Day 3: Ovando to Drummond

June 14, 2025

Today is a short day so there's no rush. Up at 8:30. Breakfast at The Stray Bullet across the street. On the road at 9:50. No worries about time or weather. I feel decent.

Sculpture in front of Blackfoot Commercial Company.

Store at 1897 Blackfoot Commercial Company.

Half of today's route is on Ovando-Helmville road which is a back road alternate to busy MT 200. The ACA guys approved of this road. The first 5 miles is paved, until the first bridge across the Blackfoot river. Traffic was very light.

The final 12.5 miles of Ovando-Helmville road are unpaved, beginning with a 10% grade to climb out of the river canyon.

Pavement ends after the bridge. I pushed the bike half a mile up a 10% grade.

Most of the road is undulating hills in a wide valley with many canals and irrigated fields.

Ovando-Helmville road looking back towards Ovando.

Most of the unpaved segment is hard packed dirt that is fairly smooth and has a low rolling resistance almost as good as pavement. But some eroded sections had added gravel which was much slower.

12.5 miles unpaved on Ovando-Helmville road.

I appreciated the irrigated farm scenes. With no traffic on the road, I was free to look around and enjoy the irrigated valley and surrounding mountains.

I saw irrigation canals, small ponds, and green pastures.

Ovando-Helmville road crossing Blackfoot river again.

Ovando-Helville road connects to paved MT 271 in Helmville. I stopped for a long time to look around tiny Helmville, population 58. The town has two churches but no store or gas station.

Helmville Post Office and Community Church share a building.

Dumb double-negative on the door of the Community Church. "Guns Allowed" would be clearer.

Helmville is kind of a frontier time capsule. Very photogenic.

From Helmville I ride MT 271 which climbs 1000 feet before descending to Drummond. Traffic was light. I expected more traffic. The road has no shoulder but that's fine with so little traffic. The grade tops out at 5% near the summit. I felt good during the climb.

Climbing into forest after miles of climbing through sagebrush.

Pavement gets much worse after the summit, entering Granite county. I was ready for a descent because the route was almost entirely uphill from Ovando to the summit.

No summit sign at the 5183 foot summit after two days mostly uphill.

The descent was more forested than the climb. Tall trees for a couple miles. Interesting that the south facing slope is more forested than the north facing slope. I expect the opposite in semi-arid regions.

The terrain gets steadily drier during the descent to Drummond. I enjoy seeing the change.

MT 271 crosses I-90 and ends as the main street in Drummond, a sleepy ranching town next to an I-90 exit. Fortunately it has a small motel and two restaurants.

Drummond is a ranching town, population 272.

Drummond is functional for an overnight stop but I give it low scores for charm and entertainment.

Drummond has a one-sided downtown across from the BNSF railroad.

I arrived at Drummond Motel at 4:40 PM. The room was $85 cash. The A/C barely works, but that's not a huge deal when the high was 80F. The room has a fridge and microwave. I hear trains very well but don't hear I-90 traffic.

Tonight's home is the 9 room Drummond Motel.

Dinner was at Swede's Bar and Grill.

Today was a good day for bike touring. Easy distance, even with 12.5 miles unpaved. Very low traffic, a huge relief compared to yesterday. 80F weather, and finally a day with no rain. And I've recovered from the sleep deprivation and upset stomach. The route was more scenic than I expected, thanks to irrigated farms and the village of Helmville.

Distance: 39.6 miles
Average Speed: 7.9 mph
Ascent/Descent: +1491/-1584 feet

Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 100 miles (161 km)

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