Day 9 - Bozeman to Columbus

The morning started slowly. Difficult to crawl out of bed at 5:30 again and ride another 100 mile day. The morning temperature was 48, but the wind was calm and the skies were clear. Best of all, after racking our bikes I caught a whiff of the sweet smell of sausage. Scrambled eggs and sausage and hot coffee. We left Bozeman on I-90 on perhaps the worst road surface we've endured. Twelve miles of rumble strips, tire remnants, broken glass, gravel, and assorted junk people tossed on the side of the road. It was not the best way to start the morning, but once off the freeway, we enjoyed a short climb and then a great descent down from Bozeman Pass (elev. 5,750).

In the interest of full disclosure... I have to report on the knucklehead move of the day and sadly it was mine. See the picture to the right. It's a bull snake... not even a rattlesnake, but there it was on the side of the road. I had been hammering along with Bob Lewis over some rollers on a frontage road and there was no traffic. I saw the snake, told Bob I thought I wanted to get a picture, thought about it for a moment, and then went to turn back as I was simultaneously turning to see if there was any traffic. Stupid move. One of the support vehicles was coming and had to stop quickly. I apologized profusely. No harm, no foul. Not exactly. The two-gallon jug of hand wash was not secured properly inside the van and tipped over when the driver stopped suddenly. I apologized to the driver again at the next sag and to Susan at lunch. The worst part was seeing that they had to basically disassemble the van to clean it out at the motel.

We saw our first inclement weather today. The picture shows the clouds looming ahead. We managed to avoid any rain until we got to Columbus. The clouds rolled in and gave us a good shower, but everyone was in by the time it started coming down. We didn't get much help from the wind today and had a headwind for the last 27 miles, but in all it was another good day on the bike.





Dave felt good all day and especially strong after lunch. The new shoes were good. No steep climbs or descents, so that makes Dave happy, but that will not be the case tomorrow or the next day as we turn towards Wyoming for 6,300 and 7,200 feet of climbing, respectively.

Just a few more pictures from today. The first picture is Scott near Springdale, Montana. The next picture is the main street in Livingston. The third is the closed Montana Hotel and Wild Horse Saloon in Reed Point. And finally, some remnants of a wildfire outside of Columbus.