September 8: Roundup to Harlowton, Montana
Today I rode another 67 miles on Highway 12. Same highway as yesterday, but a totally different experience. Instead of vast areas of emptiness (or is that MT-ness?) from horizon to horizon, the terrain took on a more mountainous look and feel. Instead of lonely highway 12, it became busy, truck-filled highway 12.
We’ve travelled to 43 states so far. Each of them had something that made our experience there unique. For example, Maine had the Atlantic Ocean. Iowa had cornfields — lots of them! Arkansas had armadillos. Montana is “Big Sky” country and now I know why. But, Montana has something else: signs warning against methamphetamine use. “Meth is Death”, “Not even once”, and “True Montanans do beef, not meth.” We’ve seen a dozen or so of these signs since entering Montana, but we haven’t seen any signs like this anywhere else. Interesting.
Early in the day, the skies were clear with some clouds off on the west horizon. As I rode west, the skies took on a hazy feel to them. In fact, there were times when the air seemed to have a bit of a red tint to it. This didn’t really surprise me because I knew that the Derby Fire was burning only about 50 miles to the south. This fire has been burning since August 22 and it now has consumed over 205,000 acres. The fire is currently 55% contained but it is still having a huge impact on the weather in the area. For example, in Bozeman, where we’re headed to visit our friends, the air quality has been rated “very unhealthy” for a number of days. After our rest day in Harlowton tomorrow (September 9), we have two days of riding to get us to Bozeman. If the air quality doesn’t improve by the time we get closer to Bozeman, we’ll have to skip the ride into Bozeman. We’ll still visit our friends there, but we’ll probably drive in from Townsend, Montana (about 50 miles from Bozeman).
| Total distance: | 66.54 miles |
|---|---|
| Time: | 4:34:08 |
| Average speed: | 14.6 mph |
| Maximum speed: | 32.1 mph |
| Total calories: | 4661 |
| Average heart rate: | 110 bpm |
| Maximum heart rate: | 142 bpm |
| Total ascent: | 1997 feet |
| Total descent: | 1006 feet |
| Ride profile: |  (click on image to view a larger version) |
| Ride comments: A slight tailwind from the southeast most of the day. I’m very tired today plus my left knee is starting to bother me a bit. I’ve been icing it after rides and today I tried my best to take it easy. The tailwind definitely helped. |
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September 9th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
The meth signs are sponsored by the man who founded Siebel, and software company. He donated mucho $ for the campaign. All the signs are created by people from Montana, and mostly teens.
September 9th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Hi Pete- I can’t imagine what in the world might be interesting in Harlowton. I know that this is a rest day but what is there to do? Maybe the best part is a day of complete rest. We are looking forward to your next blog. Hope the knee is going to be ok since the hardest climbs might be ahead of you. Sounds like the fires may be contained. Loved the horses in the river. M&D
September 16th, 2006 at 10:18 am
i just moved north of roundup. you can go from mountain range, foothill range, praire range, so dry basin-rock outcroppings in a matter of miles. hope you will visit again. thanks for the interesting blog notes. i enjoyed them!!!!