The past few weeks; From Lolo, MT to Rapid City, ND

Well, it's been awhile since I've tried to put into words, some sort of description of what's been going on. I had finished a road trip to Glacier/ Kalispell/Missoula and was about to resume my journey from Lolo. From Lolo to Yellowstone it was a series of different valleys, each one culminating with a pass over some sort of mountain with a decent into what else?... the next valley. Though going from one valley to the next, there were no redundancies; each one subtly varied from the previous one. As the pictures show, there always seemed to be snow peaked mountains in the background, however the ground seemed to become a little less fertile with farm ground, neatly cultivated, giving way to more open grazing fields, inhabited by more and more sage brush and rocks. Each Valley received its name from the river which carved it out. The Bitteroot Valley gave way to the Big Hole Valley which gave way to the Beaverhead Valley, which gave way to the Ruby Valley, which led into the Madison Valley and to Yellowstone. The Bitteroot Valley was abundant with farms while the Ruby Valley was known for its mining (though farming exists).

Some stories and observations: The ascent from Lost Trail Pass caught me up to a couple of touring riders who, like me were going drop in to the nearby Big Hole National Battlefield. This was where the Nez Perce learned that the U.S. Cavalry was still interested in defeating them. The battle ended with a slight edge given to the U.S.. The Nez Perce did manage to allude capture and to get away, prolonging inevitable defeat a while longer. I did learn that the Nez Perce referred to Gen. (Oliver) Howard, the one in charge of the Nez Perce campaign, as " Gen. Day-After-Tomorrow" because of his knack of showing up a day and a half too late. I also learned that after the Nez Perce War (remember it was "waged" against only the tribes that didn't sign a treaty), Gen. Oliver, along with Chief Joseph, petitioned Congress on behalf of the non-treaty Nez Perce. Gen. Howard also helped found Howard University in Washington, DC, as a non sectarian institution open to both sexes and regardless to race. He was very well known as one who promoted the welfare and education to former slaves. From the Big Hole Battlefield it was just a dash to a town called Wisdom. Theron and I had lunch there at a diner called "Fetty's". Inside Fetty's was a map with hundreds of pins stuck in it, each one representing the home town of the person who placed the pin. Every state was represented, and to my surprise there were 2 pins stuck in Winchester, TN. Are you out there? Are you reading this?
In the Ruby Valley we landed in a town called Virginia City. Virgina City was an old mining town preserved, not replicated, as to pretty much how it looked back in its heyday. Only the functions of the buildings have changed. The next day, almost to Yellowstone, I was met with an angry headwind which gave me one of my hardest 4.5 hours of cycling, perhaps, ever. I was more than eager to quit for the day and to continue on with a lesser wind, but who was to say it didn't blow like that every day during June, or the summer, or the decade; so stopping didn't really make any sense. The payoff was Yellowstone.
Yellowstone is more than I ever imagined. It is high mountain fields, vistas, waterfalls, moose, bears, eagles, and much more. Yellowstone is also a boiling cauldron of one of the largest super volcanoes in the world. Geysers, of which Old Faithful is just one of many, boiling mud-pots, and steaming pools are everywhere. The Yellowstone Caldera is so big, that scientists were unable to see it until satellite images became available. The Caldera measures about 35mi. by 45mi.. Should an eruption occur, it is estimated that it would be about 2,500 times stronger than Mt. St. Helen's, with devastating results of nuclear winter from the ash, possibly causing mass extinction.
Well somehow Theron and I were able to escape Yellowstone without injury and were ready to cross Wyoming. Wyoming was not as mountainous as Montana, names of places with the word "gulch" started to appear, and the cowboy/buckin' bronco symbol of the state was everywhere. Cody was the first place we came to. Somewhere between a large town and a small city, Cody thrived on it's namesake, Buffalo Bill Cody , the famous plainsman/showman. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center a cluster of several museums was a class act that would make any city 10 times the size proud. Cody also proclaimed itself the rodeo capitol of the world, featuring rodeo 7 days a week during the summer. After Cody, about a day's ride away, lie the Big Horn Mountains. This would give me not only my highest elevation of the trip ( about 9,000+ ft.) but also a very beautiful climb. A few days later we reached the Black Hills and South Dakota. In Rapid City, SD, my brother, David, his wife, Stephanie, and my sister, Judy met us as a gesture of birthday celebration as well as celebrating the cross country adventure. We explored the beautiful Black Hills, being pleasantly surprised by Mt. Rushmore, impressed by the yet to be finished Crazy Horse Monument, thrilled by the Devil's Tower, and exploring Rapid City which turned out to be a real jewel of a town.
Tomorrow we set off across South Dakota; first stop, the Badlands....