Day 11 - Powell, WY to Sheridan, WY

Today was Big Horn Day... 122 miles and 7,300 feet of climbing fun. We rose a little earlier than usual this morning, because 1) it was a long ride; and 2) because the climbing would drive mph averages down. In the end, Dave and I both had good, but different days.

The ride started with a 32 mile flat run-up to the Big Horn Mountains. At mile 32, the road pitched up slightly to become a gradual climb for about eight miles. At mile 40, the road pitched up again to about an 8% grade for four miles, becoming 10% for a mile, then 14% for about a half mile, before returning to a 10% grade until mile 50. This amounts to around 4,000 feet of climbing, much of it on very steep grades, over 18 miles. After mile 50, we alternated between climbs and moderate descents over the mountain pass. We eventually enjoyed a 16 mile, 4,100 foot descent down twisting roads on the east side of the Big Horn Mountains.

Transitioning from 8% to 10% Dave decided he had run out of gears and leg power, so he opted to walk the last five miles to the stop at mile 50. As he said upon his successful arrival in Sheridan later in the day "These shoes weren't made for walking, but that's just what they did..." Dave actually beat a couple of people who stayed on their bikes to the mile fifty stop and successfully completed the ride to Sheridan. Sometimes it's better to do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do... which is get to the East Coast!



To make today's suffering more interesting, the group had a pool. Anyone who wanted to enter could pay five dollars and guess their own time from mile 32 to mile 50. While some people had made the climb before, most hadn't so it was a bit of a mystery. We did have some historical records - best male rider covered this portion of the climb in 1 hr and 17 min. on the 2004 Northern Transcontinental. Apparently this guy was a freak (in a good way) so this time was not something most people could work from to estimate their own times. The woman's record was set in the 2007 tour at 1 hr and 45 min. Dave didn't join the pool, but I did and after a bit of indecision (hard to believe, isn't it...) I picked 2 hr and 30 min. After nine miles it looked like I would blow this time away and then the road pitched up violently again and again, switchback after switchback. Out of gears, I plodded at 6 mph for most of the steep portion of the climb alternating spinning and getting out of the saddle. I was passed by only three people, including the winning male, having to remind myself not to try to grab their wheels, but ride my own pace. I passed a number of strong riders. In the end, I finished at 1 hr and 54 min. The winning male time was 1 hr 35 min and the winning female time, which is a new record was 1 hr 44 min. Both were by a couple from Switzerland who have 3% body fat between them. They are very nice people and incredibly strong riders.

The scenery was incredible, especially from the heights of the Big Horn Mountains after the climb and on the way down the descent. We topped out at just over 9,000 feet of elevation. Here's just a small sampling of the scenery from today. The first picture looks back on the Big Horn Basin, which is west of the mountains and where we started our ride in the morning. The second picture shows the meadows along the top of the pass. The difference between the desert like terrain of the western side and the meadows of the mountain passes and the forests on the eastern side of the mountains was striking. The last two pictures are from the descent on the east side of the mountains. Sheridan is down in the valley.



But we also had some construction and this time it occurred on the initial descent, which made things tricky as we bounded over the rough terrain so as not to irritate the traffic around us or the folks waiting patiently at the other end for their turn to go through.









This was the hardest day of the tour to date, but fun, despite the suffering, and very rewarding for everyone after riding over 1,000 miles in the first 10 days. So, we'll end with a photo of me engaged in my post-ride ritual of elevating my legs and icing my knees while enjoying a cup of coffee and a bottle of recovery drink, checking e-mails on the Blackberry, and downloading the day's photos from the camera to the laptop.

Day 10 - Columbus, Montana to Powell, Wyoming

Dave and I were talking today and thought it might be a good idea to offer the opportunity for people to ask questions. We're ten days into the experience, so we thought that maybe by the fifteenth day we could respond to questions. We're interested in questions from cyclists and non-cyclists alike. We talk to the locals in every town and they are variously curious, amazed, skeptical, and even amused. Perhaps you've got a question you want answered. Add it to the comments section on this post (down at the bottom) or e-mail it to me at scott.tarry@gmail.com and we'll compile the questions and answer them in a few days.

