Day 37-Wibaux, MT to Glendive, MT

It is easy to see why Montana has the moniker “big sky country.”

Thinking today was going to be an easy day, I did some reading this morning and didn’t end up leaving until close to 11 o’clock. I also neglected to bring any Gatorade. Big mistakes.

With steady headwinds and temperatures in the mid 90s I bonked at about 30 miles. “Bonking” is a technical term for hitting the wall. I knew I was bonking because I was lying down on my back looking at the big sky and thinking that I’d rather be playing tennis or golf or weeding the garden or doing almost anything else besides bicycling in those conditions. I ate a couple of tins of sardines and limped into the town of Glendive where I stopped at the first gas station and gulped down two bottles of Gatorade.

Rehydrated and feeling better, I was riding through the town of Glendive when a sweet young lady pulled over in front of me, got out of her car and approached me. I must have looked pretty beleaguered! She explained that she was a member of the warm showers network, an international network of people who open up their yards or homes to touring bicyclists. It was the first human contact I had had all day And it came at a good time. As I write this journal entry I am in my tent in her backyard having enjoyed a warm shower in her house And the company of two delightful people over the course of the evening.

It is supposed to get gradually hotter all week culminating in highs of over 100° on Friday and Saturday. This is perhaps the most desolate stretch of the entire Lewisand Clark trail, so this weather could not be hitting at a worse time as far as I’m concerned! 

My warm showers Host took me to the local grocery store so that I could stock up on electrolytes, energy bars, and sardines.I’m Less worried about the heat and the climbs in the days ahead than the constant headwinds, but the combination of all three together is not going to be fun.

My wife urged me to ride this route from west to east, but I stubbornly refused. A couple of times over the past few days I turned around and rode a short distance just so I could get a sense of what it would be like to have a tailwind. As usual, my wife was right. A couple of days ago a trucker told me that he often gets six miles per gallon more in his rig driving east than He does driving west. 

I’m feeling very disconnected at the moment From Lewis, Clark and the crew of the discovery expedition. The Trail is tracking well south of the Missouri River and I don’t expect to see the river for about a week. That said, this part of the country, minus the River, is similar to what Lewis and Clark saw as they went through it. There are no longer huge herds of Buffalo roaming the plains And providing an important source of food for L&C, but nor are there many people in these parts.