness over the passes.  What could go wrong??