Chris Nadovich's 2009 Transamerica Bike Tour.

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Circle, MT

Today was 120 miles through scenery that reminded me of a cowboy movie. I expected bloodthirsty injuns or outlaws to spring out from behind a sagebrush thicket or butte. There were hardly any towns, no shade, and a relentless series of stream crossings that had us diving down a rim into these pint-sized Grand Canyons, just to climb back up the far rim a mile further after crossing some muddy trickle they call a creek. Any of a dozen of these "negative mountains" were worse than the Continental divide. Ultimately we arrived in Circle, MT, a dusty nothing of a town that made Winnet look like Paris. The town park wasn't very enticing, and we haven't had a real shower in a few days, so we checked into a beat-up looking but reasonably adequate motel with a dinosaur out front.

Can you tell I'm getting tired of Montana? It's getting so I feel like I was born here. Still two more days before we can cross the border into North Dakota. Don't get me wrong, the land is beautiful in its own way. Today we passed some "chalk buttes" that had a very striking appearance. I would have photographed them but I was sailing down a sweet descent. I also saw a gigantic black bull lounging beside the road. There are a hundred strange and beautiful things I see for every one that I get a chance to photograph.

Speaking of dodging T-storms, that's what we did all afternoon. There we ominous, black thunderheads all around us, but where we rode was sunny. I don't know how we missed the storms, but we did. Probably tomorrow they'll nail us.

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