Day 15, Shelby to Havre, Montana

Ride distance: 106 miles; ride time: 5:52. average speed: 18.1 mph; calories burned: 7295; ascent: 1928 feet. We stayed with our hosts in Cut Bank but we actually started our bike ride 24 miles east of Cut Bank in Shelby. There was a very good reason for this. From Cut Bank to Havre where we’re staying tonight is 129 miles. Even starting from Shelby, the ride actually turned out to be 106 miles to where the church is in Havre. The area doesn’t exactly have a surplus of traffic lights. There is one in Cut Bank. The nearest one to the west is 115 miles away. The nearest to the south is 105 miles away and the nearest one to the east is 129 miles away (I didn’t hear about stop lights to the north but I suspect they’re a considerable distance away also). We went the same direction all day yet at various times, we had tail winds, cross winds, and head winds. We arrived in Havre after 3 p.m. It was a long and hard ride for everyone but all finished. There were a fair number of rolling hills and our total climb was close to 2000 feet. We had Domino’s pizzas for dinner supplied by the couple that has been pulling our trailer for the past two weeks, Lee and Elaine. That was very kind of them. They are leaving in the morning and a new couple, Dave and Darlene, will be taking their place pulling the trailer with our bags. They also act as our advance team going ahead of the riders and making contact with the church we’ll be staying with that day.