Jordan Montana to Circle Montana. 67 miles. 1316 from the Pacific. I packed up camp happy and hit the road by 5:30 a.m. this morning. thinking once again that I could get some miles on before the heat of the day builds up. The morning sky was beautiful with wispy clouds turning bright pink against the green landscape. it sure looks like Jarsic Park to me. a red fox crossed the road just in front of me. I think he was after the prairie dogs. I stopped and watch him for a while and we had a staring contest. turns out this fox had more patience then me. I gave him the win and peddled onward. I have to admit these last 3 days with these big Montana rollers have been the most difficult terrain I’ve ever riden in. up and down and up and down – never ending climbing and decending. the worst part is you can see them miles away. when you get to the top of what you think is the end of them, there are many many more waiting for you. I told myself just to accept them and make peace. it worked for a while but then about 11 a.m. I bonked. that’s a bikers term used to explain the feeling that comes over you when your body informs you that it has had enough. And if you don’t listen to your body, bad things happen. lucky for me there was a tree nearby up on the fence line just up the road. this was only tree in the last 20 miles. I steered my bike into the ditch. took off my helmet and shoes and laid in the shade and took a nap. I woke up about a half hour later thinking that I should have checked for rattlesnakes before laying down. make note to self for tomorrow. I ate the rest of my food stash and drank a bunch of water. with 30 miles to go I needed to balance conserving water, with the threat of dehydration from this heat. I was feeling better and made it to a rest stop about 10 miles down the road. I restocked my water supply and ate my last energy bar. at the rest stop I ran into two ladies with Wisconsin license plates from Eauclaire. we chatted a while and it turns out her dad (retired) used to work at Cummins. he was the HR guy for Bloomer and Neilsville plants. she will be writing in my blog and showing her dad. another hour down the road and the rollers had taken their toll once again. A rancher was stopped near his mailbox and I asked him if he had any water. he opened up his truck and said “no but I have an ice cold Gatorade with your name on it” my eyes popped out of my head as he brought it to me. his name was Clayton and he told me about his three thousand acre ranch with 250 head of cattle. we talked for a bit as I guzzled the Gatorade. he was on his way into town to pick up his daughter from 4H and happen to be in the right place at the right time for me. more good karma just when I thought it was time to give up. just beyond his ranch the road levelled out as I entered ranch country. it seemed like the last 10 miles into town was like heaven on wheels. even the wind that had been my face all day seemed to calm down. I pulled into Circle at 2 p.m. a little girl was selling lemonade from a cardboard table in front of her house for 25 cents. I stopped and got three glasses full. I chatted with her mom and grandmother and got the scoop on where to eat, the location of the town park and pool. life was looking up. I got to the park and noticed a closed sign at the pool entrance. its sad that a pool would be closed on a hot summer day. it’s just not right. there was no one around, so I let myself in. The cool water replenish my body and lifted my spirits. after the swim I set up camp happy and then went to eat at one of the finest restaurants in eastern Montana. as I was walking back from the restaurant I ran into Trudy and Frank, my biker friends from California. they looked half dead. they had done the same route as I did today. I told them that the dinosaurs didn’t really go extinct by volcano or meteorite like most people believe. what really happened was that they were walking around in Montana in the big rollers and got so depressed that they drank the suicide Kool Aid just like Jonestown. we all laughed and agreed that tomorrow will be better now that we’re out of dinosaur country. pictures are of my breakfast table (a bridge over a creek) and the famous Montana rollers.

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