No more easy days, 138 miles in 7:27, an 18.5mph average, which is actually a higher average for the day than for the trip overall. And that despite our first encounter with… headwinds, real headwinds, but they were few and far between and made up for by a screaming tailwind that pushed us into Missoula. The scenery today was more good stuff: mountains, evergreens, a river that runs next to it, and the occasional train (trains are all over the place here, usually along the river banks where it’s flat, which is where we like to be too). Before today was last night when dinner was at the hotel, a 1/3 lb hamburger (love to see the scale) and steak for Tom with pies for dessert.
Today’s ride looks like a backwards, flattened “S”. We started east on Rt 200 along the Clark Fork River for 20 miles, hooked west (the wrong way to be traveling) for 20 miles through a national forest, still following the river, then a sharp left onto I90, our first time on an interstate highway, and then a combo of interstate and frontage roads all the way to Missoula. The headwinds introduced themselves when we took that first right on RT 135 in a twisting canyon following the river and there was no place to hide. They disappeared when we came out the other side (I90) and then mostly died out. The interstate was interesting riding; we had 4 different sections of it each about 5 miles in length. The first was awful, lots of gravel and a rumble strip across the shoulder lane every 15 feet. Second section was closed for construction but we stayed on it so we had 2 whole lanes to ourselves, the regular traffic was over there sharing the other side of the divided highway. 3rd section was wide, clean shoulder, no worries. 4th section was some gravel but pretty open. Trucks left us alone and vice versa.
The looming question though is how to handle Iowa or South Dakota once we’ve had several days of such beautiful scenery (in addition to perfect blue skies and weather: cool enough for arm warmers in the morning, dry and hot in the afternoon). The rivers are green and approaching transparent, no longer flooded with run off, with the occasional drift boat fishing along. The train whistles are haunting and we’re not used to such massive machines (4 or 5 engines) so we at least take notice if not slow down to watch.
How did 138 miles feel? Pretty good, actually, living rest stop to rest stop approximately 25 miles apart, so 4 stops and a lunch stop today. A little more sharing the load with other riders than on shorter days, and if it wasn’t for me and 2 slow flats which forced us to stop at the last rest stop we would have been in ½ an hour earlier at least.
Dinner was at the home of Mike’s friend Ned: geez can we eat a lot (more steaks)!
Road kill report: 2 deer, both does. Otherwise very quiet.
No comments:
Post a Comment