7-16-10 Day 41: Glasgow, Montana to Malta, Montana: 72 miles in 4:54 hours all on Rt. 2 West.
No, that was not a misprint. I did indeed do 72 miles at over 14 mph for an average. I’m super stoked to have made a good move what with the heat and the wind being a big factor today. This will be a short blog because it was about as uneventful as they come. My strategy was to get up super early and get on the road super early to beat the predicted 96-degree heat for the day and the predicted west/northwest winds at 15-20 mph. So I went to bed at 9:30 PM and got up at about 3:55 AM so I could leave as the sun was just cresting the eastern horizon. By 4:10 AM I had brewed my coffee and was making a PBJ bagel. Got packed while I ate and was locking the efficiency door at about 4:50 AM. Riding at 5 AM – new PR for a start. Got to have those PR’s right?
The temp was nice and cool, about 57 degrees with just the faintest of a breeze, almost dead calm. I had my long sleeved jersey on and it felt just right, just a tad cool as I cruised out of Glasgow. Not a car on the road. I mean it was just paradise. Half hour in and no wind. I felt as though each and every half hour I could get in before the wind machine cranked up, the sooner I beat the monster heat of the day, which up here, keeps getting hotter up into the 5-6 PM area. The heat just builds all day long. About that time the sun was trying to pop up in the easy, casting this massively long shadow of me on my bike riding on the desolate road. I mean I was almost riding with a sense of urgency, trying to get in every precious mile before the wind kicked in. I almost felt that feeling I used to get prior to a big race, the heightened sense of awareness, the jittery feelings, the anxiousness, the pumping heart. All that was there this morning as I rode west.
Now it took the sun just a little longer to get at me what with the bluffs kind of keeping it at bay. For the most part the road was pretty flat, with a gradual roller every once in a while as I crossed a draw or dry creekbed. Got to remember that I’m pretty much paralleling the Missouri River on my left way off to the south, so there is some small drainages that flow into it. But mostly these creeks were dry or extremely small. An hour in and the sun was almost over the eastern horizon and I’d gotten from a starting speed of like 13 mph to a whopping 16-17 mph. I had to look behind me just to make sure I wasn’t getting a tailwind. But nope, that was all just little old me cycling in this dead calm.
Yet that sense of urgency was just always there, with me scoping out the individual plants on the side of the road to see if they were starting to bend with a emerging wind. But nothing. Just a stellar morning of riding, and the road all to myself for the second hour. And before I could look down I was through the first of two small towns along the way, this one by the name of Hinsdale, which was 29 miles from Glasgow, and I’d done it in under two hours. Next up was the little town of Saco, about 14 more miles down the road. I didn’t think for a minute that I’d get to Saco before the wind machine kicked in. But I just kept on cranking in the 15-17 mph range, just feeling great and totally amazed that I was going so fast. I mean this was TWICE as fast as my last ride on Wed, there I was just creeping at 7-8 mph for an average.
Traffic picked up just a bit as I went on, and I eventually got on the berm and rode the just slightly less than optimum road surface. The trafficked lane to the left of the white line was pretty pressed down and polished, and I could definitely feel about a half a mile per hour faster average on that end. But with the traffic picking up just a bit I thought it prudent to take the mph loss for the safety. With the rumble strip I still have about 3 feet of riding surface on the berm. It’s just all the gravel, the small rocks and the occasional glass that I have to dodge while in there. Not bad, but it just take one piece of glass and the whole show stops for a bit.
Three hours in and I unzipped my long sleeve jersey as the temp was definitely up in the mid to high 60’s. Also hit a stretch where there were a few pretty long gradual climbs that had me OTS and working a bit. Passed a single cyclist going east, and I though, “yea I may be the dummy crossing east to west, but I have less than 1000 miles to go! I’ll take my position right now wind or no wind.” Got to the town of Saco and saw a group of cyclists just getting their gear packed up. They must have camped right across the street from this little quick shop store in Saco, about the only thing in this 20-30 home, blink and you’re through it town. Still, no wind.
And it couldn’t have been like 5 minutes after I noted that there was no wind, that the wind just like suddenly appeared. Like out of nowhere it started cracking, every so slightly. Could tell not only because me effort of 15-17 had gone down to 14 mph, but also could hear the wind in my right ear again, like it was blowing out of the northwest. Yup, it was back, but you know what, I didn’t really give a hoot, hell I was just 17 miles from Malta! “Blow you *^&$#)(^ blow”, I thought, “I’m damned near there.” And the amazing thing was that it was at like 8:45 AM, and I’d ridden over 50 miles. I was on target to do darned near the same mileage as I had on Wednesday, but in about 3.5 hours less time! And over that last 2 hrs the wind just continued to get stronger as a headwind. Yea, “IT”S BACK!” Down to 13 mph and then 12 mph as the wind continued to get stronger. The temp was definitely up more to, probably in the mid 70’s by that point. But great thing was that I was going to finish by about 10 AM or a little after.
Hit a few more long graduals and I could start to see signs of civilization again. I’d been riding through these massive stretches of nothing but rangeland, where cattle instead of crops now dominate the landscape. It’s big and it’s desolate, and it’s pretty cool to be riding a bike across a place like this. As I’ve said before, kind of make you feel pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. And you really have to schedule your stops accordingly. Now I had 4 water bottles on board, and with the early start I just decided to go without a stop today in Hinsdale or Saco, but they at least had little quick shop stores or a gas station. But lodging, that’s a different story. They’re like every 60-70 miles.
I had gotten a little greedy back around Saco, thinking that maybe if the wind held off I could make Havre, some 84 miles from Malta. But that was a pipedream, hammering out 140 miles on a day that was supposed to hit 96 degrees was not smart. Nope it was a layup, especially with these super long distances between towns, and then with the wind actually picking up in speed I knew that Malta was the right move. Havre would be possible tomorrow if I could get the same kind of start. So I just continued on with Malta as my ironclad destination for the day as planned.
More and more civilization in sight and I knew I’d gotten away with a pretty easy day. I arrived in Malta at 10 AM, with 72 miles in the tank in 4:54 hours. Got a little efficiency from a sweet 70-something year old woman by the name of Martha. She gave me a room off of the road so I could sleep if I wanted, and offered up a library of DVD’s in the office if I wanted to watch a movie later. Got in my room and it’s a nice, tidy little place. Martha adds these nice little touches by putting in like little fake flower baskets and a nice, home made drape on the window. I like these little mom and pop places. They really do try to make you stopover a comfortable experience. If I were camping here in Malta, it would be a freaking furnace, so hot that I couldn’t even enter the tent. Nope this little room is just the cat’s meow!
Walked down to the Albersons grocery store and grabbed some frozen stuff for my brunch and my dinner later on. No Subway here in Malta, just a DQ, and I’m not into DQ stuff today. I snagged some yogurt, bananas, and some frozen dinners…..and some Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia…….and a sixer of the Moose Drool Nut Brown Ale! I’m set.
Came back and just crashed for two hours with the AC on. Man was I tired. Feel ok now, and may even go out and take some pics later. The wind has gotten to its full 15-20 mph strength by now, at 3 PM MST, and the heat…..well, I washed my kit in the sink and set it out on a plastic chair to dry, and they were dry in one bloody hour! It’s hot. Tomorrow the temp is supposed to be down around 85, and the wind about the same, so I’m going to go with the same strategy as today – early start, early finish. Want to get to at least Chinook, round about 60-some miles west, or best case if the wind holds off, to Havre, about 84 miles west.
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