Day 39 - Circle, MT to Jordan, MT

I got on the road about 6:00 AM this morning to try to beat the heat as much as possible. About 10 miles into my ride I was treated to the side of antelope grazing on my right side and a mule deer on my left. When he spotted me the mule deer ran in a bouncing fashion with all four hooves off the ground for about a mile.

This was far more enjoyable than my last encounter with nature a couple of days ago when a hawk apparently decided that I was encroaching on his space.. He dive bombed me about six times, each time coming within two or 3 feet of my head. I was very happy to have my bicycle helmet on as protection against birds of prey!

Today’s ride was about 70 miles of constant ascentsand decents into and out of dried up river beds. That got old after about 50 miles. These were not rollers of the type you have in places like Missouri. They were deep Vs that descended about 200 feet into dry creek beds. (It turns out that most of the rivers that run through this part of Montana are dried up, at least this time of year.) The elevation profile on my bicycling map looks like a saw!

A prominent Feature of this beautiful area are the buttes, which come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

I am now traveling a long way from the interstate on a Very lightly traveled 2 Lane Highway that for some odd reason is not designated as a scenic byway. There is absolutely nothing in the 67 miles between the tiny villages of Circle and Jordan.

All this made for a bicycling paradise save for the fact that the temperature today topped out at 100°. As I approached the village of Jordan, with a population of 340, a cowboy jumped out of his pick up truck in front of me and held up a bottle of cold water in each hand.  This was a welcome sight for two reasons. First, all of the many bottles of water and Gatorade that I was carrying were almost boiling by that point of the ride. Second, the cowboy was wearing a belt with an unconcealed pistol in s holster!

When I arrived in Jordan I went over to the Local bar to have a steak. The bartender told me that the town was busy because a lot of bone diggers (archaeologist )were there. All I saw were real cowboys wearing hats and light cotton checkered shirts. They, of course, all drove pick up trucks.