Today we woke up at 6 am and quickly left our 2 star Great Falls hotel. Blake somehow forgot his helmet in his room, but besides that small bump the morning went surprisingly well. We left Great Falls around 6:45 and started our ride with a massive climb that had most of the group exhausted only 20 minutes into our day.
Throughout the first ten or so miles of our ride we could see the Rocky Mountains slowly growing on the horizon. It wasn't until after our nice breakfast in Cascade that we finally hit the mountains. Instead of a deadly uphill that you would tend to expect from miles of huge mountains, we took a side road off of the highway down to the Missouri River. We spent the rest of the day cruising on mostly flat terrain surrounded by gorgeous scenery and towering mountain peaks that singlehandedly changed Montana from one of the worst states to one of my favorites. The planned mileage for the day was around 55 miles, but because of a lack of available camp grounds we stopped in the town Craig to try and find a new place to stay.
By some miracle the owner of the restaurant we were all sitting outside of, asked about our cause and trip and decided to let us stay in a small field right behind the restaurant. We set up camp early and spent the afternoon napping in the shade and spending a lot of time in Izaak’s restaurant.
We had a few unexpected flat tires due to the heat, but the rest of the day was mostly uneventful.
The idea that the trip is coming to an end has everyone excited, but also fearful of what comes after. Tomorrow is going to be an even shorter ride than today and everyone is ready to hit the road again!