On the Road... with Phil
July 4, 2007 University of Montana, Missoula to Avon, MT (98.6 miles) Almost a "century" today and it was a long and hard one. Cruising through Missoula at 6:30am was very cool and very quiet. I saw a young buck deer (fuzzy 5 point rack) in the front yard of a house having his breakfast of flowers and shrubs. While temps were forecast for warm, I was riding sleeveless and decided to "heat it up" with some spinning of my own. It was a 20+ mile climb through a beautiful canyon to the high plains pastures. Trivia question: What is a beaver slide? I was seeing these in the pastures...they look like giant weaving looms. A local told us they are a device used to stack hay.. They seem to have been eclipsed by large rolls and bails of hay that can be stored more safely than a large pile of loose hay. Some hot chocolate helped warm me up and I was on my way. The ride got more difficult after midpoint as climbing increased to yet another 1000 feet and more importantly the sun was out in force. Not much in the way of services and so water and treat stops with Ann and Kathy are special pleasure. Today Ann had frozen popsicles for us and Brian and I ate ours as we leaned against the van...literally falling asleep(!)... but with 20 miles to go we pushed out and climbed some more.. The cruelest part was the 3 mile climb into the campground. Nevermind, because the local cafe catered dinner. Okay, pasta again, but professionally done with veggies and meat...Pies and more pies for dessert. They love their pies in this part of the world and it was not a disappoint here--great blueberry pie like grandma used to make for me. Have I mentioned that we consume many calories daily?!
July 5, 2007 Avon to Townsend, MT (60.8 miles) A short but not so sweet ride today. It was spectacular to make the steep climb to MacDonald Pass (6356 feet) and then take the hair raising 12 mile descent into Helena. Coming through town was hot and so the espresso coffee kiosk in the parking lot of a "night or weekly rates" motel was a welcome stop of iced mocha! We pushed on through the outskirts of the state capitol, past the pay day loan shops and pawn shops. I did find a good bikeshop at our mid point check-in to get some better padded gloves. We found Towsend and it was very hot... We set up at the local school with a choice of the football field or the AC'ed gym. Some hard cores took the end zone.. more power to 'em. Dinner was catered by the local Lutheran church...Chicken Cordon Bleu, baked potato and salad and desserts. It was good to exchange with these kind and generous people. One woman I spoke with had left Towsend (for eastern MT) and recently come back. She is a special education teacher and is clearly enthusiastic and dedicated to her profession and children. We see lots of signs/posters about methamphetamine...must be a problem as folks are scared. I remember the drug in the 60's but it seems to have exploded in use now. Brian and I hoof it down to the local pub and find some white Belgian ale (with a slice of orange!) and a local cowboy that looks the part and could be waiting for his cast call for the next filming of Lonesome Dove.
July 6, 2007 Townsend to Harlowton, MT (101 miles) In short; this was the hottest, longest ride from hell. The first quarter of the ride was rather fun with a long climb and fast descent into White Sulphur Springs with tail winds and a sweet cafe that served up a welcome strawberry milkshake. Maybe it was the milkshake but I took off into a long steady climb into the heat...It was in this stretch that I started to feel sleepy, but not to worry, pain in my hot feet and thirst kept me awake and whining to myself...Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz.. I hooked up with different folks but mostly rode solo. The water at the stops was chilled, but within 20 mins it was warm. Air temps were 105... bike and road temp were 115-120. For the last 20 miles we formed a small "peleton" to get to town...To put it bluntly, we were dragging our tails...As we pulled into Harlowton (named after the famous Jean?) I spied the local ice cream store and almost crashed into the building in search of something cool. I "set up the bar" and called in my fellow riders for a water, juice or a fruit smoothie or all...afterwhich we rolled into the local Kiwanis Club Recreational Center for the night. The Center was a something fixed in time with pictures of the years of minstrel show musicals they had done for the community. It was a shock to see pics of grown men in blackface and in their last show 1992 a full cast picture with the local police and national guard troops in their Yankee Doodle Dandy set. Back to the Bigride World, we all licked our wounds to a catered dinner from a Billings caterer (Beyond Basil) who treated us to great salads and barbequed beef and pork ribs, chicken, and veggie calzone. It was great with the local (from Billings) Scape Goat Ale. As I studied this town and thought back to Townsend I asked myself, why did the wagon train stop here rather than heading to the coast(!) Maybe some of you remember the 1994 movie "Wagons East" starring John Candy. It came to my mind as I asked this question. While the center of town might have some semblance of order that rest was just an unplanned mess. I tried to learn what was financing or not supporting good development and maintenance and my research and understanding continue.
