September 7: Vananda to Roundup, Montana
This part of Montana is extremely remote and isolated. It’s difficult to describe, but I’m going to try. As always, I’ve got a few pictures that don’t really do it justice. But, a couple things happened today that might help you appreciate the isolation, remoteness, and sparseness of this area.
Just after I got started riding this morning, I began to feel a pain at the top and front of my left leg on each pedal stroke. The pain was at my insulin pump infusion site. Yesterday, this site was OK, but today for some reason, it was being irritated by the action of pedaling. Pat and I had agreed to meet about thirty miles down the road. I considered just toughing it out for thirty miles, but I didn’t think I could handle this irritation 90 times a minute for the next two hours. Plus, I figured the irritation would eventually result in some bruising. If not that, there was the potential of developing some scar tissue in this area. Scar tissue is never a good thing for a person with type 1 diabetes because injecting insulin into scar tissue slows down the absorption of insulin. So, I decided I better fix this situation before it got any worse. I called Pat on the cellphone (lucky I had a signal!). A short time later, I could see Pat heading back my way in the car. When she got closer, she pulled off onto a ranch access road. I proceeded to make preparations to insert an new infusion site at the side of the road. OK, so this is why this is an example of the remoteness and isolation of this part of Montana. From the time Pat pulled off to the side of the road until I had completed the site change, which takes about 20 minutes, not a single car went by.
The 83 miles that I rode on highway 12 to Roundup, Montana has a series towns on it. Not all of these are on the map, but I made note of them. First, there was Vananda which you saw some pictures of already. Then there was Ahles, Thebes, Ingomar, Galbraith, Sumatra, Bascom, Melstone, Musselshell, Delphia, Gage, and finally Roundup. Some of these towns, if you can really call them towns at all, were nothing more than a collection of a few building. Many had populations in the single digits. Only Roundup had any paved roads other than highway 12. Only Melstone, Musselshell, and Roundup appear to be incorporated.
I met another cyclist on the road today. His name is Mike, he’s from Wisconsin, and he’s doing a self-supported tour through Montana to visit his daughter who lives in Bozeman. We had seen him in Forsyth yesterday on our way to the hotel where we were staying. We weren’t sure he was headed our way, but it turns out he was. When I caught up with him today, I asked him where he stayed last night. He said he just found a comfy-looking and out-of-the-way spot on the side of highway 12, unrolled his sleeping bag, and spent the night. I asked him if the traffic on highway 12 bothered him during the night and he said no because there were only four or five cars that went by all night.
| Total distance: | 83.01 miles |
|---|---|
| Time: | 6:39:51 |
| Average speed: | 12.5 mph |
| Maximum speed: | 33.8 mph |
| Total calories: | 5423 |
| Average heart rate: | 115 bpm |
| Maximum heart rate: | 150 bpm |
| Total ascent: | 2018 feet |
| Total descent: | 1493 feet |
| Ride profile: |  (click on image to view a larger version) |
| Ride comments: A headwind from the northwest most of the day. The wind shifted to the northeast around Melstone for about 20 miles, but then reversed itself again for the last 20 miles. |
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