7/6-Another Fine Example of It Always Works Out!

Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about today. The distance was pretty daunting. I left Cooney Lake at 6:30.

I don’t usually see sunrises

It was about a mile back to the route (sure seemed longer than that yesterday). It was rolling pavement to Joliet. 

Good morning shadow!

See the deer?

And now for some turkeys

My plan was to stock up on water and a few more snacks in Joliet. 

Even though it was only 8:00, I had a chocolate milk. I added two liters of water to my collection. I don’t think I mentioned this before, but when I was riding from Phillipsburg, I found a Titan strap (like a Voile strap) on the side of the road. I only had one extra strap. I needed a second one to carry two extra liters. The road provides!

Everything loaded, I made my way back to the route. The road went to gravel (I’d already had one section of gravel). I encountered my first road grader of the day. The gravel was quite thick on the ungraded side, so I moved over to the graded side. 

A bit smoother

I finished that gravel as I came into Edgar (I think that’s the name of the town), home of “Fordhenge”.

I talked with the artist’s wife, Sheri. Her husband has created this memorial garden of old Fords. Each tree has been planted in memory of one of his car friends who have passed away. It was quite interesting, and still a work in progress. 

Back to it, because those miles weren’t going to ride themselves! Also back to gravel. The wind was really becoming a factor, and not in a good way. The gravel was less than optimum. Very thick and loose. There was a fair amount of traffic. And yet another road grader. He passed me twice. 

So much dust!

I rode with the buff up almost the entire day

I only had one climb today, but it was 5.27 miles long! The crosswind was making it hard to stay in the track on the gravel. It got to the point where it was easier to walk…sorta.

I “finished” the climb, but there wasn’t much of a descent until later. Coming down in the wind was almost as bad as going up. There were times when I didn’t have to brake because the wind was braking for me! 

It wasn’t until I got more into a canyon that the wind was a little better. And I was also back on pavement. 

It looks like the rocks are in pieces

Ah, the Pryor town dump

Realizing that there was no way I was going to make it to Hardin, I pulled into Chief Plenty Coups State Park. I was hoping they might let me camp here (or maybe I could hitch a ride to Hardin with someone). When I pulled up to the museum, there was a young woman, and an older woman sitting at the picnic table. I asked the young gal if she worked there. She did. I asked if it would be possible for me to camp here beings there was no way I was going to make it to Hardin (another 55 miles). She said they didn’t allow camping, but Bernie, the older woman, owned the property across the road. Bernie said I could camp by the creek on her property! 

This gave me time to check out the state park and museum. 

Chief Plenty Coups museum

His home

He ran a store. This is how he kept track of who owed what

The Chief

A special room in his house

Notice the wall coverings

Becca, the younger woman, let me bring Wanda inside the museum while I was wandering the park. She even gave me some bear spray for my camping tonight!

We had a great chat as there weren’t any other people at the park. She might even end up in Washington!

Okay, I’m going to upload this post (there’s service here at the park), then head over to check out my campsite at Bernie’s. See, it always works out!

7/5-The End Of Cutthroat, and the Beginning of Steppe

I had a lovely evening with Pete and Verna from Nebraska last night (but Pete had lived in Auburn). Finally had to excuse myself and go to bed. 

I wasn’t in too great of a hurry this morning. I thought I only had 45 miles to Cooney Lake State Park. Tuan was heading to Billings today on frontage roads. 

The first 15 miles to Reed Point were all on the frontage road. 

Morning on the frontage road

Some bird of prey

I thought it was cute how the one horse had its head I. The back of the other one. 

It was trending downhill, so I arrived in Reed Point at 9:00. The little gas station/convenience store was just open. It was a bit early for chocolate milk, but I figured I wasn’t going to have another opportunity. 

Coming in to Reed Point

Very western looking

Wanda and a friend. 

I started climbing as I was leaving the town. It was a 3.2 mile gravel climb with an average grade of 7%.

It’s going up!

Looking back down to the town

You can see the switchbacks

Looking back down. 

I was actually quite proud of myself. I managed to ride the whole climb! Of course I took breaks, but I didn’t walk!

The top, but there wasn’t really a descent

Lots of this long straight gravel

I was just riding along when I saw this calf on the wrong side of the fence. 

He ran along beside me for awhile. He was definitely looking for a way back to his friends. 

There was more up and down on the gravel. Finally I came to some houses. 

Okay, I’ll stay on the road

Interesting vehicle for gravel

The road became pavement, and I came down to the hwy, and the end of Segment 2-Cutthroat. It was 664 miles! I loaded up Segment 3-Steppe. Here I realized I did not go into Columbus. I had 15 miles to the state park. I figured I had enough water, so I stayed on the route. 

I turned onto the rollercoaster that was Shane Creek Rd. So many ups and downs! There were three climbs that initiated the climb pro. 

By now I was getting tired, hungry, and thirsty. I was starting to ration my water. My mouth was so dry. 

The road finally came down for a good bit. I even had a deer sighting. 

