Another early start: On the road by 6:00am. I was excited to cross into Idaho today. The highway outside of Lolo only had a few cars. I made it to the top of Lolo Pass after the gradual ascent with fresh, smooth pavement, and stopped at the visitor center to refill water bottles. I had the whole place to myself. I …

Another early start today. I wasn’t worried about the wind, but I wanted to avoid the traffic going towards Missoula. It was the coldest morning of my trip so far. I had my numb hands under control, but the mid-40s temperatures made me forget about any improvements I had made. It was mostly downhill outside of Lincoln …

Today was my first mountain pass of the trip. I joined the Lewis and Clark route out of Great Falls and stayed on highway 200, which I was ready to be done with at this point. The road out of Great Falls wasn’t that bad, but highway 200 was starting to be associated with traffic, wind, and narrow shoulders. I stopped …

All those trees yesterday were short lived, as I left Lewistown and went back into cow grazing land. The Lewis and Clark and Northern Tier routes diverged in Lewistown. Alan would be leaving town to the north while I would be continuing west. Our routes did meet up again briefly in Great Falls where I would be leaving …

Early in the morning, I was reminded of that state park in Minnesota as I heard thunder around 2:30. It wasn’t raining, but I saw a possible storm approaching on my weather radar and decided to go into the convenience store bathroom just to be safe, which the owners kept unlocked for us. The storm dodged us, and my …

Today was the earliest start I had on this trip so far. I was on the road by 5:30am, just as the sun was rising. A few of the locals warned us about the stretch of highway 200 between Circle and Jordan, and as I started riding, it became obvious why. The road went through rolling, blind hills and had no shoulder. There …

When I woke at 5:30am, Alan had already left. I was amazed I hadn’t heard him pack up his tent and leave. It was a bit cooler in the morning and an overall beautiful day with calm winds. Only a few miles of interstate today which would be the last bit of interstate of the whole trip. I stopped by a gas station in …

Trying to avoid the thunderstorms that were approaching, I left early in the morning. The goal was to make it to the next town over, Belfield, to wait out the storm. I had a tailwind pushing me out of Dickinson and I saw some nasty looking clouds approaching. The weather radar on my phone and showed the storm heading …

Similar weather as yesterday, with early winds coming out of the west that would increase in speed as the day progressed. The road outside of Bismarck was hilly, with more sustained climbs than I had experienced in this trip so far. North Dakota’s elevation increases as you go west, so I knew I was going to climb more …

Similar to yesterday, I had to make some choices today about whether I wanted a shorter day or a longer one, with the towns being small far between. The wind and weather forecast teased me to take another shorter day, but I wanted to keep my progress going. I aimed for Bismarck which was 111 miles away taking the …