Day 12 Harlowton, Montana (101 miles)

Oh, the day from hell that the 08 riders had is upon us. Surprise!!!! the temps were in the high 70's and low 80's with plenty of water to be had by all. The ride up the hill in the morning out of Townsend was glorious. The sunrise was one of the prettiest that I have ever seen in my life.


Sunrise on the way out of Townsend


Some of the mornings sceneryn>

I enjoyed riding part of the way with Jeremy. At the top of Cold Creek Canyon we met up with Susan. Angry Cat (with a noose around his neck and a guilty looking Frank welcomed us to the sag stop.


Alan, Frank, Susan and AC

Lunch was left over cold cuts, from last night, at the park in White Sulphur Springs. The hardest part of the day was the blood sucking mosquito swarm that ate us alive going up the hill out of White Sulphur Springs. We stopped at the Checkerboard Bar and some of us put signed one dollar bills up on the ceiling.


Entering White Sulphur Springs


The Hill out of White Sulphur Springs with the blood sucking mosquitos

We had a tail wind from the Checkerboard Cafe to the last sag stop of the day. From the sag stop we could see storms in the distance above the mountain range. Five of us almost waited out the storm, especially when we saw funnel clouds trying to form. They broke up and it looked like the storm wasn't going to come our way. We took off and had an interesting last 9-10 mile ride with a 35-40+ mph cross wind. Chad got a flat tire. Trying to change a tire with a 40+ crosswind was not all the easy.

When we got to Harlowton the wind had picked up so much that putting up our tents on the football field at the Kiwana Club was next to impossible. Our tent frame got slightly bent when the tent blew almost sideways. All of a sudden, it got very,very quiet. We were standing by a shed, where we were storing our bikes for the night, talking to Bridgett. Bridgett ducked her head and said, "Ouch, who threw something at me." We looked up and the skies opened up and dumped golf ball size hail on us. We took shelter in the shed.


George, Suzanne and Sam checking out the the big pieces of hail


A golf ball size piece of hail after it has slightly melted

After the hail storm the wind died down and the sun started to peak out around the clouds. We took showers at a hotel on the edge of town (across the street from the diner where we had breakfast in 08) Chuck and I had dinner at the pizza place in town and got ice cream at the gas station for dessert.

No storms once we went to bed but our sleep was disturbed when a few of the locals got "BUSY" in the middle of the football field. Jeremy said he looked out his tent when he heard the noises being made and saw multiple legs and arms in a pile. He really didn't want to see anymore so he zipped up the fly on his tent and tried to go back to sleep. We don't know for sure how many people were "GETTING BUSY" together but it was more than two.