Day 12 - Grant, MT to Lima, MT

Prologue: Today we're taking a bit of a rest day... Just 38 miles on the highway, and trying to finish early before the relentless wind kicks up this afternoon.  Physically, this trip is easily the hardest thing I've ever tried.  Not so much in terms of shear intensity or physical difficulty, but in extended duration of constant effort without adequate time to recover from the fatigue.  Add in the daily stress of trying to pack right, dress right (often multiple times as the weather changes!), and it really gets to you! But our spirits are good, and we are continuing to find inspiration in the people we are meeting and the landscapes we're riding through... :-)
The day started bright and sunny- a first in almost a week, and very welcome! In addition, there was no wind, which after yesterday's gale into our faces was perhaps even more of a treat. So, while the temperature was only about 35F, we set off in great spirits :-). 
To squeeze in a "rest day," we've mapped out an alternative route to the standard GDMBR route for the segment between Grant and Lima, MT.  Instead of climbing up a long parallel valley and the over a low pass on a long looping 69 mile route with 3500' of climbing, we followed a much more direct 38 mile path via Dell, MT on the old state highway paralleling I-15 south.
This road is quite possibly the longest, straightest, and flattest section of highway I've ever ridden! All these roads traverse some starkly beautiful landscapes, with long 50+ mile vistas to various mountain ranges, across broad green streaches of grasslands and sage rich covered hills.  Truly beautiful, but a tough place to scratch out a living regardless of the season.

Mike and I were joined today by Viebka, a young German woman who was also staying at the Prairie Stage Stop.  The three of us easily rolled off the 38 miles of smooth dirt and asphalt in 3 hours flat ;-). That's given us a whole afternoon to rest up in a very reasonably priced little motel in Lima, and hopefully set us up for a long ride across southern Montana into Idaho tomorrow! 
Cheers from the GDMBR;-)

Comments

  1. Jeff Chin's Web SiteJune 20, 2023 at 5:58 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeff Chin's Web SiteJune 20, 2023 at 6:12 PM

    You are way tougher than most of us. This makes us look like princesses.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 8 - Lincoln, MT to Helena, MT

Image
Wow. Today was one of those days you dream of when you're planning a ride like the GDMBR, where the weather is perfect: the terrain is challenging, but not so much that you're ruined at the end of the day; the people are all friendly, kind and generous; and the food is all delicious and even home-made! We began the day inauspiciously in the small town of Lincoln, with a damp chill in the air- 37F and foggy, but with a forecast for clearing sky's and warmer temps by mid morning.  After a big breakfast at Lambkins Cafe, Mike and I set off to tackle Stemple Pass-  a 16 mile, 2200' climb starting about 100 yards from the cafe.  Sure enough, within 45 minutes, the fog began to lift, and we each began shedding layers.   The road profile looked like a near perfect exponential curve, with easy grades to start, and the steeper and steeper pitches as we neared the top, with a good ...
Read more

Shakedown trip- 4 weeks to go!

Image
Getting close to time to head for Banff, but first a real test ride:-). 3 days, 2 nights camping at remote sites up in the Adirondacks.  About 30-35% gravel, with 3-4,000' of climbing over 40-70 miles each day.  It should be a pretty good test of both bike & body!  I started out about mid-day Saturday May 6 from Port Leyden on the Black River.  My route ran north along the Black River valley about 20 miles, then northeast into the Adirondacks Park to Stillwater Reservoir.  I got to the reservoir at about 5pm, and decided to catch a real dinner at the Stillwater Inn, where I enjoyed a really great burger and fries and a beer- Meier's Creek IPA even from back in Cazenovia;-) After dinner, I rode another 3 or 4 miles until I found a great campsite on a bluff overlooking the reservoir.  Camp went together pretty easily for the first time out in the wild, and I even enjoyed a pretty nice campfire before sleeping like a log.  Slee...
Read more

Day 31 - Pie Town, NM to Apache Creek, NM

Image
After yesterday's long slog along the GDMBR's gravel to Pie Town, last night we decided to consider a slightly longer route today, but sticking to paved highway instead of unpredictable gravel. Whether peanut butter mud or peanut butter powder, neither was something we wanted to experience at this stage of our journey! So after a pretty good night's rest at the Toaster House, we set off for Apache Creek along US 60 at about 7:00am.  Today we were not too worried about heat, as we would begin riding at about 7500' under oddly overcast  skies, and then climb to more than 8200' at Jewett's Gap, so for most of the ride we would see comfortable temperatures.  The wind was another thing though...but we apparently got lucky on that count for once!  The daily breeze didn't really kick up until after we got to Quemado and headed south.  Starting as a quartering tailwind, by the time we were descending along the San Francisco River, we had a full on tailwi...
Read more