Lewis and Clark Cycling Trek

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Day 4-Fort Benton, MT to Great Falls, MT-42.48 miles

I got up at 5:30. We decided that, if possible, we will be on the road early. We have noticed that if it is going to become windy, it usually starts up after 9:30. Also, the heat is at its peak around 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. It’s good if we can avoid that. The problem is, no matter how early we crawl into our sleeping bags, it is still extremely difficult to leave them in the mornings. Today, we started pretty early…for us. We were on the road before 7:30. We started out with a pretty good uphill, but then it flattened out and was mostly a rolling landscape today. At about the 25 mile mark, we stopped for a water break and were attacked by hordes of mosquitoes. They were unbearable! Our insect repellent was buried deep in the trailer because we have never needed it during the ride itself. To stop and dig it out with those bugs was not an option. We took off immediately, but the mosquitoes followed. Unfortunately, we were climbing a hill and they were keeping up with us. We were forced to increase our pace and to just keep pedaling for those last 15 miles or so. We were really tired coming into Great Falls.
This story has a happy ending. We had reservations at the Comfort Inn for tonight. I can’t describe how good a hot tub feels after a day of biking! Tonight was no exception.

By the way, we think we spotted a coyote today. We had stopped for some water and Spokewrench saw it moving across the field.

Student question: When Lewis and Clark arrived at the falls, they found it necessary to portage around the falls. How many miles did they have to portage to get around the falls?

-Clarkwheel

1 Comments:

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    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:25 AM  

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