Thanks for posing

According to the route, the camping was on the north side of Cooney Lake. I was beginning to get a bit worried, but then I saw the sign for the north shore. It was another couple of miles to the first campground. When I arrived, I immediately went and filled a bottle, and sat down and ate a fruit pie. I drank a good liter of water. 

I have looked at the route for tomorrow, and I am not sure what to do. There is no camping or lodging for over 100 miles. I will be entering tribal land, so stealth camping could be tricky. I thought of going to Billings from Joliet, but then to get back to the route, I’d have to ride I-90 I think. I might just go as far as I can, and hope for the best. I think there is more downhill tomorrow than today. Today was very warm, and I think that made it harder. If I continue on the route, I’ll fill all my water in Joliet. 

Cooney Lake

My campsite

7/4-Happy Two-Fiddy!

I got a text from my youngest son this morning. He was standing with the governor of Massachusetts in a Life is Good t-shirt that said “Two-Fiddy”. I thought it was the perfect title for this year’s 4th of July post. 

Today was my longest distance so far at 81 miles! I left Bozeman about 6:45 after a good breakfast at the Super 8. I was concerned about the route because the route I was able to download was different from the Bikepacking.com route. I messaged Crowell Herrick, the guy who did the majority of the Montana routing, and asked if it mattered which way I went. He said the Bikepacking.com route was better. I figured, for the part that was different, I would have to stop periodically and check the route on my phone. But, I didn’t! The route I was running on my Garmin was the right route! Maybe it was updated?

On the Kelly’s Canyon Rd which was the correct route!

Crowell told me there would be a rippin’ descent after climbing up Kelly’s Canyon. 

There was this on the way up. Lewis and Clark camped here on their way back to St Louis. 

Boy howdy, was he right!!! It was an awesome descent! There was a woman out walking at the bottom. I had to stop and tell her how much fun that was!

Then I was on to Bridger Rd, but not for too long. When I turned off, it was the beginning of a succession of shortish climbs. There was not much distance in between each climb.

Little lines of snow across the tops

Cranes

Today’s deer photo (I saw another one, but didn’t get a photo…one a day is enough)

 I stopped for a sugar break just before another climb. This guy pulled up. 

This is Boone. He was in quite the get up! I saw him again later as he was climbing back up Bozeman Pass from the other side. 

I finally got to a decent downhill section that took me back to an I-90 frontage road. 

Down!

A little school!

At the turn onto the frontage road. This is the only way I want to see a grizzly!

Now I had another not too long of a climb up to Bozeman Pass. A bunch of roadie cyclists went by. They just went to the top and turned around (unlike Boone, who went down the other side, then climbed back up. The roadies were wimps!). I stopped partway up to take a photo of this freight train chugging up the Pass. 

It was a really long train of tanker cars, but only one engine. No wonder it was going so slow!

At the top, I could see a Bozeman Pass sign over on I-90. 

Woo Hoo!

Now I had a most awesome downhill. The descent from the Pass was waaaay longer than the climb, like miles longer! It was awesome! I basically went down all the way to where I turned to go into Livingston. 

In Livingston, I stopped at the travel center and got my chocolate milk and a Bai coconut drink, and a Boston Cream Pie. Refueled, I headed through Livingston. It was a cute town. Would have been cool to stay there, but I needed to do more than 35 miles.

Main Street Livingston

The next part of the route was Convict Grade. I k ew it would be gravel/dirt because Crowell had told me it was in good shape. I usually think of a “grade” as a climb, but this wasn’t. It followed along the Yellowstone River. 

River and road

This was unusual…an ambulance went by, lights and sirens. I never did see where it went, but there were some houses later. 

There was actually a fair amount of traffic until I got to a more “primitive” gravel road. I had three more climbs on the gravel. 

A bit more chunky gravel

I walked this bit as the rocks were pretty loose

A pano of the top of the last climb-Big Sky Montana!

The descent wasn’t too bad. I was mostly able to find a fairly good line. I also had a pretty awesome tailwind. I returned to pavement at Hunters Hot Springs. 

New pavement!

There were two of these massive log entrance things. 

I had been without any shade for a long time. Not too long before I crossed over the Yellowstone River, I stopped in a bit of shade for another small snack. Then I headed to another frontage road. 

Crossing the Yellowstone River 

The frontage road took me into Big Timber (I would not describe the town as having much “big timber”). I stopped at another travel center (Town Pump). These places are great. They have everything! There was a Super 8 next door. I wanted to make sure the KOA had tent sites left before I left the town because it was 10 miles out of town. If not, I would stay at the Super 8. They had two tent sites left, so after eating, I headed out for the last 10 miles. 

There’s got to be a KOA out there somewhere!

I arrived about 4:15 or so. This place is indeed quite full, but they did have two tent sites (I only need one, of course). As I was riding to my site, a guy at another tent site on a bike called out to me. I had heard there was an Asian guy doing the route (well, he’s sort of doing it). His name is Tuan (or Twan). He rode from Livingston today. 

I feel remarkably good for having ridden 81 miles! There was a lot of downhill, but there was also a fair amount of dirt/gravel. Haven’t looked to see where I’ll go tomorrow. Hopefully not another 80 miles! Also, there’s no fireworks allowed in the park, so should be a quiet night.