Daily Summary

It Was Supposed To Be A Fairly Easy Recovery Day

But it wasn’t! The temperature started in the 40’s but warmed up quickly. Skies were clear all day. The first couple miles were great, but then we turned a corner and ran straight into the headwind. The wind was going the opposite direction of normal today and coming from the east!

It was pretty steady with gusts in the 20+ mph range. It slowed us down a ton until around mile 45. You can see that the day was two long, slow climbs. They normally wouldn’t have been that bad, but the wind made them feel like a few degrees steeper incline. At times, we were pedaling hard and still not hitting 10 mph. At one point, I was on a downhill section and pedaling pretty hard and still barely hitting 12 mph!

We were so much slower than expected that the lunch location had to be changed because we were close to 90 minutes behind by mile 40. We were lucky there was a restuarant since there hadn’t been anything since we left. But, the wind died down towards the end and it warmed up. So, at least the finish was good.

The Ride & Sights

The road was a pretty major road, but with a big shoulder. Between the wind and having much more traffic than I expected in the middle of Montana, it wasn’t a relaxing ride and I couldn’t pay much attention to the views. 

Leaving town, I did a quick video showing the 360 degrees of mountains that surround Helena. I also have a picture of the start. The next picture shows the snow caps if you zoom in over my shoulder.

The picture of the cool hill is a hill I had in sight for many miles and finally got to it. Then, there are two pictures showing the mountain ranges to finish it off. The last one has snow caps across the entire picture. I think we may be riding over one of those mountains in the coming days.

Many of the roads in Three Forks are gravel even within a couple blocks of downtown.

 The Food And Hotel

Breakfast was a typical Hampton Inn buffet. We didn’t leave until 8:30 so we all got to eat whenever we wanted after getting extra sleep.

We ended up at a bar and grill for lunch. The hamburger was good. 

Our hotel is an historic inn, The Sacajawea Hotel, in Three Forks that was built in 1910. They have tons of old photos and a lot of really nice woodwork throughout. It is a cool place to stay. We had dinner at their pub. I actually got a dinner grilled chicked salad since I had a big lunch and ate tons of snacks. 

 

Immediately below is a 360 video of area around Helena. Literally mountains all around. After that are the usual photos.