Shut up legs!

-Jens Voigt on the Col de Madelaine TDF2010

The day started in Drummond MT. The climb at the start of the day had me scared: 1000’ straight up with a sustained stretch at a 9-11% grade. The alternative, was to divert all the way to Helena and then head north. I wasn’t about to do that, so time to man up and get pedaling. There is always pushing of need be.

Like most things, the anticipation was scarier than the doing. The gorge was beautiful as I moved through it in slow motion, but I definitely used all my gears (well mainly just one), and I did stop once when my heartbeat was red lining. Cape Breton was worse.

On the ride to Lincoln MT, I caught up with another couple of bicycle tourists, Doug and Diane from Ohio who also planned to follow the Northern Tier Bicycle Route to North Dakota. Diane was using a super lightweight electric bike so she could keep up with Doug. It seems like e-bikes have opened up bicycle touring to a lot more people.

The route took me through Roger’s Pass. At 5610’, this would likely be my highest elevation on the tour. It was a bit of a homecoming for me as I was here with Cricket and Chip, in this exact spot, three years ago when I hiked the CDT.

The landscape was changing dramatically from Alpine to open rangeland by the end of the day. At 4 PM, by the side of a quiet dirt road, I parked my bike against a chain-link fence, behind one of the few trees that I found, had dinner, and decided to cowboy camp for the night.

During dinner, I was treated to aerobatic show from a local airport. Tail slides, flat spins, falling leaves, hammerheads, and many other maneuvers I’ve never seen before, which showed a complete delight in unconstrained flying. A good day.