Day 9

July 26, 2004

Columbus, MT to Cody, WY

At the first rest stop for a Picture Day retake

News flash: Drunk racoon tragically killed last night while carelessly crossing the street with his shades on

Ski checking out a historical marker near a stream

the historical marker

and more markers

riding through a small Montana town

Montana is finally done – bring on Wyoming

We spent the morning dodging rain showers. Here’s one off to the left

while off to our right, the skies are clear

Lots of mountains all around

this road went on forever – a good 20 miles before we hit the hills in the distance

This PAC Tour rider felt she didn’t get her fair share of pain today

Today’s message board

and today’s progress – the climbing shown below is false advertising; it was actually over 6,000 feet today

Profile and statistics (absolute altitude is wrong).

This was an above average hard day. Lots of long steady climbs. We had some fun rollers starting at mile 30 (felt just like home in PA). And then we had the big descent around mile 50 … I only got up to 47 MPH (descending has never been my strong suit); most riders got over 50 and one tandem hit 59 MPH. We entered Wyoming at mile 75. The route from here to the finish was a real slog over some gnarly roads … lots of rough pavement with loose gravel.