We started this long day with breakfast at 6:30. Several people skipped the group breakfast and started out early, since we knew it was going to be 92 miles and 92 degrees before the day was done. Dianne left early, along with Pat and Linda and some others.
CJ and I left at 7:00, and made pretty good time with a tail wind in the morning. We stopped at the 20 mile and 40 mile sags, riding on Hwy. 2 all the way. At about 51 miles into the ride we turned onto a newly graveled road--it was like chip seal without the seal--pretty rough going. But our lunch stop was on this road, so we could not skip the turn.
After a nice lunch of pasta salad and turkey sandwiches (provided by Woman Tours since there was no place to stop) we continued on the graveled Valley Rd. until we turned onto a paved unnamed road. We were on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation for the middle part of the day, and we followed the Lewis and Clark route for part of the day too. The mosquitos were horrible! I think I remember that Lewis and Clark mentioned them too.... and they did not have mosquito repellent wipes in their back pockets.
After the 11 miles off of US 2, we were back on it for the rest of the day. We passed near or through the small towns of Harlem, Dodson, and Wagner. The tail wind had shifted around mid-day and was a head wind for the last 40 miles into Malta. We arrived around 2 PM.
Dianne was already in the room and showered when I got in--she is in her element now with the relatively flat terrain. When we pulled into town it was 91 degrees, and it had risen to 95 by the time we walked out to the park for dinner.
While we were at dinner a pickup truck pulling a haywagon went by honking loudly--it was a wedding party, Montana style.
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