Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Day 14 – Hardin, MT to Ashland, MT

. Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Weather
Temperature: 85°F
Conditions: Clear
Wind: S 11 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 2,940 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 34,710 ft
Maximum Speed: 39.0 mph
Average Speed: 17.5 mph
Distance Trip: 82.6 miles
Distance Odometer: 1,036.4 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 27 min 54 sec

Traveled into the heart of “injun” country today. It was one of those days that I felt like riding by myself for some reason. A bunch of us moseyed on over together to the HERE to see what’s happening at Little Bighorn right now!

Another hot day today on the road to Ashland. The roads weren’t in the best condition. There must have been heavy truck traffic on the roads we were riding on because the roads were so worn, they were concave. To give you an appreciation of how concave the impressions in the road were, I had to be careful not to let the bottom of my crank arm hit the “top crest” of the “wave”. The recent hot weather also brought out the tar bubbles. It felt like we were riding through…well…tar!!! The constant ups and downs of the topography also made it difficult to establish a good rhythm. Maybe the rest day didn’t do me good after all! There was one long stretch of road about 2/3 the way through that looked as if a forest fire had gone through recently. The ground seemed pretty barren and the trees were all dead and charred.

We stayed at the Saint Labre Indian School and heard a “sermon” about the history of the school after dinner. Click HERE to read about the very interesting history of the school. Tomorrow would be a fairly short day and I was kind of disappointed with my performance during today’s ride. I got myself psyched up to really hit the pavement hard tomorrow.

1 comments:

Mohawk Chieftain said...

How!
Been thru Ashland and St. Labre so many times I've lost count. We used to stop there and drop off boxes of toys for the kids. In the beginning, we first went there on our way to the Little Bighorn Battlefield, as I grew up being a Custer fan. But, over the years, as I got older... and hopefully, smarter, my family's allegiance switched to the side of the Indians instead. It's a solemn place and gives one a weird feeling, somehow. In fact, years ago, when they were offering pieces of the battlefield for sale: symbollically, (1 inch square) for donations, I bought one; still have my certificate, etc. :-) In Hardin, we always stop for breakfast. My ashes will be spread in Montana, when the time comes. I, too, will haunt Big Sky Country.