By Alicia Bietz
As a new rider I have experienced many wonderful events on the ride from Bozeman, Montana towards Glacier; wonderful welcomes and hosts, fabulous scenery, awesome riders, challenging mileage, fun conversations, terrific food, and much much more. I have never, however, experienced headwinds like we experienced on the ride from Deer Lodge, MO to Missoula, MO. Our day was supposed to be a breeze (no pun intended) with the majority of our 85 miles being a gentle downhill descent towards Missoula. It ended up being one of the most difficult rides of the trip.
Facing fairly constant headwinds of 15-20 mph with gusts of 25-30 mph was the theme of the day. It never ended! There were times I thought my fellow rider, Alice, was literally going to blow over. There were times my ride went from 18 mph to 10 mph in an instant! Ugh! There were times it was hard to continue. Headwinds like that are my friend, said no biker ever. Never-the-less, we all persevered and made it safe and sound to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Missoula where Sam made a wonderful meal and the facilities were awesome. Day over.
