“Today the sun is shinin’ on me
Sitting with my feet in the breeze
Ain’t sweating the little things
And who knows what tomorrow is gonna bring
But today, the sun is shinin’ on me”
- Jerrod Niemann
Let’s face it. Most of the stuff I write about is bad things that happen. Usually in a pitiful, woe is me sort of way. But truth be told, there are way more good things that happen when I’m riding than bad. It’s just funnier and more interesting than writing that the sun was out, the wind was at my back, as always, it was straight downhill, and no one honked at me. Today, I’m going to mix it up a bit and put the positive spin on the negative, or potentially negative events of the day.
I was up before 5 to go with Claire to the airport. The hot breakfast was ready when I got back at 6:30 and it was one of the better hotel breakfasts I’ve had in 3 1/2 months. They had crispy bacon AND sausage patties AND sausage links!
It was 54 degrees and the little forecast breeze was a full on wind. It was very cold and I had just sent my windbreaker and rain jacket home from ND last week. At least the breeze was across and not in my face.
My plan for the day was 89 miles. There was exactly one town, 41 miles in to the ride. The ride was through the absolutely stunning Gallatin Gateway along the river and the miles just flew by. I was at Big Sky in 3 hours in time for 2nd breakfast at the Rte 191 Cafe. It started pouring about 15 minutes after I sat down.
I still had 4 hours to go and it rained for a solid hour and a half. I just sat at the bar worrying about heading back out into the cold rain with no jacket. It turns out there was a consignment sporting goods store next door to the cafe. I found a perfect rain jacket for $25. It worked just fine. It never rained hard on me and stopped altogether within an hour.
Two maniac drivers coming the other way decided to pass slower moving vehicles right as they were also passing me. They missed (although a change of shorts might have been appropriate after the black Camaro went by)
I basically had a continuous 70-mile uphill from the start of the day. It was at an average grade of just under 1% and it paralleled the Gallatin River the whole way. There were many fly fishermen and women.
There was more traffic on the 2-lake highway toward West Yellowstone than there is on the interstate across Montana. I saw 40 state and 5 provincial license plates. The only states I didn’t see were CT*, RI, PA*, WV, NC*, KY, MS*, AR*, NM*, HI. (* indicates we saw those in either Livingston or Bozeman)
The sun actually came out right at the top of the hill.
My Strava didn’t successfully upload the details of my ride. I have Ride with GPS and Map My Ride to help me piece it back together. I ended up doing 89.3 miles with 3400 feet of elevation gain. At mile 70.1, I reached 7276 feet above sea level, surpassing yesterday’s high of 5852 as the highest point to date on the trip. That will last a few more days. For anyone that’s interested in the Strava maps I include at the end of each post, today’s route was MT 85 for 6 miles which then turned into US 191 all the way to West Yellowstone. Went 3 blocks west on US 20 to the hotel. I even got to spend a few miles in Wyoming today. The nuances of geologic formations like mountains and rivers don’t necessarily align with the expediency of creating state borders in perfectly north/south or east/west lines. I was neither welcomed into Wyoming, or back into Montana. Perhaps because I was actually in the national park and they can’t be bothered
If you’ve never been lucky enough to drive (or ride) down these valleys (or canyons) that reach out of Yellowstone up through Montana, you should put that on your bucket list. The Madison, Gallatin, and of course the Yellowstone, all run north out of the park (and the Snake, on the other side of the Continental Divide, runs south). There are many other smaller creeks and rivers in the area as well, apparently all with trout!
See, I can do it if I want to.
Beginners. This is where I would be
Advanced
There is more to do than fish. The ski slope is just a couple miles away
I’m thinking that if you saw bison on the road, you’d want to slow down below 55. I feel like if you hit one going that fast, there would very little of you or your car left.
I just couldn’t help it. I don’t expect he’ll ever read this blog. Even the laundromat can be entertaining.
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