Pedalling through Big Sky Country

Distance Travelled: 1350 miles.

My fortune cookie at lunch read: "Expect some help within the next week. Accept it graciously." I took this for a good omen, because who can't use a helping hand along the way? I just didn't know that help would come so soon....

A bit after lunch, we were in the middle of our longest day yet, and were hoping to call it quits for the day at Duck Lake. As we approached our 75th mile, we started looking for this so called Duck Lake but couldn't find it. There were no signs, so we just kept pedalling away, looking for a place to sleep for the night. At 82 miles, we were getting a bit weary and came across a beautiful camp on a lake. The sign said "No Trespassing" (as everything does in Montana), so we decided to check it out anyway. Either they'd take pitty on us or point us towards a camp spot down the road a bit. We started talking to the first person we saw and they directed us to Bill. Bill was the man in charge and he'd certainly let us know where we could camp. As it turned out, we found Bill and he let us know that, yes, we were trespassing but that we could stay and join the festival. It turns out we'd stumbled on a private music festival put on by Bill.

We set up camp, went for a swim in the lake, and then staked out a grassy spot near the stage. The night had multiple musicians playing bluegrass and folk. The fun continued long into early hours of the morning, though after our long day, we didn't make it quite that long..... As we sat there with new friends, enjoying fantastic music, I realized that this is why I love to travel -- you never know what could happen by the day's end.


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A few nights back, we entered Glacier National Park and prepared to pass over the Continental Divide. We woke up early in the morning because the road closes to bikers at 11am. We started the winding 17 mile road to the summit. We met a guy at the campground that bet us a dollar each that we couldn't beat him to the top. Needless to say, I won the dollar, but he never paid up. The mountain views were beautiful but obscured by the smoke from the forest fires. (it seems that the whole western part of the state is ablaze)

After the fantastic downhill from the divide, the landscape changed markedly. The mountains gave way to patches of aspen trees and then to arid plains. The plains have their own stark beauty, but there is almost no vegetation (no shade to speak of). The plains are featureless -- a sea of grass. The winds whip over the plains. If they're going your direction, you can cruise at 18 mph without pedalling. The last three days, we were able to make 300 miles. When the winds change, and you are pedalling into the wind, you can pedal as hard as possible and only make 9mph.

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