Day 46 – Wednesday 7/13/22

Winnett, Montana to Lewiston, Montana – 60.0 Miles

As enjoyable as Winnett (pronounced “Win – It”) was, it’s not on the Pacific coast. So, it was time to move on. Lewiston was only 60 miles away, but any town beyond there would have been too much of a stretch in one day of riding. The optimal distance for me, where I can cover it comfortably without spending the entire day on the bike, is about 75 miles. More than that is an all-day commitment, and less is almost a guarantee that I’m going to run out of things to do early in the day.

First it was goodbye to the Northern Motel, room 4.

Next, I stopped at the General Store to load up on food. The stores in small towns here carry everything, and this one followed that pattern. The inventory was amazing considering the size of Winnett and all the other closed businesses there.

After dawdling around at the start, I was on the road about 7:30. The first road sign reminded me how far I had to go.

About an hour into the ride, I saw a cyclist coming from the other direction. There’s an instant camaraderie between bicycle tourists, and meeting someone doing what you’re doing is a highlight of any day. These roadside chats are typically short, but very informative, as they will know everything about what’s ahead for you and vice versa. I knew quickly that the person I was about to meet had either slept in a field nearby or was ambitious enough to have risen early and put in more than the 10 miles showing on my Garmin.

Harvey was the ambitious type. It turned out he grew up in my town in Indiana but was living in Boston after getting his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. He was on his way from Anacortes, Washington to Portland, Maine on the Northern Tier route, and had just completed a ride on Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. At 25 years old, he was attending Harvard after the ride to get a Master’s degree in Economics. He would finish his day in Winnett after starting out from Lewiston, due to putting in some hard miles the day before and a heat advisory out for the area. Impressive!

There were definitely more trees showing up along the roadside, and the grass was getting greener at the same time.

If a town has a convenience store, I’ll stop there. Grass Range was listed as having two, which made it inevitable. Near the intersection of two highways, it used to be served by the railroad, which has since been removed, and now caters to motorists. There is a downtown, but not much is happening. The first thing I saw as I arrived was an old grain elevator that had been built when there were trains.

Decaying buildings and abandoned vehicles are easy to find in Montana. Some of these older cars would probably be worth something in another state, but apparently not here.

This old Ford was sitting on a side street and was drivable.

Grass Range was 35 miles from Lewistown, which was 3 1/2 hours of pedaling for me. The traffic was fairly heavy on 200, but never felt like much of a threat.

Compared to the dry fields of middle Montana, the western part looks like it gets all the rain.

Arriving in Lewiston, I saw a wall of bicycles that James and Stasia had mentioned two days before. We’d joked that they were owned by the people that didn’t make it across the country, but that’s very unlikely. I didn’t see any collectible bikes in the pile, but it’s still interesting.

Rolling through town, I spotted another theater.

Nice old sign.

I looked at getting a hotel, but either they were all booked up or had ratings so bad it wasn’t worth the money. The Kiwanis Club operated a campground at the west side of town that was recommended by a couple of cyclists I’d talked to, so I decided to try it. I found it easily, then managed to set up the tent before the rain came down.

The tent held up well in the rain and wind. The biggest issue is that setting everything up and taking it down again is time consuming, although it’s an economical way to go. As I hit the more “touristy” areas further west, the tent and I will be seen together more often.

There wasn’t that much to report on a day I didn’t go very far. Target for tomorrow is undecided. Fort Benton or Great Falls seems likely.