Today’s ride started off dry…almost. I was just getting ready to leave when a man approached and asked what we were doing. The man had a foreign-sounding accent, but he said he was from North Carolina. As Pat and I stood in the parking lot explaining to him about The Dream Tour, the Bayer Dream Fund, and our mission to bicycle to all forty-eight contiguous states, a light rain started falling.

Fortunately, he seemed as interested in getting out of the rain as I was in getting my ride started. He wished us well and I headed out of the parking lot and back towards highway 12. Highway 12 west of Helena goes up about 2300 feet in about 17 miles to MacDonald Pass and the continental divide.

As I headed up towards MacDonald Pass, the rain kept falling. It was never a hard rain or anything; it was really more of a mist. The wind was blowing pretty hard and it was helping or hindering my ascent depending on which direction the road turned in the valley. It seemed to be helping me mostly though.

I was doing this ride up MacDonald Pass solo. Larry had a commitment to lead a webinar for work and had to stay behind at the motel where he had internet access. The plan was for Pat and Larry to meet me somewhere on highway 12 after the completion of Larry’s webinar. About 24 miles after the start, Pat and Larry caught up with me. Larry and I rode the rest of the way to Drummond together. We stayed dry and had a good tailwind until we reached interstate I-90. About the time we turned onto I-90 (which had a very wide shoulder), the rain started. It rained all the way to Drummond. About the time we got to Drummond, we were both pretty wet and we were ready to get inside out of the cold. So that’s what we did.

Total distance:	65.72 miles
Time:	4:46:45
Average speed:	13.8 mph
Maximum speed:	33.6 mph
Total calories:	4787
Average heart rate:	129 bpm
Maximum heart rate:	166 bpm
Total ascent:	2740 feet
Total descent:	2826 feet
Ride profile:	(click on image to view a larger version)
Ride comments: Miserable riding conditions today. Started off with rain which turned into a misty rain on the ascent of MacDonald Pass. Fortunately, it was dry on the descent, but when we got onto the interstate (I-90), it started raining pretty hard. By the time we got to Drummond, we were pretty wet and cold.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 8:28 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.