It’s funny how many of the details of the trip I have already forgotten. Re-organizing the journal into an easy to read format has brought back many memories and has me thinking of doing another bicycle tour.
I don’t think that I can do something as long as a transcontinental, but maybe can do the Southern Tier in two week segments. Or perhaps there is a nice two weeks tour to be done. We did enjoy the Seaway Trail and have been considering a tour around Lake Champlain. Then there is that new trail from Pittsburgh to DC.

So as of now, I have the first three weeks of the trips in sequential order. You can find them by going to the side bar and looking under the Find It tab.

I have been featured in the February 2009 issue of Ladies Home Journal because of my cross country cycling adventure. Go to the last page to read the story.

Well, due to some family events, my re-living the x-country trip has taken a back seat for the past few weeks. How shocking to see that we arrived by ferry from Milwaukee to Muskegon on this date. It surely felt like home territory as we frequently vacationed in Michigan when I was a kid. Suddenly, I felt in my own element.

That ferry ride saved us many miles and many hassles. One alternative would be to go across the Chicago area, which didn’t hold much appeal. We could have taken the ferry at more northerly Manitowoc or even ventured even farther north and come across the UP. We didn’t see any reason to add extra days to the trip, so we took the quickest route toward Toledo.

Being in familiar territory made it seem that we have covered some distance and are making progress. Although the miles added up quickly, it was difficult to get a sense of our accomplishment. Now that the territory is familiar to us, we have a better sense of place, distance and progress.

We didn’t want to deal with that horrid bridge that we crossed yesterday and were thrilled to find that there was a bike path not too far from our hotel. We opted for a longer route because we were worried about having to make a left exit off the interstate. It seemed like a very undesirable option even though it would save us a few miles.
Our ride was mostly a pleasant one until we joined I-94. Well, it wasn’t exactly unpleasant, but the climbs began again, each one a bit more challenging that the previous one. We had considered getting off the interstate for awhile and taking a side road, but that looked even worse that what we were doing. We convinced ourselves that the grades on the Interstate would be less steep than those on an old road.

We knew that we would be staying in another trailer motel tonight, but that was fine with us. At least, it was a place to stay. Custer, the location of the motel definitely rates as the smelliest town we have visited. It seems that there are many feed lots nearby.

The next day we got an early start to Forsyth. The Hysham Hill was just outside of Custer. Little did we know that that one hill would turn into many. We did some serious climbing again today. This may have been one of our most intense days of climbing. I hated going down at all because it just meant that we would climb again and again and again.

It seems that the day either starts or ends with a climb, or does both. This was the case with entering Forsyth, a friendly town with a picturesque courthouse. We were not looking forward to an upcoming ride of 80 miles with basically no services and totally decided against it when a local suggested a longer, but less desolate route. It would add a day or two to our itinerary, but we were really in no hurry to get anywhere. Besides, we didn’t know when we would get to this area again.

The scenery in this area was spectacularly desert-like with many buttes thrown in for good measure. The trees had once again disappeared and I thought of this as a typical cowboy landscape. How different it is from the other end of the state near Glacier Park and Missoula, places that were quickly becoming distant memories.

Poor weather would plague us for the next few days. The forecast out of Deer Lodge was for thunderstorms in the morning, so the original plan was to leave later in the day. Not hearing early morning rain, we turned on the TV for a weather report, which was revised from yesterday and put the thunderstorms into the afternoon. We bolted out of bed and quickly packed and hit the road so that we could get to Butte before the rain did.

The ride was a gradual climb at first followed by some steeper climbs. We made it into Butte before the rain and made decent time. The plan was to visit the area the next morning and head onto Bozeman, but that plan was altered by the threat of snow. We had a wonderful visit of the area in the morning under mostly blue skies. We hoped that the snow would be a joke, but that wasn’t the case. The snow came- 7″ of it - so we took the Greyhound to Bozeman. Not as simple as we thought.