July 7, 2007 Harlowton to Billings (90.1 miles) This ride was heaven sent in terms of terrain and weather. It began with a nice long descent to our waterstop at Ryegate where I rode mostly solo and quickly. Ryegate, MT is home of the Testicle Festival...a celebration of the castrating of the male heifers. Alas, we missed it as it took place in early June. As I left I hooked up with Brack Hattler, one of the "greyhounds" of the group and we started a steady pace to the next check-point. Immediately we noticed a historical monument...this one to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, who with hundreds, tried to escape to Canada from the U.S.Army after battling them because the U.S. had taken a portion of their reservation. http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/oregon/nphistory.html He was captured near what is now Ryegate on the Musselshell River. His famous speech contained the following declaration: "Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more, forever." And now the victorious culture celebrates an annual testicle festival at this site...yes, things and circumstances have changed.
Back in Big Ride world check-in was interesting as we got a sense of what our lives are worth. A semi-tractor trailer pulled up and a burly (300lbs?) young guy stepped down to ask who was in charge of the cyclists. Turns out at a rider was blocking his right of way, rather than riding on the shoulder on the nearby highway. He told us that he was coming on a downgrade while trucks were coming up. He couldn't run into the ditch or oncoming traffic, and so he blasted his horn until the rider moved. Bottom line was that he was respectful of riders and he wanted the same ... and that he did not want to pay a $5,000.00 deductible to his insurance company if he had killed a cyclist. Yikes!
The ride into Billings was fast and cool. Brian and I found the local micro brewery - Yellowstone River and a great cover band (Skeptic) who were folks our age, but clearly practiced and professional -- not like us amateur cyclists. Dinner at our Montana State dormitory dwelling was again catered by Beyond Basil, and followed by a spectacular electrical storm dumping a mere 1.2 inches of rain, that nearly flooded the region and was the talk of the town.
July 8, 2007 Rest Day - Montana State University, Billings, MT (0 miles) We gave some thought to renting a car and going to the Little Bighorn Battlefield Park, but I was laid low by a virus and so rested up and did some bike maintenance. We did some walking downtown in the afternoon...there were practically no pedestrians...I met two. one man pushing a walker outside the hospital and another, a woman who crossed the street and almost ran into us(!). Billings is for drivers with "coupled" streets, which are four lane one way streets with very narrow sidewalks. We did not see any municipal transit buses, but did see an old rail line suitable for a bike trail.
July 9, 2007 Billings to Hardin, MT (54 miles) A little ride to Hardin, "the town with a reason". It was a nice easy ride with a pretty little climb out of Billings on a winding road to the high plains. Billings and its refineries never looked so good. But seriously, the countryside outside of town was spectacular in terms of rimrock, forests and fields. The ride was also fun as I came across prairie dog towns. Prairie dogs sit on top of their burrows and chirp to one another not unlike birds. If you stop they tend to scurry underground. I then came across a beautiful rim rock lined with evergreen trees and a farm below. When I stopped to take a pic I noticed two freight train cars on the other side of the road. These were 19th century box cars that were now being used for minimal storage. Check out the pics. I then came across what appeared to be a deserted grain silo and distribution facility. I rode into the building and promptly startled two barn owls. I got some pics, but with no strong lens...Anyway, I surmised that these (and snakes) were the main predators of the prairie dogs.
