Day 31: Helena to Great Falls

Well we had already done two centuries (100+ miles) in two days, so the prospect of doing another didn’t exaclty get me jumping out of bed. Breakfast did, though, and I eagerly waited in line for some more of that great home cooked food that the church ladies were kind enough to cook for us. Always grateful for their generosity.

We were told that the day would start with a descent into the Helena valley and then a gradual climb over a mountain pass, then a descent through the mountains and finally a climb out of the mountains and into the high plains of Montana. It never ceases to amaze me how much terrain we cover and how much things change. You could literally spend weeks in any one of the areas we bike through and going from plains to mountains and back to plains in one day just blows me away thinking about it.

But with all of the wonder, we were also a little concerned about drunk drivers since it was July 4th. My primary concern was that I didn’t want a repeat of yesterday where I just died on the bike at the end, so I wanted to go out strong and put as many miles behind me as possible before I got tired. The third concern was that we were travelling on the interstate, which technically is a no-no. But it was literally the only way to go, and this far up north the traffic was much lighter. Plus interstates have the biggest shoulders.

We headed out and immediately I put the pedals down hard and fast. For the first mile or so I grunted and yelled and made all sorts of silly noises trying to get my body going. I would stand up in my pedals to push myself to work harder, to get the blood flowing in the cool mountain air. The long downhill into the valley was definitely welcome and it didn’t take too much effort at all to make it down and across the valley. And then we hit the mountain pass.

The lady had said that it was a gradual uphill. I think what she meant to say is that we would gradually make it up the hill. I guess they don’t call it a mountain pass for no reason. But I was feeling quite strong so I put the gears a little bit lower and headed up. The whole time I kept singing “God Bless America” both in my head and out loud. I was climbing the mountains and I could see the prairies and after biking so far across the country I was definitely feeling quite good about the land that I love.

Sometimes you climb a long hill and at the very top it just levels off and that’s fine, it needed to be done and sometimes we prefer the big hills since it gives a good goal to work towards. But this was not one of those hills. This was one of those hills with a gloriously fast downhill on a good stretch of pavement where you can reach 40+ miles per hour without even trying. And it kept going and going. I like to think of them as free miles, where all you have to do is sit back and they roll under the wheels with no additional effort.

At the leveling off portion of the hill was JJ, walking her bike since she had a flat. The rest stop was about a mile or so from where she had the flat so she had been walking her bike for a good while. I offered to help, but JJ is a very hard working young woman who likes to do things her way and so I left to alert the van after she politely declined.

The next sixty miles were sheer joy as we cruised down the gorgeous canyons and mountain roads. Sometimes I’d turn a corner and my jaw would drop at what was in front of me. Some of the others states in the union got the short end of the beatuy stick in my opinion. At the lunch stop, I pulled up and asked Stephen if we had any tape. I said it with a concerned look on my face. He asked me for what and started looking. I told him that my jaw was dropping all the time and it was starting to hurt. I needed it to keep my mouth closed.

After cruising for the first 80 miles, we came out onto the prairie which, after soaring mountains, seemed awfully big. As promised, it required some climbing over the last 20 miles, but it wasn’t really that bad. The worst part, really, is that it means more time on the bike and that’s what wears on you day after day. I slowed down, but not by too much and I enjoyed the casual pace that I set for myself. I eventually made it into town and started making my way across the large river and up to the fire station.

Once there, I got the bad news from JJ that our place for the night had fallen through due to timing issues. The fire station was where we were going to shower, and they were very helpful, but ultimately they couldn’t help us out for the night. Fortunately, JJ’s cousin was able to find a friend who let us pitch tents in her yard for the night. But first we went over to Fudrucker’s for some big hamburgers and shakes.

I went with the half pound, but quite a few people went with a whole pound burger. The thing was huge, simply huge. I invested in a strawberry malt and I honestly think it was the best malt I’ve had all trip long. Very tasty.

Afterward, we went back to the fire station and talked about getting over to the house. I didn’t want to bike anymore so I threw my bike into the van and rode the few miles to the house. Along the way we got lost since the streets weren’t marked and unfortunately this meant that some of the riders had to take on a huge hill for no purpose. When we did find the right place we saw that the riders had to take on a hill with a 14% (!!) grade. Ouch.

The house was on a corner, not too far from that insane hill and we quickly set up camp. Being the last chance to call people before Canada made my cell phone unusable, I tried to call as many people as possible. But we weren’t there too long before the entire city exploded in fireworks. One of the locals described the area as being filled with people who liked to do their thing their way and their freedom meant so much to them that the fourth of July was almost more important than Christmas. And it showed. Everywhere you looked fireworks were going off.

Usually when I do fireworks, we buy a bunch of smaller fireworks and then buy one expensive ‘all-in-one’ box that gives a minute long show. But everybody was using those big boxes to warm up. I was walking around the neighborhood talking to friends with explosions (some very large ones) going off all around us. People were in the streets shooting them off, in fields, on their porches, even in the Walmart parking lot. Cars going down the street literally had to zig-zag around the pavement avoiding all of the explosions of color and flame. I have never, ever seen anything like it. And it kept going at the feverish pace for over an hour. I don’t even know how they did it logistically.

JJ wanted to meet up with her cousin on the river to watch the big city show and I eagerly signed up for the trip. I was in the passenger seat and as we approached the hill we could see down into the city. And I saw one of the most incredible dislpays of pyrotechnics I could even imagine. People were setting off fireworks that would soar into the sky and explode, just like the professional level. And as we could see for miles in any direction along the river we could see *hundreds* of fireworks going off. My jaw literally dropped as every tenth of a second another huge burst would go off. I could go on and on, but I’ll have to summarize by saying “Whoa”. I mean “Whoa”.

We met up with the cousin after bushwhacking through the hills from the parking lot to come up to the river. When we met the cousin and told her how amazing it was she pointed over the river to a particulalry explosive section and said they had been over there last year. She said people would drop firework after firework down the tubes. Explosions would rip all around you and it was a constant state of chaos as people ran all around lighting anything with a fuse. With this thought in my mind I settled in for the city’s firework show, which had to be awfully good to top what the citizens were putting up. And it was good. The finale was particularly impressive. And the very second that it stopped the city started up again. Even more intense than before. Incredibly, it did not stop for the next hour. The whole landscape was awash with magentas and reds and greens in a constant kaleidoscope of furious brilliance.

After some time, we headed back to the van and back up to the house. We didn’t spend too much time at the camp site before crashing into our beds close to midnight. It was a spectacular fourth of July and having spent the last month seeing so many great things and meeting so many great citizens, I felt a deep appreciation for what the citizens of Great Falls were celebrating with so much vigor.