The weather forecast for today was 60% of rain...to be closer to the 60% in the p.m. Being that the weather was going to be temperamental in the afternoon, it was in our best interest to get an early start to the day. I woke up still feeling the effects of the prior day's ride (and most likely the accumulation of saddle time this week which hit 18 hrs).
I rallied though and was out the door by 7:30 a.m. The truth is that this is probably the best time of day (if not earlier) to get out for a road ride. The drunks are not on the road yet and the bible thumpers are still busy putting on their Sunday finest. This was sure to be a banner day with the hope of limiting the 1 finger salute as much as possible (peeps don't take kindly to funny lookin' fellas in tights around here)
The plan was to go for a long'ish' ride. Erin was heading over to Bozeman in the afternoon so it made some sense to try and rendezvous somewhere close to Bozeman.
As it turns out, I was definitely feeling the effects of a long ride and light dinner from yesterday. I stopped 60 miles into the ride and inhaled a Red Bull and a fine pre-maid Tuna sammy....mmmmm..mmmm....good. At about mile 80 I decided to stop and see whereabout Erin was en route to Bozeman. It turns out she was only 5 minutes away so I figured it would be a good time to call it a day. It ended up being a 80 mile ride & 4 1/2 hrs of saddle time.
The scenery was amazing - I took Highway 2 over Pipestone Pass over to Whitehall where I had amazing views of the Highlands and the Tobacco Root Ranges. Once I pushed through Three Forks, the Bridgiers were in grand view and it felt like they were helping me ride by pulling me in (or so I tried to tell myself in order to minimize the dull aches everywhere - ohhh the games we play to keep forward motion going).
It turns out it was a good thing that I stopped at mile 80 because about 30 minutes later the hypoglycemia and dehydration spanked me and made me want to howl like a scalded monkey! Fortunately the wifer was there to nurse me back to my usual ornery self and prevented a potentially awkward social faux pas with me toppling over like a good midday drunk.
Speaking of the wifer, she is now a Butte Weekly contributor (no link available)! Her first article came out and she will be sending in articles once every couple of weeks. Now if only all the mcfatties would heed her article and get out there and exercise a little. OK OK, so I am taking some liberties in translation but so be it.
just for giggles (and because people might be more inclined to read if they see a pic), I am attaching a pic from last week's mountain bike excursion when we were reconning for what kind of shape the CD trail was in from Highlands to Basin Creek - looks like it's a GO!
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