RAA II

Day 12

Jordan to Glendive, MT

106 miles / 6,300 feet of elevation (multiple rollers!) / some portage due to significant road construction

Our very sunny but very cold day began in Jordan where it was 36°. Couple that temperature with our early morning speeds of between 18-20 mph and that makes for a very cold start to our day.

However, we had wide open, no shoulder but also no traffic, roads to ride on for the first 51 miles. These first 51 miles consisted of a series of “rollers” where we got progressively higher in elevation. We would climb a bit, descend, giving away some of that climb and then, climb higher the next set of rollers. This is not something you would even think about if you were driving this highway but on a bike, you cringe each time you descend only to see the next hill looming in the distance! We had literally no traffic for this first half of the day and that made these rollers enjoyable and fun. After we stopped for our mid-day food / water refuel, we decided, based upon Scuba Steve’s scouting, to reroute due to significant road construction just miles ahead.

This decision was the perfect choice as our selected route was also relatively unused by cars / trucks. our next 60(+) miles to Lake Peck was likewise without traffic. On this road and earlier, we were treated to multiple herds of Antelope on both sides of the roadway. These Antelope were often settled among the grazing Cattle but mostly kept to themselves in groups of 10-15 or more. On several occasions the Antelope “shadowed our peddling” and ran along the highway in the fields next to us. Needless to say, they had no trouble keeping pace!

Near the end of the day’s ride, the topography changed quite a bit as we went into a “desert looking moonscape” with many “eroded outcroppings” from either glacial movement or hundreds of years of water erosion. This landscape was unexpected and beautiful.

This landscape was unexpected and beautiful. As we were getting to Lake Peck and the dam at the end of the lake, the tail wind we had been so happy with suddenly because a sidewind for about the last 10 miles. This sidewind was so fierce that it nearly knocked us over several times. On 3-4 occasions I had to "clip out of my pedals," to counterbalance my left leg against the crosswinds - no one fell on these descents but we had quite a scary last 10 miles.

Today was a great day, one of our fastest centuries, about 5 hours and 20 minutes of road time!

Popular posts from this blog

Day 8 East Glacier to Shelby, MT 85 miles / 2,800 feet of elevation Montana is the “new Texas” from RAA I, we are in Montana for 5-6 days out of 18. Growing up in Alaska, my “lower 48” geography is a bit off, I truly had no idea Montana was this large of a state! However, happy to be in Montana; the roads and shoulders are good, the drivers courteous and share the road willingly. We have had some trouble with hotel accommodations as the state is not well populated and some towns don’t have hotels for us, so we end up shuttling at the end of the day and beginning of our days. This shuttling is a very slight inconvenience for the beautiful surroundings we are cycling in. We enjoyed wide open roads with good cycling all day long. Montana’s “Big Sky” was a treat throughout the day. Again, we tried to show you this aspect of Montana in some of our photos but our photos just don’t seem to do the real thing justice – at times w...

Day 6 Libby, MT to Whitefish, MT 50 miles / 3,700 feet of elevation / shortened day due to mechanicals and necessary bike shop stop Today’s shortened route took us up and over a beautiful mountain course bounded by a lake to our left (for the entire day!) and a mountain wall to our right. We traversed over gently rolling and sometimes fairly steep hills with long rollouts afterwards. We had fantastic road conditions and very few, perhaps 12, cars / trucks passed us during this entire day’s ride. Near perfect day in the saddle with beautiful scenery all around us. From time to time the tranquility of today’s ride, in sharp contrast to yesterday’s “white knuckler,” was integrated by one of us pointing off the road to deer and wild turkeys. Some of both allowed us to get quite close before they bounded or flocked away from us. Later in the day we visited a local...

Day 2 Ross Dam Overlook to Okanogan Pre day-2 discussion; Bob email to Joe and I: “Surprise, our total elevation gain is over 8,000 feet, our estimated elevation gain was 1,600 feet off! 2,500 feet in 10 miles between miles 70-80. Super steep! Oh, and FYI, Wednesday is close to 9,000 elevation gain, not the 7,000 we had charted …” Joe’s response, “Good to know Bob.” 105 miles; over 8,000 feet of elevation gain! Tough, tough day in the saddle; this was one of the top 20 hardest centuries we have ridden and among the top 10 most beautiful. Stunning vistas, truly a magnificent highway (Hwy. 20; which closes for about 4-5 months a year due to 20(+) foot snowfalls! We encountered some smoke from long away forest fires and we saw tremendous damage from recent forest fires in the Okanogan National Forest. Very sad, this forest will not likely come back in our lifetime. We had beautiful, well-maintained roads, with lit...