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.