Day 12 - Townsend to Harlowtown

Day 12 - Townsend to Harlowtown

Essense for the Day - ROUGH

Sleeping in the gym was not the best sleep. Hot. Up every 4 hours to take aspirin. Trying to sleep on my back so I could keep my left foot elevated, it was a rough night. However my psyche was prepped for a hard day. I wasn’t going to be disappointed in not being able to ride teh whole way, but rather I was going to be happy to be able to ride at all.

Getting up though, my leg felt better. I might be able to go at least half way, and I slowly allowed some cautious optimism to seep into my thioughts.

Breakfast was disaster. We knew is it was going to be a really hot day, (100+) so ride director Pollie pushed breakfast forward to get us onthe road a bit earlier. It worked out that the breakfast crew hustled to fast and breakfast was over in 15 minutes. Several people didn’t get breakfast and were grumpy. The plan was well intentioned, but in the end it backfired.

Heading out of town we had a beautiful sunrise. So far my ankle better and sthe ride seemed maybe do-able.



Shortly after getting up to speed and rolling we hit some unexpected road construction. It was Bad. all lanes stripped down to the underlayment. I was thankful for all my year of mountain bike. Right then i really wanted my mountain bike, but not such luck. I had to negotiated the sand and rocks and gravel bogs on narrow tires with gear make for speed not torque. it was tough. At ont point about 1/2 way through I saw a worker and asked how much more of this there was. The wise guy replied 30 miles. 30 miles! My heart sank so fast. In the next instant the other worker lady whacked him and said he was only kidding and there were only 3 more miles. I was already cranky from the road, and I had done the mental calculations on how bad 30 miles of this bad road would be for all tandem and less experienced riders and such. When I heard that he had yanked my chain, I just about lept off my bike and throttled the guy. I didn’t but i was ready to vent my frustration on him.



Anyway we got through. Kari had been riding with me and we took a minute to wipe some of hte sand and dust ouffour chains and oil our chains again. That let Scot, alison and Tom get ahead of us. KAri and I continued on. We started into the hills climbingnad was still feeling good and so happy to be feeling good that i was feling better. Then I remembered the starting lyrics to a song that Alison and I had been singing Nickelback -Rockstar and with that boost of mental energy I hit the guitar chord in my head and hit the pedals started turnign themselves. Or so it felt. I was riding hard and fast, climbing a beautiful mountain and inadvertently leaving Kari in the literal dust.

I flew up the hill and caught up with Scott, Alison and Tom and we knocked out the hill. Finally we took a break and up rolled Kari, in tears, thinking we had been trying to ditch her. when only moments beofre we had been watching her climb the hill alone and complimenting her on her strenght and power as we were resting.

Everyone felt horrible and thus were introduced to a new aspect of the Big Ride. The emotional support that we all are for each other, because to tell the truth, we are all that we have right now. Lots of folks are calling home at the end of the day and such, but in the end, that isn’t enough and we are our own support group.

Well we all regrouped and the 5 of us headed over the last hill and down to the hill. Getting out on the flat I was still feeling good and kept going as long as I could. We picked up a tail wind and I was trying to sit as tall and high as I could to cruise down the road like a big sail. As we rolled along we starrted seeing plenty of antellope.

Cathy who is super supportive and cheering as one of our support staff, was so excited to me comein and feeling pretty good. We were again in the leaqding groups nad feeling good. A short lunch and we headed out.

Just as an aside in the short water stops we will eat a PBJ sandwich with double PB , an orange or 2 or a banana, a package of crackers. So inthe course of 5-10 minutes we are trying to eat lots of calories and drink 22 oz of water. and then back ont he road. Sort of like a food pit stiop more than a break for lunch.

In the morning we had been singingn 80’s rocks songs when we were climbing hte mountains. I think I stated that whenI remembered the lyrics to Nickelback. For variety that turned into us singing TV theme songs in the afternoon. The Addam’s Family was the best when we would all reach out and snap at the appropriate time.

Riding through we started attacking our second set of hills for the day and I was so thankful that I felt good enought to lead much less ride. We clobbered the hills and kept ...
rollin’
rollin’
rollin down the river ;)

I took these picture and it is one of my favorites so far from the ride. We are riding through all fothe these hay fields and they roll all the hay and this is what we see. For miles and miles.




Eventually Alison, Kari and I had hot feet again so at the little lake off to the right, we made a pit stop and went downand cooled off our feet.

After that short break we were cooled off and ready for the end of the ride.

As we rolled intp town we were hot and stopped for ice cream and overwhelmed teh poor ice cream girl. Scott has an almost compulsion to have ice cream every night. So not to break the trend and enjoythe cooling off, we all joined in.

We finally got to camp and found that we were all going to be stuffed inside the youth center. Which was hot and stuffy. I pai the $1.50 to go to the local pool and use their showers before swimming. My achilles had held and I was really happy about that. The cool pool water felt so good.

It seemed strange in this day and age to have a dressing room where you would have all ages boys and men changing in and out of clothes with no privacy. It seemed a molestation lawsuit waiting to happen. Guess I have been living with Lance to long to now operate in a mode that when I walking to that situation I look for the possible liability. Yeesh.

After the pool I got a little nap before dinner. Dinner was catered by Beyond Basil out of Billings. They also catered our Billings dinner and were unanimously voted the best dinners we have had. BBQ beef and baby back ribs. Just crazy good.


It had been hot when we set up, but then it cooled off. We hwad watched thunderheads buildup over the plains and then they blew in. In the evening it cooled way off and I wound up setting up my tent afterall to get out ofo the hot youth room. Out on the footbal field it was much cooler and enjoyable.

There wound up being 7 or us. Tom, Michael Yee, Ane, Liz and Justine and then me. And we had a great time. We went to bed as the winds started. Within 20 minutes we had 50-60 mph sustained winds or so it felt. My tent was starting to collape, and Michael’s tent was threatening to rip apart. WE wound up having and emergency tearing down of Michael’s tent in our pajamas and then I restked my tent and rode the storm out.

It was an exciting night but a good night slep in the end. We are getting into mosquito country and had a few skeeters but otherwise a good night.


In the end it was a really good day. It was a 101 miles in 105 heat. It was hot, but it was good.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to comment.