Day 8: Bozeman to Columbus

"Winds, light and variable" said the morning weather report. Music to my ears. "Current temperature 55 degrees". Music to my cool climate Northwest soul. We headed out of Bozeman on the shoulder of I-90, which became annoyingly narrow as we proceeded to climb up 12oo' to the Bozeman Pass at 5700'. The shoulder was only 3 feet wide, half of which was taken up by the rumble strip, which, if you aren't paying attention and ride onto, will nearly shake you off your bicycle. The shoulder seemed dirtier, with more glass. Bozeman is near several downhill ski areas, and as we ascended, the landscape became more green and lush. At the top of the pass, there was a 6% downgrade, where I hit 48 mph briefly, and several riders went over 50. The road then flattened out a bit, but with a slight tailwind, we formed a paceline that zoomed along at about 32 mph for the next 8 miles. I've never been in a paceline that fast before; you had to pay attention because the margin for error is small at such a speed. Cruising into the first rest stop, we were greeted by several antelope bounding along next to us. We thought we were fast, but those guys are REALLY fast!

Unfortunately, it rapidly warmed up, and for the last half of the day, temperatures were 95 to 105. After the big pass, we generally went slightly downhill all day, through a broad valley. We passed through the town of Livingston, which is nestled close to some magnificent mountains that are the gateway to Yellowstone. Our route basically took us along I-90 all day, with occasional stints on the freeway itself. Shortly after one of these stints, I had my first flat tire of the trip. Not bad, considering all the riding that we have done on the interstate. Shortly after fixing my flat, I passed a huge freight train that was pulling over 100 cars, all filled to the brim with coal. It would be nice if somebody could figure out how to burn the stuff cleanly (and deal with the CO2 produced) because there is a lot of it around here....

The last 20 miles into Columbus were really hot.....it was 105 degrees by the time I arrived. Everybody had a relatively fast ride today. I averaged 21.6 mph, which is about the fastest that I have done a century. Less than 5 hours riding time to go 106 miles. This might end up being the easiest day of the tour. I don't know why we were all in such a hurry to get to Columbus, because there ain't much here, except for a gigantic truck stop. Our suggested dinner options were "McDonalds, Subway, or the Casio Truck Stop". Fortunately we found a steak place a few blocks away. Our rooms weren't ready for several hours after our arrival, so a bunch of us went down to the Yellowstone river for a swim. Felt great on such a hot day.

I can't believe I'm into the second week already. I'm developing a daily routine. I keep thinking of the Far Side cartoon of the Tyrannosaurus looking at its day planner, where every entry for the entire month is exactly the same: "kill something and eat it". My day planner these days would pretty much say "eat a lot, drink a lot, pedal, sleep". Nice simple existence.

There are several superb riders on this tour. A fellow from Belgium named Marc has done an insane event called the 'P-B-P", which stands for Paris-Brest-Paris, which goes 1200 km. (750 miles) from Paris to the Atlantic coast then back to Paris. The hitch is, the ride must be completed in 90 hours. Most riders sleep little if at all, and ride all night. Doesn't sound like fun to me.

Then there is a Swedish woman who won the Race Across America (RAAM) women's division several years ago. This is an even crazier event where one rides as fast as one can from one coast to another, generally riding for 22 hours a day and sleeping for 2. She completed the journey in 11 days. Lon Haldeman, one of the owners of PacTour, still holds the men's record for RAAM at just under 8 days. Several people on this tour are planning to do the P-B-P this year (it is only held once every 4 years). Most of the folks here have done at least one transcontinental bike trip already. I am truly among a bunch of long distance biking fanatics!

We have been in Montana now for 5 days, and when I look at a map, we are only halfway across the state west to east. Tomorrow we head south to Cody, Wyoming via Red Lodge, and then on Tuesday is the hardest day of the tour, our climb over the Bighorns.

106 miles. 1900 vertical feet