Today was a rest and catch up day. The goal was to make in to Drummond MT which was only 46 miles away. This was a decision point on whether to head toward Great Falls and steer toward North Dakota, or to head south toward Helena and towards Wyoming or South Dakota.

To navigate to Drummond, I ended up using Komoot. Well… Sometimes Komoot doesn’t have a clear idea of what the road surface is like. In this case, the road I was on simply ended and Komoot was telling me to get onto a gravel path which was a service “road” for a rail line (Komoot thought it was paved). Gravel is generous. In general it consisted of sharp little rocks from gum-balls to golf ball size. Me and my bicycle tolerated this for maybe a half to a mile and then decided on a Plan B. I lifted my bicycle over a Barbwire fence, then crawled through the fence myself and climbed the embankment onto interstate 90E. Out west it’s legal for bicyclists to pedal on the highway, so off I went.

It actually wasn’t too bad. The breakdown lane is as wide as a regular lane and if a vehicle somehow goes into the breakdown lane, it would bounce over the rumble strips making a huge amount of noise and you could swerve and tumble into the weeds before it hits you. It actually wasn’t scary at all. The main problem was that there was absolutely no shade and no water to cool off with. After 20 miles on the highway, I was able to once again get back onto side roads. By this time, it had gotten really hot, so being able to dunk my shirt and my head into a cool meandering stream was a little piece of heaven.

In Drummond, I stopped at Swedes Bar and had a great pizza, about four tall glasses of cold water, and found it an inexpensive hotel room for the night. Right now, I’m looking forward to an early bed time and an early start. Great Falls and the Great North it is. Once again, the mountains await.