Day 21 – 1,000 Miles

By Mark Heggestad
Another great day!  We biked 61 miles from Wisdom, MT to Dillon, MT.  We climbed two summits: one called Big Hole Pass at 7,400 feet and one at 6,800 feet.  But we started the day at 6,000 feet, so a much easier day of riding than yesterday.  Which is good – my legs were worn-out after yesterday’s challenging ride.

We hit a big milestone today.  We have now biked over 1,000 miles, a quarter of our planned route.  I finally feel like we have accomplished something.  During the first several days of this bike ride I always felt a little foolish when people would ask us about our trip.  “Biking across the U.S.,” I would say proudly.  “Oh, how interesting.  What a great adventure.  How far have you biked so far?” they would ask.  As soon as the answer came out of my mouth I felt a little sheepish.  I had just talked up our great adventure, and then told them we have barely started.  Now I can say we have biked over 1,000 miles!  That feels good.

Speaking of feeling good, I had an awesome feel good moment today.  On one of our descents I maxed out at 43 mph, beating my previous record.  That was a great feeling.  The exuberance and pure joy of moving that fast on a bike is hard to explain.  Just trust me, it is amazing.  In some strange way it reminded me of riding bike back on the farm in my youth.  Just my bike, the wind, and me.  It all seems so carefree.  So energizing.

The area we biked in today is called The Big Hole Valley; so named because we are in a flat area surrounded on all four sides by mountains.  No matter which direction we looked we saw beautiful mountains.  The following is a picture of the view we had most of the day:

Big Hole Valley. 

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