Day 37 July 6, 2019

Henry's notes for today:

Sugar Shack Staff

Day 37:  Frank got up early to prepare a breakfast of steel cut oats for us.  We parted ways with yet another gracious host.  Merging back onto Hwy 2, it challenged us early in the day with a double rumble strip on the shoulder, so that we had to ride to the left of the white line again for 20+ miles.  We made steady progress, arriving at the Sugar Shack in Rudyard about 10:30 am, a 10-seat 1950s diner with an enticing menu too cute to pass up.  After our early lunch, the shoulder considerately widened for us, making our ride less stressful.  This part of the Montana landscape gives the term "the middle of nowhere" real meaning.  We left the Bear Paw Mountains near Havre behind, to be replaced by the Sweet Grass Hills ahead of us.  We breezed through Chester at the 60 mile mark, with an  eye towards our 80 mile goal of Galata.  We ran into road construction with gravel.  This obstacle fortunately lasted only for 5 miles.  We arrived in Galata about 3 pm.  The business district consisted entirely of a small motel with no AC; there was no grocery store or restaurant.  Left with the option of suboptimal accommodations, and no provisions for dinner or breakfast the next morning, we decided to press forth.  We clicked off another 25 miles to reach Shelby, the next outpost of civilization.  The wind had been streaming from the southeast in our favor all day until 10 miles from Shelby, at which point there was a dramatic shift to a northwest wind due to an incoming storm.  This extra resistance to our progress was not welcome.  Despite this, we did reach our destination without getting rained on.  Dinner was at a restaurant that made relatively small BLTs, requiring Tim to order two so that his caloric needs could be met.  We planned again for our approach and entry into Glacier NP over the next 2 days before retiring.

The dreaded double rumble strips

Tim  shared this Strava data for the month of June:  26 days of riding, 2034 miles traveled, 156 hours of riding time, 78 miles per day avg., 13 mph avg.

Maps of today's ride:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3819330157

https://www.relive.cc/view/u3650056888

Signs along the Hi Line

This turned into really strong wind and a bit of rain and made for a miserable miles 90-105 Saturday

We met an east bound biker