Bicycling the Lewis & Clark Trail
Fort Benton to Denton, MT

Saturday, July 31, 2004
Distance Cycled: 62 miles
Vertically Climbed: 2180 feet
Average Speed: 12.4 mph

Today we had an outstanding breakfast at the Grand Union Hotel, hot fresh rolls and bread, fruit, boiled eggs, yogurt etc. We started riding around 8:00. The first 9 miles were all up hill. Hard way to start, as far as the legs go. At about 15 miles out we stopped by a small side road to eat a banana, etc. with George and Jane, we were in the middle of no where, not a house in sight. While we were there the mail lady dropped off the mail, and the owner came by to pick it up. So we had lots of people to talk to. Jim checked the front tire and found out that it only had 50 psi tire pressure. He pumped the tire back up to 100 psi. We then rode on to Geraldine, but the bar did not look like the best place to eat, so the 6 of us rode on to Square Butte. We had a good lunch at the local bar called the Country Club; we were the only people in the bar, so it was none smoking for a while.

We had a long hard hill after Arrow Creek and it was hot with a tail wind that did not cool us. After that hard climb we made a left turn and headed east into a medium head wind. For the last 13 miles we spent most of the time traveling east into a head wind. Finally we reached Denton and our Motel. It consists of 4 motel rooms only 3 have air conditioning. Ken and Jan share their bathroom with a lady who smokes. George and Jane have the room without air conditioning so we keep the bathroom doors open and they have a fan pulling the cold air out of our room. This town rolls up the side walk on Saturday night. The grocery store closes at 5:00 PM, the library is closed and the only restaurant closes at 8:00 PM and does not open until 8:00 AM. Tomorrow we are going to eat in our room and leave before the restaurant opens.