So much for a leisurely 50 mile ride

Beautiful grass lands outside of Three Forks

As of this morning we were about 30-40 miles ahead of our planned schedule.  That was fine, but we are coming up on Yellowstone National Park day after tomorrow and that pretty much has to be ridden in one day from end to end.  Getting a camping spot in the park is almost impossible.  There are campgrounds that don't take reservations, but they are usually full by 10AM. Getting a reserved camping spot along our route didn't work out either.  So in the end, we made the decision to ride to Ennis, MT which was our next scheduled stop, only 52 miles away.  That should give us time to rest up, do laundry, etc to get ready for the ride to West Yellowstone, MT tomorrow and then through Yellowstone NP the following day.

At 52 miles (here is the track), this should have been a fairly easy day, even if there was 3000' feet of climbing.   Well, think again...today was anything, but easy.  

The day started out well.  We met a father and daughter in the Missouri River Headwaters campground that were also riding across the country with a support Sprinter Van.  They are taking a more northerly route and will end in Virginia.  We traded stories for a while, had breakfast, Nicolas did his training run, we packed everything up and were out of the campground by 9:45.

The first part of the ride was really nice.  We crossed the Madison and Jefferson rivers which merge at the camp to form the Missouri.  The ride was rolling hills, but with a steady climb.  At 22 miles we were finishing a fairly long climb and were hit by three pretty strong gusts of wind and then a steady head wind.  It only got stronger as we rode.  We had met Nicolas at the 20 mile mark along the route and told him to wait for us 15 more miles down the road at the 35 mile mark.  It took us almost 2 hours to cover the 15 miles with the hills and head wind.  

Looking forward to a nice downhill ride, but the wind killed that.

At that point, Beth said her fun-meter was pegged and got in the van with Nicolas.  I got on my single bike to ride the rest of the way to Ennis.   There was an almost immediate 1000' foot climb with 2 miles of 7% grade while being hammered by the wind.  I grunted my way over the top.  With only 10 miles left to go, including 3 miles at a 7% grade down hill followed by 7 miles of flat, it should have taken less than 30 minutes to get to the RV park....but it took almost an hour.  I was lucky to hold 10mph on the flat ground going straight into the wind.

When I got to the RV park, I pulled out the anemometer.  It was measuring a very steady 16-18mph with gusts well over 20mph.

It is 10PM now and the wind is just now starting to settle down.  There have been storms in the area, but we haven't seen any rain yet.  I'm planning to get up early and try to get a head start on the day, hopefully before the winds kick up again.

On the good side, we are making a serious dent into the overall mileage on the map.  Currently at 1068 miles.  See the map below.    

Pink is completed miles; Blue triangle is current location; Grn-Blu-Brn segments are individual rides left to go.