We got into Hardin to see that they had celebrated their centennial. I went to the Chamber of Commerce to find out what "the reason" of Hardin was...I can't say I came away with a firm understanding. Of course it is about commerce...though the train station shut down in 1969 (built to load farm products and passengers) and trains pretty much only carry coal. I was told that commerce is coming...and that the new municipal pool was a source of pride. We're spending our night there and it IS very nice as we use it for showers and a swim. I was directed to the County Museum just outside town to learn more about "the reason"... and so Brian and I took the invite and went to learn about Hardin. It was a nice effort to recreate parts of another era; the soda fountain, the barber shop and the gas station...all from the 30s-50s. As I dug deeper into narratives and photos I found that Hardin had been platted in 1907 from a part of the Crow Reservation so that agriculture could be practiced. Water was channeled in and so commerce was established at the cost of the Crows giving up land. Native Americans are a big part of Hardin poplulace the B.I.A. has a police patrol and some of the cynics of the team wonder if may the Reservation funds are financing the school and municipal center.
July 10, 2007 Hardin to Sheridan, MT (84 miles) It was a nice ride today as temps were down but the tourist schlock was in full force. The selling for Custer and Little Big Horn is everywhere as we travel along the Bighorn River. Some of us had gone to the battlefield on our off day in Billings and brought back a very informative brochure from the National Park Service. It described the culture clash of the 1870s with white immigrants overruning the reservations, of gold being discovered, and of the U.S. reneging on it's treaty obligations to support new settlers and commerce. This in a nutshell, is the context of the battle as the Sioux and Cheyenne were fed up and were decided to resume their nomad existence in the region and attacked the settlers. Custer was one of several government "tools" in a campaign to bring the Indians back to the reservation. He didn't listen to his Crow scouts' intelligence, split his force, and blundered into his demise. For his arrogance and stupidity in trying to carry out an inhumane and racist policy he and his men were valorized with medals and a tomb of the unknown soldier....and today a full blown Little Big Horn Casino greets you as you come off the interstate to visit the site. One of the ironies I saw was that the poor Crow who served Custer were then shafted in the name of commerce later when Hardin was established and part of their reservation was expropriated.
Back to Bigride world, we are on our own for dinner and so search out the buffalo burger and brew. Sheridan is a lovely town with a vibrant downtown and artwork on each corner. I pick up a new odometer at the local bike shop to better track my progress. Accurate odometers make cue sheet reading more effective!
July 11, 2007 Sheridan to Gillette, Wyoming (112 miles) This was an interesting century and after a couple of these and so many 80 and 90 mile rides I'm not intimidated by the distance. We start with a climb out of Sheridan and immediately enter a road work zone for the next 3+ miles. For some of the time we follow an escort truck and then we CLIMB for several miles to yet another summit on yet another high plain. We are, and have been, operating at 4000 foot elevation for the past week. The first half of the ride is pretty hard with big hills and big valleys. We take a water stop at the Spotted Horse Cafe/Bar/Roadhouse. It has clearly seen better days before Interstate 90, but it is so interesting as it seems fixed in the 1950s. There is some minimal evidence of trying to upgrade and renovate the establishment, but by 2pm the owners and their family or workers are sipping their light beers or bourbon. Maybe they'll get on the job tomorrow. Til then they and we are a happy lot with us sipping cokes and poweraide and eating snacks and hamburger. After an hour of lounging I'm decided to blast out the last 40 miles. To my satisfaction the road seems willing and I am able to make good time.into Gillette. Gillette is clearly a coal mining town with a big pit mine next to town. A young cub reporter from the local paper comes to chat with us and take pics. He's a student at UNC Chapel Hill on an internship. He says 1/3 of the country's coal comes from this county...Judging from the number and size of the coal trains coming and going, I have no reason to doubt this factoid. Brian and I are nicely tired from our long ride and I spy a prime rib/wine bar nearby. We retire for some steaks, veggies and a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir. Sleep came easy and was refreshing.
