Saco, MT

Near Saco, Montana. The winds are horrendous!

Yesterday, after a brutal 75 mile ride, the last 10 miles in brutal wind and heat, I found myself totally spent and too exhausted to even eat.  During that leg of the trip I consumed 56 ounces of water and 8 ounces of Gatoraid and still felt dehydrated. Jim Born and I pulled into Hinsdale, hydrated as best we could and recuperated.  It was here that Mr. Knudsen introduced himself.  Among other endeavors, he and his wife own an ice cream shop that is open every day but Sunday and Monday...it was Sunday.  Even so, the kind Mr. Knudsen opened the shop up to us, allowed us to set up our tents in the park next to the store, made a shower available and even served us coffee the next morning...THANK YOU MR. AND MRS. KNUDSEN!!!

 Dave Martus and Loren Bach traveling in style.  Traveling east as I travel west.

One of the casualties of the road to Saco

Magnificent brown Angus thriving on sweetgrass before being introduced to their ladies in waiting. 

Woke up at 3:30 AM in order to get an early start to beat the wind...unfortunately it started to rain, then pour, then thunder and then blow.  Had planned to ride to Malta, Montana, a distance of 41 miles but the wind was so brutal that I stopped in Saco AFTER ONLY 14 MILES!  So what is noteworthy about Saco?  It has a population of only 197 living souls. There are several theories on how it got its name, as a contraction of Sacajawea who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition. Another theory is that one of the engineers with the Great Northern Railroad spun the globe and when his finger landed on Saco, Maine, they decided that was the name...Saco.  In 1999 it held the Guinness world record for the largest hamburger ever made at 6040 pounds and made from 17 head of beef cattle.