Sunday morning’s ride east out of Roundup toward Melstone was a bicyclist’s dream – wind out of the west at 8 mph, overcast skies, empty road and an overall downhill profile. I crushed it doing the 35 miles at an average speed of 18.1 mph (oh yeah, I’m claiming that .1) without stopping. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t take any pictures, but I think the countryside was kind of pretty.
I stopped in Melstone, which is where Roger caught up with me, and we met these lovely people
The couple on the right, Rich and Sylvia, run the cafe in town:
So that was one of the best pure ride-for-ride’s sake rides I’ve had on this trip. And then there was the tail end of today’s ride into Forsyth…
Montana, I Know How To Quit You
Not counting the couple of days we were in Canada, we have been in Montana since we crossed the Thompson Pass on June 28. And it’s been great – the scenery, the riding and the people. But oh how things have changed.
So you know how when you’re driving along on the highway and you see a sign saying “Road Work Next 6 Miles” and you drive on thinking “Ah crap, this is going to suck” only the road is fine except for some short stretch the crew is actually working on so you’re all like “OK, not so bad”?
Well as I’m approaching Forsyth, our destination, I see this sign saying “Road Work 12 Miles” and I figure “alright, bad but can’t be too bad; who actually works on a road for 12 miles?” (yes, I think in semicolons in case you were wondering)
And I was right – nobody works on a road for 12 miles – but evidently what they do in Montana is rip up a road for 12 miles and have one guy in a grader regrading the already graded road and making a mile-long line of gravel off to the side so a biker has to stop and lift his bike over the pebble pile to get in the oncoming lane to pass the obstacle maker. I looked over at the guy to see if he was making the noise little kids make as they play with toy trucks.
I certainly don’t know anything about road construction, but I can’t figure out what the plan was here. Do they need to air out the road foundation in the summertime? Is this a ploy to get a bond levy passed to fund completion of the project? Are Montanans just that bad-ass that they don’t give a shit about conveniences such as paved roads?
For whatever reason, the surface alternated between deep gravel (for long stretches) and the hard pan underneath, which wasn’t too bad in spots but in others it was riven with ruts that made for a very uncomfortable ride. And in those conditions, 12 miles is a very long way. At one point a truck full of road workers passed me by, and I saw in the face of the young woman who looked back at me the thought, “I’m sorry, but it looks like it sucks to be you.”
On Thursday, we’re out of here Montana.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Cincinnati, I have lived on both coasts and driven back and forth across the country a number of times. I now have the "midlife opportunity" to do so on two wheels.
i spent a week in montana as a kid, and from that experience i can say with confidence that yes, “montanans are just that bad-ass that they don’t give a shit about…paved roads.” in fact, i believe that it was “long” henry thompson who was the first man to be referred to in the havre plaindealer as “a bad-ass”.