Day 13, August 7: I can see for miles and miles and miles

Hi All, sorry for the delay in uploading posts. I will do several today.

Miles City, MT to Baker, MT http://cyclemeter.com/85ef50859d8f1e5c/Cycle-20150807-0639

Distance: 84.3 miles

Average speed: 14.0 mph

Maximum speed: 32.1

Riding time: 6:01

Weather: in the high 50s at my 6:30 AM start and in the low 80s by the mid afternoon. The air is humid though. I read that Gulf of Mexico air made it all the way up to Montana. The dew point was in the mid to upper 50s. On all previous days of the trip the air was much drier with dew points in the 30s and 40s. In PA we often have summer dew points in the mid 60s, which makes for steambath-like conditions, and sometimes dew points reach the low 70s. It is worse in Iran though. They recently recorded the second highest dew point ever reported: 90° combined with a temperature of 115° made the "feels like" temperature 165°! Returning to my Miles City - Baker ride, the skies were blue with a few cirrus clouds. There was virtually no wind in the morning but in the afternoon I had tailwinds of about 8 mph from the west and northwest as I proceeded eastward.

Terrain: uphill 3092, downhill 2550. The route profile below shows that the biggest climb came early: Government Hill coming out of Miles City. A big downhill followed to about the 32-mile mark where I crossed the Powder River. After that was a mix of shorter hills nested into longer ones.

I took US 12 all the way from Miles City to Baker. There were no services until Plevna, which is just west of Baker, as seen in the map below.

The first photo shows a view from Government Hill toward Miles City.

US 12 is visible all the way to Miles City, which is in the forested area in the far distance.

Near the top of the Government Hill is a housing development that offers ranchettes.

The ranchettes are on the other side of the pine trees.

Not much traffic on this route. I enjoy a long, several mile downhill which bottoms out at the Powder River.

View of Powder River from US 12 showing a railroad bridge. An historical marker nearby says that "exuberant parties" claimed that the Powder River" was a mile wide, an inch deep, and ran uphill. Wonder where they got that idea?

This stretch of highway includes landforms that remind me of South Dakota's Badlands.

Multicolored formation created by water and wind erosion.

Seeing roadkill is an unfortunate feature of bike riding. On this trip, the most common form is birds, followed by rabbits, deer, snakes, and an occasional turtle. I was going to help this turtle cross the road but it turned out, sadly, to be dead. My friend Cindy La Com has moved at least one big snapping turtle across a road. She grabbed it by the tail to keep safe from its strong jaws.

Turtle hit by a vehicle on US 12.

Flowers often bloom along the roadside. They are hardy, thriving in poor soil and in a semi-arid climate with about 15 inches of precipitation per year.

One of the more common roadside flowers is bindweed.

Bindweed blossoms. Each one has light purple spots in the middle.

This day was one of the most favorable overall for cycling: good weather, good roads, low traffic, and ever changing landscapes. I started early again, though, because rain was in the afternoon forecast (it's that Gulf of Mexico air, all the way up in Montana). My average speed of 14.0 for the day was one of the couple highest for the trip. There were no services on this route for about 70 miles. I snacked a couple of times before reaching the Plevna Bar and Cafe, where I was the only customer.

Big skies with cirrus clouds above two large buttes or mesas and rangeland. Buttes and mesas are table topped hills with steep
sides. Buttes are smaller, so maybe the one on the right is a butte and the one on the left might be a mesa. As for the road, not
much shoulder for me to ride on. The rumble strips are unpleasant for bicycles, but at least gaps allow you to go bump free from
the road to the shoulder. Some roads have continuous rumble strips. I mostly rode on the highway side because there were so few
cars and trucks.

Angus in silhouette, with mesas and buttes in the distance.

I assume the ones with horns are steers (castrated) or bulls (intact). 

I began to see elements of fossil fuel infrastructure. 

High plains perspective, redux. Wheatfields, power lines, roadside vegetation, and the road converge in the distance.

"I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles . . . oh yeah" The Who

The vastness of the landscape dwarfs a long train. 

Triple fatality marker.

Wind sock where a gas pipeline surfaces. The wind sock shows about an 8 mph wind that was mostly at my back.

Nice metal silhouette sign.

I have reached my destination by about 4:00. I beat the rain, which came several hours later.

The Baker, MT welcome sign.