1998 - Bike-Aid 3,600 Miles Across The U.S.A.
1999 - The Great Divide Mountain Bike Expedition
June 27, 1998 - Helena - Three Forks
DISTANCE TRAVELED: 70.54 MilesTIME: 7 Hours
AVERAGE SPEED: 15.3 Miles/Hour
TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Cloudy and cool in the morning turning to a very warm and sunny afternoon with lots of wind from all directions.
ROAD CONDITIONS: Smooth roads that were fairly flat with small rolling hills.
TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Overall a very easy ride although we had wind at the end directly in our face that greatly slowed us down.
DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
We woke up around 9:00 and ate another breakfast of Granola. I had to stay late to help with the cleanup of breakfast. I finally was able to leave around 10:30 to go to the local YMCA for a quick shower before my 70 mile day. Tami and I took a quick shower and we then left Helena to start our trip around 12:00. I began with wearing tights and a rain jacket but about 5 miles later I was getting hot so I took off my jacket while continuing to ride so that I wouldn't loose any time or speed. It was kind of tricky pulling off my jacket while riding with no hands and then putting it into one of my saddlebags and zipping them back up. I thought about doing the same with my tights but figured that it would be a little too difficult to do since I would have to lift up my leg while riding at the same time! I stopped about a mile later and also took off my tights also which worked perfectly since the SAG came by at the same time. We continued on for about 15 miles until we finally caught up to another rider who was at a gas station eating lunch. We sat down and also ate and although we thought that we were the last riders, we actually had about 6 people behind us. When we started up again we no longer had the benefit of a 25 mile an hour tailwind to push us. I had previously reached 31 miles an hour without even pedaling! We now encountered a side wind which wasn't too bad since it only pushed me around a little. We crossed over the Missouri river(Picture21) just before coming to an A&W where I got a strawberry milkshake and split a gallon of root beer between 9 people. We continued on and met up with the SAG again where we discovered that very soon we would be turning directly into the wind making our trip extremely slow.(Picture22,Picture23) I had a previous average speed of 18.1 miles an hour. As soon as we turned we slowed to about 15 miles an hour and then continued to slow to about 10. Brad and I were riding together which worked great since I was able to draft off of him so easily since he is so much bigger than me. We took turns in the lead. I definitely had the advantage in drafting. We stopped a few times one of which was for about 45 minutes where about 6 of us met up. The wind increased and we slowed down so much that it felt like we had gone 10 miles when we actually only went 1! I kept looking at my distance and it seemed to stay in the same place for a very long time. Finally when we were about 10 miles from Three Forks we had a short downhill where I was able to reach 31 miles an hour. It felt great to actually feel like I was moving for once! I was able to average 20 miles an hour for the last 10 miles and we turned so our backs were to the wind again so I didn't even have to pedal very hard to finish the last few miles. As I got in, it was announced that dinner was ready so I ate two burritos that consisted of beans, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream. It not only was filling but it also tasted great. It was a close competition between this dinner and the lasagna that we had at orientation. We had some free time for a few hours when most people went out to bars and played pool. We then went to bed at 1:00 giving us another night of little sleep.
TRIP ROUTE: Get onto 12 East/287 South and follow until the two branch. Take 287 South and continue passing over I-90. Go for one mile and turn left to Three Forks. Go three miles to reach Three Forks.