The morning was cloudy and cool today with the threat of rain, so we bundled up and wore or at least packed our rain jackets. It didn't rain, for which we are especially grateful, because about ten miles into the ride we had to ride through about 8 miles of construction. The pavement had been scraped off and was in various stages of disrepair. For the most part the road had been reduced to hard clay and gravel. Everyone navigated through safely. The road would have been difficult if not impassable had it been raining. The pictures are of the traffic and our group of riders waiting to be permitted to ride through the one-lane portion of the work area.




The clouds shrouded the mountains, which made the scenery beautiful in a different way. We rode near the Beartooth Mountains all day. Everything was exceptionally green as we climbed over hill after hill. Unfortunately, the hills weren't close enough to one another to be considered rollers in my book, so it was difficult to take any momentum from the downhills into the next climb. I think we were lucky to have the cool temps and cloud cover for this demanding stretch. I've also included a video (at the bottom) that was shot from the top of a climb to show the expansiveness, if that's really a word, of our surroundings.

One of the more light hearted things going on during our trip involves something you've probably heard of if you have kids or know someone who does. One of the crew members, who also rides every other day, brought along a Flat Stanley for his 7 year old nephew. Most of us have posed with Flat Stanley as Carl has documented his journey across the nation. When Carl rides he keeps Stanley either in a jersey pocket or tucked in the leg of his shorts. A couple of days ago, Stanley fell out. Carl didn't realize he had lost him until he stopped for lunch. Needless to say, losing your 7 year old nephew's Flat Stanley isn't a good thing, so Carl was not too happy. But the story has a good ending. One of the other rides happened to see Flat Stanley laying face up in the road and picked him up along the way. There has been some discussion whether Carl is responsible enough for Stanley to remain in his custody. I've attached a picture of him sitting on top of the hand wash jug at a stop during today's ride.



We crossed into Wyoming today after five days in Montana. I have to say that despite having driven through Montana several times over the years, I never gained an appreciation for the state's beauty until I rode across on a bike. Granted, we had great weather, but the scenery has been spectacular from end to end. The rivers, mountains, ranges... everything made the long days on the bike much more interesting and certainly easier to endure.







The terrain changed when we crossed into Wyoming, but it has also been very beautiful. The final pictures for the day show the Beartooth Mountains again after the sun came out and we crossed the border into Wyoming. We included both pictures, because it looks like we photoshopped Dave into the picture. I told him that I was going to write in the blog that he'd been sagging to avoid the 111 miles and 6,200 feet of climbing, but wanted me to alter the photo to make people believe he was on the bike. Don't worry... he was... and he will be tomorrow as well when we head to the Big Horn Mountains for the most climbing and descending we've done thus far. I think we're both more anxious about the descents. We'll be sure to post our thoughts tomorrow evening.

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.

Day 8 - Butte to Bozeman

I know this is getting redundant, but what a day on the bike. We began with cool temps in Butte (49 degrees with no wind), but Dave reminds me that it is a dry cool... Anyway, we encountered little traffic on the way out of town - it being Sunday morning. About eight miles in we climbed over Pipestone Pass, a winding three mile climb, that got hearts and legs working again. The reward for the climb was a tremendous eighteen mile descent.


I stopped to get pictures of riders coming over a rise after the descent. The picture above is looking west and the picture to the left is a nice shot of two riders heading down the highway. By the time we got to the first stop, which was at mile 29, it was time to take off the jackets, arm warmers, knee warmers, and any other cold weather gear we had donned in Butte an hour and a half earlier. The vehicles at each stop have bags into which we can throw extra clothes that can be collected later in the day at the destination motel.



