Day 62: Stanford, MT to Great Falls, MT

July 6, 2021

A Mostly Downhill Day

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Climbing Today; 1,828 ft. Climbing to Date; 93,219 ft

The usual alarm at 03:01 had me rolling at 03:55 today. A thunderstorm to the east was putting on a good lightning show, but was so far away that I never heard the thunder. It blocked the usual spectacular sunrise, but the day eventually burst forth anyway.

I saw deer today but no antelope. I love being on the plains before sunrise. In the pre-dawn light you often see many deer and antelope and other critters. I still haven’t heard the mournful yelp of my brother/spirit animal the coyote, but I know he’s close and will talk to me soon.

Deer Aren't Sure If They Should Run From A Cyclist

I had hoped to mail a package home from Geyser, but I was there 30 minutes before window hours so I rolled on. Same story at Belt, except I was an hour early. I did find a coffee shop in Belt that made breakfast sandwiches, so with fuel in the tank I rolled on. It’s a good thing that I fueled up, cause the steep climb out of Belt burned it up.

Agriculture Wasn't Always King In Montana

I talked briefly with a couple of tourists on a tandem, then rolled on. I saw a couple tourists headed the opposite direction, but they were on the other side of busy 4-lane highway 87 and it wasn’t practical to cross over and talk to them.

Montana Does Have Some Wind Power - First We Have Seen

The winds seemed to be less of a problem than forecast, and the morning was cool. Because of this, we made good time to Great Falls and I showed up at the hotel at 11:15, way before they had any rooms ready. I locked my bike up right outside the guest registration where it was easily seen and went to find lunch. Doc was a bit behind me on getting into town, and took a different route to see the sights.

Great Falls, Also Known As Big Falls, One of the 5 Falls On The Missouri River (photo credit; Doc)

I had lunch, and then walked around a bit taking some pictures of the downtown area. Walking around I realized just how tired I was. I think the pace of things, especially getting up at three every morning, is starting to wear on me. While the heat had not been very bad this morning, it was stifling after noon in downtown Great Falls. I’m glad we made it in before noon.

The Missouri River At The Site Of What Was Once A Natural Ford

Doc and I met up at the hotel at 14:00 (still too early to check in) and wandered to a nearby brewpub for a beer. While there we each did some calling and managed to book rooms for the next 3 nights in Conrad, Cut Bank, and St. Mary's. It's not as easy as it sounds - some of the motels have gone out of business, a place in St. Mary's wanted $333 for 1 night, sometimes you have to leave a voicemail and hope your call gets returned (they don't always) - it takes some work. Then you have to record what hotel you booked where - it's easy to forget. We plan to camp on the 4th night, so now we have a plan - hotels for 3 nights and then camping at Lake McDonald or thereabouts after cresting Logan Pass. Montana is a big state; we have been in it for 7 days now and it will likely take us another 8 days to reach Idaho. Our path isn't exactly straight, still any state that takes us 15 days to cycle across is a big state - I'm just sayin', that's all.

We were up over 4,500 feet today, which may be the highest we have been on this journey, but we ended a bit over 3,300 feet in Great Falls. Tomorrow we travel to Conrad, then on Thursday we travel to Cut Bank, which I think is the farthest point north we get on this trip.

I'm just waiting on the video to finish uploading to YouTube and for YouTube to sprinkle their magic processing dust on it so I can publish this day - of course, you'd never know that since it's all done when you see it. I suppose slow internet is better than no internet. Very tired, good night everyone,

Today's ride: 62 miles (100 km)
Total: 3,243 miles (5,219 km)

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Kelly IniguezIf I may ask, how much did you pay for lodging in St Mary's? We planned to ride through there last year and couldn't find anything. We ended up reserving in Babb (we planned to ride Mariahs Pass instead of Going to the Sun).

Our plans changed again because of COVID closures on the reservation. We went around on Seeley Lake/Swan Lake. We were headed north.
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2 years ago

George HallTo Kelly IniguezKelly,

At first we found rooms for $330 at the lodge -but looking a bit more we found the Red Eagle motel for $120. I like that price much better.

Buddy Hall
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2 years ago

Kelly IniguezWow! I sure didn't see that price when I was looking last year. Good for you.

The rain is bouncing in the parking lot outside. We have delayed as long as we can - we were hoping at least for a little window of drizzle to get out the door.
64 degrees here, Traverse City, MI.
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2 years ago