Cycle Montana Day Five

Note: You can click these pictures to see them full size. The detail is much better.

We rode out of Butte and over the Continental Divide at Pipestone Pass to Three Forks, MT today for a total of 66.5 miles. After the descent of the pass we rode through a great agricultural plain and the nice little town of Whitehall, where we had our lunch break. Then we followed the Jefferson River through a spectacular canyon before finally arriving at Three Forks. Everyone was impressed by the beauty of the canyon section of this ride. There seemed to be a little sadness at dinner because everyone knew it was our last night together. I did not get as many photos as usual today because, for one thing, I was able to climb this pass nonstop (!) . And this ride was by far my fastest overall of the week and I was just flowing through it. I felt at the end it was a day I could have ridden a century. But here are a few of the photos I did get:

The water stop at the top of the pass was a landmark of the day, along with lunch and the coffee shop in Whitehall.

I have a nice helmet-cam video of the complete downhill ride from the pass that I will post when I get home. It should be fun to watch on a fast computer. Here are some shots taken along the Jefferson river:

Lowlight of the day was road construction and very rough pavement for the last three miles into the campground. I did not get any photos of that but did get a nice shot of "Ole Reliable" just before the bone shaking began.

Tomorrow it is a short 37 mile trek back to our point of origin in Belgrade, outside of Bozeman.

GARMIN LINK FOR TODAY'S RIDE