July 12, 2007 Gillette to Newcastle, WY (76 miles) This is a different sort of ride but I'm again feeling powerful. We leave the coal mine, the gasification plant and the natural gas pumps surrounding Gillette to head to Newcastle. Right...you won't need to carry coals to this Newcastle. It is "conjunction junction" keeping all those coal trains moving east, west and south. The ride is easy enough and along the way, in Upton, I find the malt shop. I'm the first rider in and I ask what flavors of malts the lady makes. She points to some 20 flavor bottles and say..."I think I'll have coffee"..whereupon she pours me a cup of coffee! When she understood what I wanted she made a great coffee flavored malt that powered me into Newcastle. On the way in I measured the size of the coal trains at 1.5 miles and estimated 125 large hopper cars. Hard to imagine that this can continue for long. We're staying at the Weston County Senior Center, which is a high school given to the seniors to use to host events, and to live in. They have made and served us dinner tonight...yes it was easy to chew and not spicy...Hey, I've got my AARP card, so I can rag on the cuisine. It is a sweet gesture and they'll be serving us breakfast as well. Tomorrow we're on an 80 miler on some sketchy road in some places to Rapid City, South Dakota. Then its rest for two nights.
July 13, 2007 Newcastle, WY to Rapid City South Dakota (82 miles) This was another ride from hell!.... It all began nicely enough in the cool of the morning. At 6am the seniors fed us breakfast and most notably fresh baked cinnamon buns. This is not to be confused with the white sugary, gooey stuff sold in airport terminals, but rather some seriously baked bread rolled with sugar and cinnamon! We pushed out to see yet another deer in a front yard having her breakfast.
An aside - I forgot to mention that yesterday, as I rode down some pretty straight Wyoming Highway 16 road, where the curves are named, I was conducting a survey of antelope, since this is where they play. This consisted of me looking left and right out about 200 meters maximum to count the animals. I did this partly to try to imagine my NOAA colleagues standing on the bridge of a ship and counting marine mammals, because this is a sea for grass. I found these black pronged, white bottomed critters alone and in clusters of 3 (usually an adult and 2 young) not playing so much as watching me. I counted some 6 animals for each mile I traveled; this over a 20 mile span. I’ll leave it to my science colleagues to work up the raw numbers for a population estimate. I did have a bias for looking to my right as I was also bending my left shoulder forward to try to capture some of the cross wind out of the north to push me forward.
Back to today’s ride…I was a nice climb though high plains farms into South Dakota and the Black Hills National Forest. It was truly a spectacular ride with giant boulders and pines among the meadows and valleys. Some of the team wanted to visit Mount Rushmore as an alternate route. I have no interest in seeing this carving of natural stone; maybe because I live in a city full of monuments. But the natural stone I witnessed in the forest was interesting enough for me to see shapes of animals and heads. As we cleared the summit at 5700 feet we came down into the town of Custer. Are you picking up a theme here… Custer, Sheridan, Little Big Horn? I swear that this part of the world might canonize Custer, but why bother as he is bigger than life to folks here and they are cashing in on his “fame” The town of Custer is quite hospitable and is geared for the tourists to nearby Mt. Rushmore. The local Starbucks was staffed by young Romanian ladies here on summer work visas. I see this throughout the U.S. as there is a shortage of local labor to work in tourist locations and Eastern Europe provides them. The ride through the black hills continued into Custer State Park. Despite the overused namesake, the park is a wonderfully managed mixed-us facility and the climbs and descents were cool and refreshing. We then came out into the plains with 17 miles to go along Route 79…read I-90(!) to get to Rapid City. This is where the description of rolling hills on the cue sheet gets stretched. For me they are more like ocean swells that are a mile from point to point. It was here, battling headwinds of up to 20 miles per hour and high temps that Brian and I hunkered down and started humming the Victory at Sea theme by Richard Rogers. I didn’t feel so much like an Aircraft Carrier plowing through the giant swells and storms of the Pacific as I did the little troop ship bobbing along with its propellers screwing faithfully in the same gear whether climbing or going downhill. The Jeremiah O’Brien, a restored liberty ship ported in San Francisco came to mind. http://www.ssjeremiahobrien.com/ We finally limped into the “port” of Rapid City and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where we’ll rest for a couple of nights. We found the local brew pub for some Dakota Ale and tomorrow we’ll see the sights. Rumor has it that the the remains of a T-Rex are in the area for viewing….something to investigate tomorrow. http://www.bhigr.com/pages/info/info_stan.htm. Enjoy the pics and music updates. All is fine with us here… we are in tune with our cycles and we adapt to the road conditions. Peace to you all and keep rolling!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you have to keep moving forward.”
-Albert Einstein
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Week Three: Missoula to Rapid City
