June 16, Great Falls to Stanford

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/93604103

 A bright crisp morning with the promise of warmth to come. Starting off, the wind was 2 mph! and the temperature about 45. We rode through a number of city blocks before rejoining the route on state highway 200 (also known as 2 US highways and another state highway—4 numbers in all). Thankfully it had a very good shoulder and we took that out of town, by an Air Force Base and up and down over the rolling hills through the countryside. One mountain we saw was part of the “Little Belt” mountains and it was quite apropos as it had a level outcropping running around its middle just like a belt. The bicycle route eventually took us off the highway into a small town also called Belt. This at one time had been a center of coal mining and one mine in the area once produced 2500 tons of coal a day. It was used for smelters in Great Falls and for the Great Northern Railroad. 


Taxidermy in the grocery store in Belt

As we wound along a little valley towards the next little town before rejoining the highway, Jim got a flat tire—not a puncture but the inner tube had cracked at the valve stem. Must admit it broke the rule that flats happen at the most inconvenient times: we had a nice fence to lean the bikes against, quiet road, pleasant temperature, sunshine and no mosquitoes! We rejoined the highway in the valley (with one US highway splitting off at this point) and gradually climbed up the valley for a number of miles. Once we got to the top, we could see for 6 miles to the bend in the road.


Six plus mile view

 However, the wind kept getting stronger—and it was coming unusually from the southeast!—which was the basic direction we were heading today. So as the wind got stronger, the slower we went. We stopped in a tiny town and stopped at the one place we saw—the Cabin Creek Bar. So we sat at the barstools and had 2 lemonades and 3 packages of Reese’s peanut butter cups. Then we faced the miles ahead to get to the town we planned to stay in. Here we found that the restaurant didn’t exist any longer next to the motel. But the Waterhole Saloon was open and it was steak night!  


butte and if look close bike crank and pedal on top of post.  

Saw this in Belt, MT.  We did this by splitting a Golden Wildcat Beer with our dinner and walking back to motel.

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