Start Location: Great Falls, MT
Ending Location: Williston, ND
Miles Today: 422
Trip Miles: 1118
States Visited: 4
Provinces Visited: 0
Low Temp: 51.7° F
High Temp: 84.4° F
Min Elevation: 1869'
Max Elevation: 3611'
Route Map:
National Parks 2010 - Day03
Today started out in the low 50s and stayed cold most of the morning.
We actually started out wearing the bottoms of our rain gear
(mostly for warmth) but, when it started raining, we stopped and put on
the tops. We also plugged in our electric vests part way
through
the morning as well. Between the vests and the rain gear we
were
pretty comfortable. It warmed up in the afternoon but never
got
above about 71. The temperatures above actually reflect the
temperature after the bike had been sitting for awhile and reflect heat
from the engine.
It
seems Route 2 is not really as interesting as we remembered - maybe due
to the cold. It was mostly ranch and farm country so it all
looked pretty much the same. I would have to say though that
the
traffic - or lack of it - was very nice. We didn't see too
much
that we remembered from the last time we took Route 2 - that was on the
Sturgis trip with Jason in 2000. We did see a bunch of
dinosaur
statues up on the hill sides that we remembered but they were too far
away to get get very good pictures and it was too cold to stop.
We were going to stop in
Wolf Point, MT this afternoon but didn't really see anything inviting
there and it was
still only 4:00 so we went on to Williston, ND since it was only about
93 more miles and the roads were good and we felt fine.
So
tomorrow we are off to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The bad news is that we ran into a guy in the motel tonight
who
had been by there this morning and apparently there is a lot of
construction on Route 85 (the only way to get there from here) and
there are sections of nothing but dirt and gravel. Dirt and
gravel are okay - we have done that before - the concern is if we have
a lot of rain and the dirt turns into slippery mud. If worse
comes to worse, we will just have to turn back and either bypass the
park or take a long detour around the North Unit of the park and come
in through the South Unit. We'll just have to play it by ear.
I
think we're getting into the rhythm of the trip. The miles go
by
pretty fast and, now that the computer glitch is solved, that end is
going pretty quickly as well.
