Day 44 – Monday 7/11/22

Circle, Montana to Jordan, Montana – 68.1 Miles

I left the Traveler’s Inn at 7:15 this morning, well stocked with supplies from the store nearby. There were 68 miles between Circle and Jordan and running out of either food or water on the road seemed like the perfect way to turn a good day into a bad one. Before leaving, I rode around for 15 minutes looking for things unique to the town. Here are a few.

Dinosaurs are popular in Montana, as they were all over the place 65 million years ago. This one is more recent.

Almost every small town has these signs at the city limits. Some of the accomplishments go back a long way. Listing a “Speech and Drama” achievement is a nice touch.

The Gladstone Hotel

Not the fanciest theater I’ve seen, but in a town of 300 it’s amazing that it’s here.

As I left town, my ride schedule for the next three days was posted by the roadside. The scarcity of towns and distances between them make long days with Ishmael mandatory.

Navigation was easy today. Just follow the signs that have a “200” on them.

Montana is known as “Big Sky Country”, and it’s easy to see why when you’re all alone in the middle of it. At home, I can see neighbor’s houses left, right, front and back. Here, the view is almost always to the horizon.

This scene struck me as funny. The reason for the pile of dirt was unknown, and the loader looked like a kid’s toy next to it. I figured it out later.

Thirty-two miles into it I stopped at a nice rest area to fill up on water. There, I met David and Laura, bicycle tourists from Portland, Oregon. They were on their third bicycle tour, after riding Glacier Park \ Canadian Rockies and New Zealand previously. They’d come from Jordan that morning and decided to hang out at the rest area until the heat died down later in the afternoon. They had no ultimate destination in mind for their trip and told me that they try to arrange their rides to take advantage of the prevailing daily wind. Since mileage and direction weren’t too much of a concern, they were happy just seeing what was out there. I probably could learn something from them.

I talked with them for about an hour, as well as with three guys from Wisconsin (Father, Son and Grandfather) who’d driven from there the day before to fish in Montana. With 36 miles to go, the scenery started to go from green rolling hills to a rockier look.

Within five miles of leaving the rest stop, Asa appeared riding in the other direction. He lives in Sitka, Alaska, and left from there to travel to Portland, Maine. He’d ridden until 10:30 a couple of nights before, putting in 130 miles, and when we met at 1:15 his destination was Glendive, 87 miles away, which was highly ambitious at that time of day.

He was starting at Dartmouth College later in the summer studying engineering and wanted to have an adventure before then. We talked about how people who ride bikes across America are either young or old, as nobody in their middle years has the time. He’s an excellent example of “Young”, while I capably represent the other end of the chronological timeline.

David, Laura and Asa had told me about road construction ahead, so I was anticipating dealing with it. The road was being rerouted and down to one lane, so a red stop light held back cars in one direction while a “pilot truck” led those coming in the opposite direction through the work zone. As I waited at the red light, a man in a pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer drove by and said he’d give me a ride to a safer spot past the construction. With the numerous trucks and cars behind me, I didn’t think it would be a good idea to interfere with them, so I loaded Ishmael on the trailer and off we went.

Ryan’s job that day was to rearrange the road signs as the construction crews worked in different areas, but he was also a heavy equipment operator. He expected the work to continue until November, then they’d be back in the Spring to complete the job. Part of that involved creating a temporary road running alongside 200, then routing cars along it while the original road was restored. I learned a lot about how to build a highway in the ten minutes I spent with Ryan, and what it’s like working in a crew that’s a long way from anything.

Time slows down in the last ten miles each day. Fortunately, there was still some nice scenery in view.

I checked into the Garfield Hotel, named after the county. It’s typical of a hotel in a small town but has everything I need.

Jordan is also proud of its high school achievements.

The town has two convenience stores, two bars, two hotels and a good restaurant.

I saw the last scenic view of the day on the way back from dinner.

Tomorrow’s ride is 76 miles to Winnett, Montana. There’s nothing in between here and there, so supplies will be stocked up in the morning. The wind is supposed to be from the SE, which will be an improvement over the W or WNW breezes I’ve been dealing with the past two days. With a reasonable departure time, I should be there by 5 in the afternoon.