Each stop is a mobile smorgasbord of tasty treats. The picture shows all the snacks, from assorted cookies, crackers, jerky, chips, nuts, and twizzlers to cherries, bananas, grapes, and even mango and kiwi fruit. I've found that peppered jerky and dark cherries pair nicely when you eat them together... literally. For the Dave, the gold standard is still the peach he had days ago.


As far as the bikes and other equipment go, we're doing fairly well. Dave has changed saddles to one that provides a bit more cushion. He's also broken one of cleats, but has back up shoes, which was one of the things noted in our pre-ride packing list. We stopped at a local bike shop in Bozeman and bought some insulated bottles. The afternoon temps reach the 90s most days, which means the last bottle of the day is warm, if not hot, water or Gatorade.... yummy. I'm sticking to water, since I like to cool the head occasionally and dumping Gatorade on your head is nasty. I'm supplementing the water with Endurolytes, which provide the electrolytes provided in sports drinks. Sunscreen and chamois butter are provided each stop as well and people tend to lather up liberally in both cases.

Back to the scenery... we were treated with stunning views of distant mountains in the early morning haze (top pic); the Tobacco Root Mountains (next pic); and winding roads heading to the Madison River, which was filled with people floating on tubes, which looked especially appealing in the hot afternoon sun. We're off to Columbus, Montana tomorrow and suspect we'll be treated to more beautiful views.

Day 7 - Missoula to Butte

Yesterday Dave started off slow and less than enthused about riding over 130 miles. Today it was my turn. My legs felt heavy and the first fifty or so miles of the route was flat or nearly so, which isn't my favorite kind of riding. Dave was in the zone today though and had an excellent day on the bike. The picture to the right is him on a short climb on a road that paralleled I-90 (you can see the freeway traffic off to the left down below). Fortunately, we didn't spend much time on the Interstate today.


Dave was in good spirits. I snapped a shot of him as he pedaled alongside one of the rivers we saw today. The weather was near perfect again. Cool in the morning and a bit of a headwind at times, but not as hot in the afternoon as yesterday. We've been exceptionally lucky and we know that we're likely to face less favorable conditions later.







The scenery continued to amaze as we rode rollers on secondary roads paralleling I-90. We could see the freeway once in awhile, but couldn't hear it (at least I couldn't). The road surfaces were good until we got near Butte, when we hit roads like those one might find in Nebraska. In fact, one stretch was similar to the road between Fort Calhoun and Boyer Chute with the open seams every so many meters. I have to say though that the jarring feels a little more punitive after 122 miles on the bike.




We got our first glimpse of the mountains we'll climb in a couple of days. We also had the opportunity to test our climbing legs when we left Philipsburg after lunch. For whatever reason, Scott felt much better after lunch and the climb put some pep back in his legs. He passed a number of people even after stopping along the way for a couple of photos. The best phot is the look back down the road into the valley. We climbed the road up from Philipsburg and the photo is taken after a switchback near the top of the climb.


The top picture is the climb looking back down the valley. The next is Scott after taking the photo. The next is Dave showing them how boys from Nebraska climb. The next picture is a waterfall that we all wished we could jump in after reaching the top. And finally, the last picture is a nail that went through the tread and out the sidewall of Scott's read tire as he rode out of Anaconda. Nothing like fixing a flat on the side of a busy road in the afternoon sun after pedaling 113 miles. What I think about it though. With all the luck and fun we've had thus far, I shouldn't complain.

Day 6 - Thompsn Falls to Missoula, Montana

Our morning routine was a little different today since we were staying at the overflow motel in Thompson Falls. This put us closer to dinner in town and the proprietor of the hotel was very nice. Our group gathered with our bags - we each are limited to one 40 lb. bag. The morning was clear and cool, which meant for a variety of arm and knee warmers and even some jackets.




Our route took us out of Thompson Falls along the Clark Fork River. The scenery in the early morning was awesome, but we didn't see any mountain goats, which live in the area. The picture to the left is typical of our view through most of the day. We followed the river for many miles. I was lucky to catch a fellow cyclist and a train in the picture.





