A sky as pure as water bathed the stars and brought them out.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, first sentence of ‘Southern Mail,’ 1929.

The stars last night were amazing! I had forgotten how great cowboy camping was and have been mostly hiding inside my tent for the last couple weeks. That being said, I did wake up to some bug crawling deep into one of my ear canals. Afraid to scare him further by trying to fish him out, I let him be, and after about five minutes he crawled out again. Lesson learned. Next time I cowboy camp I’m using the bug screen over my head.

The landscape had changed dramatically in just a couple hours of bicycling. Just a few scattered trees now and the hills were winding down. I had popped out of the other side of the Rockies and I n a couple of hours, I crossed the Missouri river for the first time.

The rest of the ride followed the Missouri River along quiet roads all the way to Great Falls, Montana.

The only kink in the ride today was when Komoot navigated me down a steep and embankment into a drainage ditch. What the heck! I tried Google maps to get around this, but the detour would cost me 7 miles… so down the deep drainage ditch I went with my bike. In the end, it all worked out.

Bicycle touring is an adventure, or nothing.