71 Miles
My sleep was restful. And I started my day pain free. Because I had retired so early I woke before the alarms. I took the time to sort through some gear and pack things up a little tighter. We planned to be up by 6. It was probably 5:30 when I had gotten up. My traveling companions waited until 6.
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Oak and Lily, almost always ahead of me. |
I spent breakfast feeling much more chipper than I had been the last few mornings and bonded with Oak and Lily who both seemed less than enthusiastic about the day.
I had since meeting Oak and Lily realized that my bike did in fact have a name. It's name was Upstate. I think he had a crush on Juno, Lily's bike. Maybe I'm just crazy and had been on the road too long.
I mounted Upstate and we headed out for the day. We pedaled into the wind today. The sun was hot even before 10 am. Trees and shrubs were nonexistent. The terrain was moderately hilly, but nothing severe.The grass was dry, but still had a tinge of green to it. As we pedaled along the grasshoppers darted all around us. When I say grasshoppers I mean hundreds of thousands of grasshoppers.
I kept good pace today. And as I pedaled behind Oak the grasshoppers looked like they were exploding like fireworks from the pavement behind his tire. I was amused at the constant mini explosions. It helped the time go by, as did the regular
plinks that the grasshoppers made as they hit the spokes of my tires.I noticed that as soon as my shadow hit them on road that they would frantically try to jump out of my path. The
plinks told me that not all of them made it.
Our stops were frequent. Mostly we stopped at casino/gas stations, as they were quite frequent. We stopped at a bar and enjoyed I nice cold soda and filled up with water while enjoying the air conditioning and conversation with a local or two. They were all okay with the Canadian and the Australian, but seemed to think that a New Yorker had much different values than they did out there. I think it was there that I confirmed and told Lily that I'd continue on with them until at least Glacier National Park. There was a buzz of excitement about that. The bartender let us know of the terrain ahead and warned us to wear long sleeves further down the road as the mosquitoes got pretty thick.
We kept our mileage goal around 70 miles. However the last stretch would be 30 miles with nowhere to rest along the way. This didn't seem so bad. I had been headache free all day and was still feeling full of energy.
I started the last leg behind Lily but a bit ahead of Oak. I had a great cadence going and a few miles into the leg I found myself switching up quickly through my gears. But as sometimes happens when I shift too quickly, my chain came of the smallest sprocket and lodged itself between the frame and cassette. This is an easy fix. I just had to dismount and pull the chain free. I did this. I moved toward the edge of the pavement leaving room for Oak to pass when he got to me. Unfortunately, Oak never saw me get off my bike. He didn't see me moved to the side of the road, until he was literally almost on top of me. His head was down as he pumped his pedals hard. He lifted his head just in time to swerve. I was bent over my rear wheel and his handlebars knocked me over Upstate. And Oak spilled himself and his bike into the road. His groceries rolled into traffic. Luckily no cars were coming. Luckily, Oak knows how to fall. He was unscathed, as was I. We both made sure we were okay. We picked up his spilled gear.
It was about this time that Lily came racing back terrified we were dead or bleeding in the road. A motorcyclist had stopped and asked her if she was with us. He let her know that someone had crashed. She sped the mile plus back in record time I'm sure.
After we reassured her and each other we were fine. I picked up my bike and checked for damage. The front tire had swung completely around and caused my brakes to unlatch. They seemed a little wonky and would need some adjustment. I could just do it at the next stop. I unhooked the front brakes and left them open. I would be fine with just the back ones for now.
Oak's bike had not done quite so well. His front tire was quite out of true, meaning it was bent a bit. This is fixed by tightening or loosening the spokes. Neither Oak or I knew how to do this. Lily did. She also had the spoke wrench needed to do the job. She labored showing us how to do this. The sun and heat was unbearable. The temperatures were near 100 degrees, without a lick of shade to be found. It was getting to be late afternoon and Oak's wheel just wouldn't straighten. This probably meant that the rim was bent, and not just from the spokes not being adjusted properly. Lily and Oak did the best they could and Oak decided it was good enough for now.
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No trees. No shade. |
We set off to do the last 25 or so miles before we would stop for the day. These 25 miles were especially difficult. It was hilly and long, did I mention the heat? There was no shade to rest in.There were no pull offs or public buildings, or really any buildings at all to shield me from the scorching sun. I stopped for a moment for a drink of water but I was attacked by mosquitoes. So that break lasted less than a minute. The last 7 miles seemed like an eternity. And all my chipperness earlier in the day had been spent.
Finally, I saw buildings and trains and food. Dairy Queen was the first eating establishment I came across. I didn't even look for their bikes. I knew Oak and Lily were there. I ordered ice cream and a giant ice filled cherry coke before I even said hello to them. I wasn't the only one who had struggled through that last stretch. They too felt it. We enjoyed the air conditioning and ice cream before we went off in search of a camping spot. We found a little park in town. The camping was cheap, but we skipped out on registering. Other people were setting up camp in their RVs and a few tent campers were as well. It was quite busy. We set up camp too.
The mosquitoes were quite bad. I kept getting bit and my legs were covered in bumps as they attacked me viciously. I adjusted my brakes. They seemed to be working alright. I found and outlet and charged my phone as I always did. I made some longer phone calls. This was nice, especially since I got to talk to Ron. He always makes me feel proud of myself. And he always gave me the best encouragement.
As evening set in the mosquito population seemed to explode. I was being eaten alive. Almost every inch of my skin was covered and I had sprayed myself thoroughly with the strongest bug spray I could find. They were still biting me through my clothes. My hands were becoming a puffy mess of bites. I was being eaten alive. It was terrible. I could hear their buzzing all around me.I climbed into my tent before dark and did some writing. The mosquitoes were peering through the netting of my tent eyeing me hoping I would be their next meal. I watched them back as they poked their noses through the netting in hopes of just a drop from me.
One or two buzzing managed to sneak into my tent when I had mad a quick dash through the cloud of insects to the bathroom. I heard them buzzing around my head as I drifted to sleep.
Malta Montana is mosquito hell.
More pictures at Lily's blog