While the river remained our companion into the afternoon, the terrain changed from heavily forested hills to brush and meadow in places. The roads were generally in good condition and the traffic was minimal. Logging trucks, enormous RVs, and pickups were the most prevalent and for the most part drivers seemed happy to share the road with us. A number of the roads we used paralleled I-90, so the traffic on those older routes was even thinner.



We actually rode on I-90 for a few miles here and there. In general, it was fine and on a couple of stretches we had our side of the highway to ourselves as it had been closed to traffic. The only challenge was a bridge that had been ground down to the rebar. While a couple of people rode across it, most dismounted and walked, which wasn't too easy in cycling shoes. Dave, with his ankle, took extra care not to re-injure himself. Given that we traveled over 136 miles today, we were fortunate not to have more road issues.




We rode with some different people today. Scott decided to venture off with some faster riders. The average age of the group is somewhere in the 40s, with one rider in his teens and three in their 70s. The typical rider is somewhere between 55 and 65 and at least semi-retired, which means there are a bunch of people who have a ton of miles in their legs. Scott's group averaged 17.7 mph and Dave, who rode a more relaxed pace came in at 16.2 mph. The beauty is that you can find people to ride with at a variety of paces and everyone enjoys themselves along the way.

We got to Missoula and went to dinner after cleaning up. The food was good, but the cheesecake was excellent. Scott ate the lemon cheesecake with the huckleberry puree and Dave ate the flower, which reminds me of a story from yesterday that we forgot. Typically when we arrive at the motel, we mix a water bottle of recovery drink to help the legs begin their recuperation for the next day. There are water jugs in the back of one of the trailers. There is also a practice, because of health concerns, that before you get food or drink from the trailer that you remove your sweaty gloves and wash your hands. The warm soapy water is also in a water jug. Yesterday, in Dave's haste to mix his recovery drink, he filled his bottle with the warm, soapy water. Fortunately, he caught it in time and even publicly fessed up to his mistake.

We're at it again tomorrow and the weather looks good again. Legs are tired, but this has been a great experience thus far.

Day 5 - Thompson Falls, Montana

Only one day in Idaho, but it left a very favorable impression on both of us. The scenery was awesome, the roads were good, and the weather (yeah, we know we got lucky...) was fantastic.

The picture on the left is a marsh near the river we rode along after leaving Sandpoint. The morning air was clear and dry. Everything is green and lush. It's amazing how beautiful countryside can make the miles melt away. We covered 88 miles today and most people treated it as a recovery day since tomorrow will take us 136 miles to Missoula.


People were fairly spread out along the route as everyone rode at their own pace and enjoyed the weather. Who knows what we'll face as we cross the plains later on...

The photo to the right is the view from a one lane bridge in Montana after we crossed the border. Midwesterners are perhaps a bit more fascinated by blue water rivers than some of the others, but these views are incredible. One of the guys who has ridden through Montana before says the scenery will get even better tomorrow.








The next picture is Scott starting a short climb that took us away from the lake we rode around before heading towards Montana.






One of the best pictures of the day is Dave at the Montana border... we've already talked about how he doesn't really care for descents. Well he has less love for gravel roads and that's what greeted us at the Idaho-Montana border. The nicely paved surface of Idaho 200 gave way to fairly smooth, but still dirt and gravel on the Montana side. There wasn't even a welcome sign. The picture below is Dave contemplating the fun he'll have on the next five miles of gravel, which also included a nice downhill. Everyone made it safely and since it was dry, the bikes were
surprisingly clean at the end of the day. Lunch was great again. Grilled cheese sandwiches with sliced tomatoes, salads, and apple pie. The picture of the bikes was taken in the park where we had lunch. It's a great shot for anyone who enjoys cycling and hopefully for everyone else.


















With the long miles ahead - the next two days are over 130 miles each and the next eight days are all over 100 miles. We each decided to visit the massage therapist to get the legs worked on. Might sound like an extravagance, but we're getting into uncharted territory soon and want to be sure we can both continue to turn the pedals over and over and over...