Day 61, July 20th, Circle, MT to Wolf Point,
MT. I was up early but unsure what to do
today. I only had 50+ miles and didn’t
want to rush. I also was feeling the 80
mile day yesterday. I decided to get on
the road but take it slow. I found some
coffee, ate a little and headed toward Wolf Point. It was a good thing I started early. The route to Wolf Point was quite hilly and a
lot of them. It was a rolling ride and
the wind was not in my favor. It was
gusting fairly hard at about 2 o’clock from the Northeast. It was a slow go and my legs really didn’t
want hills. I did take it slow and
stopped often. There is no much between
Circle and Wolf Point except wheat fields.
This is what I expected in North Dakota without the hills! The wheat is being harvested and there were
too many trucks on Route 13 but the real danger is the tourists pulling travel
trailers. The tourists don’t know how to
handle the trailer and won’t slow down!
There wasn’t much shoulder so I had to watch closely. I had no incidents but I hope U.S. Route 2
going west has a better shoulder. My
first long stop was in Vida, but there were no rest facilities. I continued on and had about 3 more ridges to
climb and then (halleluiah) it was all downhill to the Missouri River. The old Wolf Point Bridge is a historic
landmark and built in 1930. Wolf Point
is inside the Fort Peck Indian Reservation so the town is full of casinos but
otherwise has a hard edge to it. I was
scheduled to camp in the City Park but found a hotel (sound familiar?). Right next to the motel was the Wolf Point
Historical Society Museum. Inside an old
International Harvester Showroom is a wonderful collection from town residents
dating back to the 1880s when the town was founded. I was the only visitor and got a one-on-one
guided tour from the Rigsbys, volunteers.
Tomorrow it is on westward to Glasgow, MT and a possible visit to the
Fort Peck Dam. Mileage for the day was
57.61. Oh, did I mention, the route is
back following the Burlington Northern Railroad!
Found the same thing about the town in the Indian reservation we drove through when we left Glacier-lots of casinos but a rough edge to the town.
ReplyDeleteO beautiful for spacious skies, and amber waves of grain.....just like the song! Hope your day goes swimmingly!
ReplyDeleteI just left the Denver area from visiting my gf, who is currently training for two weeks there. We went to the top of Mount Evans (highest paved road in North America, 14642ft-ish). Anyways, they have a Bob Cook Memorial bike ride, whi h we happen to stumble upon and it is 18 some grueling miles up to Echo Lake which is near the entrance to Mount Evans Park. Tons of riders were having a great time and I shared your story and they felt like wussies even though this climb can put some tour de France climbs to shame. Fantastic views though and a very fast decent back down. Keep grinding it out Iron Man!
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