Bishop Bike Adventure Days 21-22 July 21-22, 2010

Another day of rest in Great Falls has provided sufficient relief to move on, so we ventured out today, Thursday. Great Falls was a good place to be detained and we enjoyed our time there, despite chomping at the bit to hit the road. We headed north today to catch onto what the locals call “the high line.” This is one of two ways around the Missouri River watershed, the one with the most services and traffic. When we reach Highway 2, we will then connect with Adventure Cycling’s “Northern Tier” route, which will see us all the way into New England. Eastern Montana is very sparsely populated and from what we understand reasonably flat, like the plains states. We anticipate a six-day trip to North Dakota as we need to cover in excess of 400 miles.

Since we were at a clinic this morning for a follow-up visit, we got a late start and have traveled 55 miles to Fort Benton. Today’s ride was along a sparsely traveled road through farmland. Again the visuals were beautiful. We had a nice tail wind and found the ride to be a great release, especially returning to the road after several days off. Tomorrow should bring us the rest of the way to the “high line.”

We have found Fort Benton to be a very interesting place, despite its population of only 1,500 residents. The downtown is restored and documented with a series of plaques and statues commemorating the town’s history, which draws from the early settling of the West via the Missouri River. Because there were falls upriver, Fort Benton was a stopping point for various watercraft, including steamboats from the Mississippi. The downtown building facades appears wild west, as you can see. The town claims to be the birthplace of Montana.

While eating supper at the local dairy bar, we looked across the street at the Missouri River and noticed the rainbow shown in the accompanying photo. Later, we crossed the Missouri on a footbridge and noticed some deer grazing on the other side of the river. Some girls pointed out that we were being pursued across the bridge by a raccoon. Once discovered, the raccoon scrambled for safety under the bridge structure, and we were more alert as we crossed back to Main Street.