While walking from the bus station to the hotel, we heard a local comment about our cycling prowess. Considering that we were simply pushing the bikes, we found the remark rather humorous. We arrived later in the day so we planned on touring Bozeman the next morning and then leaving in the early afternoon for the short ride to Livingston. As things go, the weather was following us, which meant that the snow was due to arrive in Bozeman. We simply hunkered down here another night so that we would have a pleasant ride over Bozeman Pass and into Livingston.

It was quite chilly on the day that we would be cycling over Bozeman Pass, so we bundled up in the clothes that we hadn’t needed for a long time. I thought that the days of wearing tights were long gone, but was glad that I had something to keep me warm.

We started up the pass and as we came close to the highest elevation, the snow began to fall. This road wasn’t the best as it had a disappearing shoulder and it was rather hard to see ahead with the snow blowing in our faces. We eventually reached the high point and were disappointed not to see an elevation marker. We got off the interstate as soon as a frontage road appeared and made the cold and quick decent into Livingston.

I had been to Livingston a few years prior to board a train for a tour of the area. We walked to the station and I tried to get our bearings. Since we had left Bozeman late, we were in town at the wrong time for lunch. Maybe restaurants had already stopped their lunch service for the day, but we eventually found a suitable Mexican restaurant.

Reed Point was next on the itinerary and we had a nice ride on mostly frontage roads. As has been the case almost every day, the wind picked up. We had an intense crosswind coupled with spurts of rain. our last 15 miles into town took more effort than I wanted to exert. It was such a relief to make it to the Montana Hotel, a nice change of scenery from the predictable decor of the chains that we had been staying in.

We trudged on through Montana and thought that we had already been in this state long enough to become residents. On the way to Billings, we pedaled very few miles on the interstate. We climbed some intense hills, but the climbs were worth the great views. Not shocking was the fact that we suddenly found ourselves riding into an intense headwind the last few miles into Billings. Our approach was not a good one, as it seemed like we could have avoided a very treacherous, congested bridge on the way to our motel. We crossed that without incident even though I know my heartrate was up and not from the pedaling.

This was such a strange weather day. We didn’t leave too early because we wanted to miss the rain predicted in the morning. Well, that never really materialized until we got on the road. That and some nice and strong winds out of the west. What great tailwinds those would be if we were heading east. As luck would have it we were headed south so we had to turn the handlebars toward the edge of the road to keep from being blown into the highway. We thought that perhaps the wind might start coming out of the west so that when we eventually headed east again, we could benefit from a nice push. Don’t know what we were thinking because that would never happen.

We stopped in the small town of Drummond - how many big towns are there out here?- and had a better breakfast and took refuge from the weather. We didn’t rush to leave, but figured if we had to fight the wind that we should get back on the road to Deer Lodge. We did plan on visiting the Grant Kohrs ranch (listen to a podcast of the ranch at the bottom of the page)there and having dinner with some people who knew the area well.

Deer Lodge had an interesting old jail and really was an oasis in the middle of nowhere. We carefully watched the weather as there was a winter storm advisory. We were glad that we didn’t do the Scenic Pinter Road as we heard that had snow already. Although the weather was quite chilly when we started the ride in Astoria, we had gotten used to not having serious precipitation for a long while. And we weren’t expecting precipitation in the form of snow.

This day was full of adventures. We reluctantly left Lolo Hot Springs and headed to Lolo and took a tour of two fascinating attractions right across the street from each other. The Holt Heritage Museum focuses on cowboys, the rodeo and native history. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and could have stayed longer if time weren’t a factor.
We left and went across the street to Travelers’ Rest, the only spot that Lewis and Clark visited that can be documented. We toured and learned of the Lewis and Clark adventures and then made our way toward Missoula, but first, we had to stop for lunch at a legendary Mexican restaurant in Lolo.

Lunch was good and a treat, unlike the road into Missoula. We hadn’t been near a big city in ages and traffic lights and heavy traffic were foreign to us. We made it safely into town and looked for a pathway to take us to the center of the city. As luck would have it, we found another kind stranger who led us into town and directed us to the library so that we could update the blog and check email.
Missoula was not our final stop since we had such a short day yesterday. We had many more miles to get to our final destination of Rock Creek, so we opted to take I-90 as it was the shortest route possible. The first several miles of riding were quite unpleasant as there was lots of traffic and the shoulder totally disappeared when we crossed over bridges. This forced us into the lanes of traffic, which was quite treacherous. At least we had a tailwind for this part of the ride and were ticking off the miles quickly.

