A beautiful day’s ride of 57 miles through varied terrain.

We rode about 23 miles downstream along the Big Hole River, past Beaverhead Rock, a massive outcropping important to many Native American tribes who lived in, or migrated through each year, the lush valley. Sacajawea introduced Lewis and Clark to it when they passed through this area.

We then turned southeast for 30 miles or so and fortuitously the wind shifted to stay at our backs so we continued to be jet-propelled. We did have strong headwinds for the last 8 miles or so as we passed through a dry canyonland that once bustled with gold mines but is now mostly deserted . The headwind time reminded us, as it did yesterday at the tip of the second pass , how lucky we have been with winds since we started 3 weeks ago today.

We had hoped to dance the night away in nearby Virginia City at the annual “Scandahoovian Woodstock” festival, but unfortunately it was cancelled a second year in a row because of Covid. It’s been a long time since we barn danced in Vermont in the 1970’s.

We are now well over 1,100 miles into our journey and continue to hit our marks, thanks in large part to those winds and to a remarkable string of beautiful, if atypically hot, days. Our trajectory is now slowly turning toward our planned destination of West Yellowstone.