Cut Bank, MT to Saint Mary, MT
Day: 70.76 miles, Trip: 3447.10 miles
So much for waking up early. I am pretty sure I was the last one to wake up this morning (take that Kenny and Bethany). By the time I was ready to roll out there was only myself, Kristen, Bethany and Kenny left at camp. Kristen and I stopped at Mcdonalds for some breakfast. I wanted to have something in my stomach (even if it was crappy food) if it was going to be a long day.
The first hill wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The wind though was brutal. Kristen and I took turns pulling and after hours of struggling we made it to the first rest stop. They said the 4 of us were 45 minutes behind the last group to leave. We kept going and rolled through Browning, MT and stopped for a restroom break. We saw Andy and Justin stopped at the Taco Johns but kept on riding. When we turned onto Hwy 89 the wind really picked up. About 5 miles later we both start talking about how we could really go for some tacos right now. Oops too late. At this point we are finally in the mountains and the views are nice even with the smokey air. At some point on Hwy 89 a cop stopped us and gave Kristen an ear full complaining about the cyclists. But hey, we have a right to the road too so they can't really say much.
The second rest stop was at the intersection of 89 and 49. There is a little shop/cafe so we got some food. It wasn't the greatest but that that moment it was wonderful and surprising we caught up to everybody who had been hanging out at this stop. Of course shortly after we got there they all headed out.
From here the hills blocked some of the wind so it wasn't as bad and it was only about 20 miles left to ride. The views were good, but smokey so a little limited. There were some good climbs and descents. I took some the of downhills easy when the wind started gusting. The last hill into Saint Mary was a different story. I bombed down it hitting 45 mph. There were several dips and bumps in the road and I am sure that on one of them I had both tires off the road after hitting it.
We stopped on the way in at the Lodge and the larger group was finishing up with drinks and appetizers. I split a bison quesadilla with Kristen. We picked up a few things from the store for dinner since the lodge is spendy. We cooked with the usual dinner crew and it was early to bed. It is great being in the Rockies and tomorrow we are going over the famous Going to the Sun Road.