When we reached Rock Creek we found our lodging for the night and headed to a very nice restaurant. I was distracted by signs at the nearby campground warning about bears; not my favorite animal. We found a nice laundry facility and washed our clothes for the first time in awhile. It’s always so nice to have clean clothes. Smelly clothes probably attract bears.

From here on in, we have many days to traverse Montana. There are more passes coming along the way. We decided not to go to Helena, but through Butte and then over to Livingston and Billings. Until we return again, we don’t know what we missed going this direction. We do know that there is a scenic mountain road that we would like to travel on - with a car.

The ride today is the one that has taken precedence in all my thoughts about this trip. Physically intimidated by the thought of climbing Lolo Pass, I had planned for the worst. The morning started that way. I was so stiff and lacked energy that I was certain that I would be covering the territory on foot and that is a reason we decided to cover just over 20 miles. I could take all day walking over Lolo.

Well, the climb was a bit more challenging than Alpowa. The road gradually climbed for a few miles, then took a steep turn. I was happy to be on this side of the road and climbing. Descending Lolo toward Powell would looked like quite the treacherous ride. For some reason, I have lost the thrill I once had of fast descents that I had enjoyed so much. I never understood those who used their brakes going downhill. I am now one of those people and totally understand as I now often feel that I will catapult over the handlebars.

Certainly, I didn’t need to worry about great speed on this climb. We both steadily climbed taking rests every now and then. At times, I wished for a lower gear, but it really wouldn’t have made the climb all that much easier. This climb was done a mile at a time and although the miles clicked off very slowly, we were making progress. We stopped at an overlook and Robert had forgotten that he was clipped in. Even after all this time, it is easy enough to forget that our feet are rather permanently affixed to the pedals. It seems the easiest time to forget is when we our distracted by something or in a situation of impending doom.

Some road workers checked to see if Robert were OK and told us that there was hot coffee at the visitor center at the top. Even though we aren’t big coffee drinkers, a warm drink became the next goal. The grade of the climb seemed to be less intense or maybe we were just feeling stronger, spurred on by the promise of a drink at the top. Snow suddenly appeared along the road, followed shortly after by a building - the visitor center.

We chatted with the friendly volunteers and some motorcyclists who informed us how much drivers hate cyclists. Just what we needed to hear. In general, most of the traffic has been courteous. My last brush with death was on the first day of the trip when that logging truck came within millimeters of my arm.

The visitor center is quite pleasant with hot chocolate, which I opted for, and coffee. Since we had a fast downhill ride to Lolo Hot Springs, we were in no great rush. The thrill of conquering Lolo made the stiffness disappear. This must have been one of those endorphin highs. The sign welcoming us to Montana was just on the other side of the parking light and its message was calling to us. It was time
to head down into the next state.

The downhill was a nice one and we realized that climbing up from the other side would have been a long steady incline, unlike the steep and sharp way we arrived. However, this made our descent far more comfortable as we didn’t need to maneuver steep hairpins. We quickly reached Lolo Hot Springs where we enjoyed the water and relaxed for the rest of the day. After all, we didn’t cover that much territory today. It was certainly a good plan on our part and a nice reward for our efforts.

We set out early again to give ourselves ample time to reach Powell. We followed a brushing truck for some time. Traffic thinned out in this stretch and riding was quite pleasant, even though the possibility of falling into the creek was a very real one.
We passed several campgrounds, which we had expected to be closed, but we had plans to stay in cabins in Powell.
We really enjoyed this spot and had an excellent dinner here. We weren’t expecting a chef to be preparing meals out here in the wilderness. This is another place that we would like to return to - via automobile.

I could ride down Lolo from the direction that we climbed, but there were some steep and sharp curves that would take away the pleasure.