21 miles today in pursuit of goal, 9 miles in pursuit of commerce. 1185 miles total
We started the morning in Laurel MT headed for Billings with a string of goals in mind, energy bars and jerky at Costco, miscellaneous camping stuff at REI, groceries at Albertsons, a new lighter weight sleeping bag for Bob at Cabela’s, and the US Post Office to send home some no longer necessary stuff. Camping tonight is at the Billings KOA Holiday, the original KOA. The accommodations are deluxe, i.e., hot water showers, laundry facilities and (drum roll … putt-putt golf! Tomorrow we turn south toward Wyoming but we’ll still spend another night in the great and very large state of Montana.
Some pictures from the day:
We like this sign. Campsite T2 at the original KOABob cooking salmon kabobs.
We got a lot of good suggestions but for now the answer is a dish towel. Easy to find, and easy to put in the laundry.
Other suggestions included, Tyvek (perhaps in the form of a USPS mailer), used sail-cloth, a diaper pad, space blanket, or silicone baking mat. We’ll be keeping a lookout for some
This will be short because we forgot… the fried chicken, Jo Jo’s and beer Steve procured for dinner distracted us.
We had a great start to the day with coffee or hot chocolate at the Gypsy coffee stand. The proprietor was wonderful and chatted with us while we consumed our drinks.
As we tried to leave town another local asked us if we were heading to New York; she had been warned we might be passing through by the physician/vascular-expert we met earlier on our trip.
Then we headed on to some beautiful gravel that we rode until lunchtime.
We had Chinese food for lunch, it was delicious and uncharacteristically civilized (compared to our usual). We followed lunch with 25-ish miles on a pleasant frontage road (again, alongside the Yellowstone River) into Laurel.
Our campsite tonight is… acceptable, and hopefully nothing to write home about. We locked the bikes 🤞
It took us a few days but we eventually figured out that FAS means Fishing Access Site. There are quite a few of them along the Yellowstone River, and some of them have campsites. We were pleased to see Bratton about 60 mi from Livingston, so that was our target today.
I’m pleased to report that there was no freeway time today. After riding through Livingston we got on to the interestingly named Convict Grade Road which was devoid of asphalt but overflowing with beautiful scenery. Much of it ran along the side of the Yellowstone River.
Riding alongside the Yellowstone River
Then it climbed for a while into ranch country, where we saw lots of cows and our first rattlesnake of the trip (alas, it moved too fast for the camera).
Looking back west towards Livingston Colin contemplating the way forward
We have found people want to talk to us on this trip. Today it seemed like there was just a little bit more talking than usual. Outside the grocery store in Livingston a nice lady instructed us to go and see the Sacagawea Park, so we did. She was also a font of knowledge about bike shops, coffee shops, and the state of the local roads (and gun dealers). On the Convict Grade Road an older couple in a pickup truck stopped and talked to us for a long time. They had five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and a lot of interest in golf course developments (and suggested that we should have killed the rattlesnake). Outside the grocery store in Big Timber a (fit, she told us so) friendly and recently single female rancher enquired as to our (former) employment, qualifications and marital status. She is going to sell the ranch, and is looking for some new adventures (if you’re interested, hang out at Big T groceries in Big Timber, she’ll probably find you there).
It’s time for dinner, Steve is on fire duty again and working hard gathering wood.
Birds have been our constant companions these last thousand miles. The species have changed as we rolled from one habitat to another, over high passes and valleys narrow and wide. Some have tried to wake us up at 4:30 in the morning others announce the setting of the sun. The red wing black bird has been particularly present along the way. My guess is that roads and trails have drainage ditches that often provide mini wetlands even in otherwise dry terrain. So here’s to our avian buddy. Hope we continue to see them down the road.
