Weather: at 8:15 it was 55° and reached the upper 70s by noon and low 90s by the afternoon. The wind was variable although there were headwinds of 5 to 8 mph in the early afternoon and tailwinds from the west and northwest of 10 mph with higher gusts.
Terrain: uphill 3576, downhill 4223. The route profile shows a 2000 foot ascent and descent from about mile 10 to mile 30 and then smaller hills for the rest of the day with several having 500-foot ascents and descents.
I left out the final two miles to Townsend, MT in order to show the remainder of the route in greater detail.
I left Lincoln and within a mile was disappointed to see that the road turned to gravel. There was no alternative so I continued, slowly, on the long and winding road for 14 miles, to the top of Stemple Pass. During this stretch one car passed me and seven came from the other direction. On the way down, two cars passed me and five approached me. When I stopped for rests, I heard birdsong and water flowing in the creeks; at other times it was absolutely dead quiet. In this remote area my mind turned occasionally to the prospect of me being tasty food for some grizzly bear with humongous claws or a black bear (you distinguish the two by the size of the claws and head shape, among other things). A person confronted with a grizzly is supposed to avoid eye contact and back away, while with black bears you should engage in threat displays. The chances of seeing a bear are remote. I saw bear prints in the mud of a stream bank a few days earlier. In Arlee, Charlie Pile and Laurie Bogart's bear proof waste bin had bear scratches on it, although Charlie had never seen a bear in many years of hiking and hunting. This all reminds me of point my PhD advisor, Yi-Fu Tuan, made in the early 1970s. At the time, it was common to romanticize nature and wilderness, but Tuan pointed out that for many indigenous peoples, nature was a fearsome thing, something like a live power wire that could hurt you if you were not careful.
The trees in the foreground are suffering from bark beetle damage while the forest in the background is not.
Close up view of pines suffering from a bark beetle infestation.
Long and winding gravel road.
Stemple Pass at 6,388 feet is the elevation high point of my trip. The pass sits astride the Continental Divide. Water flowing down one side drains into the Gulf of Mexico, and on the other side, water goes to the Pacific Ocean.
The small hamlet of Canyon Creek is between Stemple Pass and Helena. I stopped for an ice cream bar at the Canyon Creek Country Store and Post Office shown below. The woman who runs the place asked about bicycle clothing and then she mentioned something she likes to wear while playing pickleball. I said, "did you say pickleball"? She is a fanatic who has been playing in Missoula and Helena for 8 years. Many of you know that Laura and I have become pickleball addicts. My pickleball friends will not be surprised to hear that this woman asked if I had packed my pickleball paddle in my pannier. Packing a paddle seems like a perfectly logical thing to do if you are a pickleball fan, but I had not. Maybe next time.
The manager and postmaster at the Canyon Creek Country Store is a pickleball fanatic.
"Share the road" is a great idea, especially with a shoulder like this one. It is not detectible in the picture below, but the sign to the right of the pickup truck posts a daytime speed limit of 70 mph, and the sign behind it posts a daytime speed limit of 60 mph for trucks.
Sharing the road is harder when the shoulder is narrow.
I pedaled against 5-8 mph headwinds on my way south to Helena. Helena is a railroad town and is the state capital (two pictures below).
Railroad facilities in Helena.
Montana state capitol.
The winds shifted as I left Helena. They mostly blew behind me and toward the end of the ride I enjoyed one of the great thrills of bicycling, a four-mile glide down a gentle hill while taking in big panoramas, as seen in the photo below of a Missouri River reservoir. After the downhill, I saw an elaborate double automobile fatality memorial. The following two photos are from the US 287 bridge over the river.
Canyon Ferry Lake is in the distance. It is a Missouri River reservoir.
Automobile fatality marker and bridges over the Missouri River. In the upper left background is a green sign identifying the Missouri River.
The Big Muddy, looking upstream from US 287.
The Big Muddy, looking downstream from US 287.
I reached my destination, the small town of Townsend (population 1,900). Along the main street is a mural by young people showing signature scenes of the local geography, including snow capped mountains, an irrigation wheel line, irrigation channel, two abandoned silos, barns, as well as a school, church, and house.
BD#2 - I remember Townsend well though my memories are many years old. I remember it as being one of the prettier small towns in MT. Yikes - 14 miles of dirt road. That's a long slow haul - but, part of the adventure.
BD#2 - I remember Townsend well though my memories are many years old. I remember it as being one of the prettier small towns in MT. Yikes - 14 miles of dirt road. That's a long slow haul - but, part of the adventure.
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