September 21st , 2015
Facts about the Little Belt Mountains
The Little Belts have been mined for silver since the 1880s, and for sapphire since 1896. The Showdown Ski Area holds the state’s record for snowfall, 33 feet of snow in one winter.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
Destination: Al Buck Memorial Park, Montana, United States of America
55.8 km trip, 3:35 time, 51.9 km/h maximum speed, 15.5 km/h average speed
What happened…
Andrew writes: We had a group hug outside of Gary’s house right before we left. He was elbows deep in replacing a turbo module on one of his 8 Saab’s, but I didn’t mind getting a little bit of grease on me. Hopefully we can see Gary and Mimi down in San Carlos this winter.
Amanda pre-planned a really great route out of Great Falls which kept us to nice, quiet residential areas. Actually, the further east we travelled, the nicer the houses and neighbourhoods got. Little did we realize that Gary lives in the “hood”. Finally we came out to Highway 87 and were greeted by an Air Force helicopter doing maneuvers overhead. It did several passes, and I like to think that each time it flew by, just a hundred feet overhead, that the pilot waved back, whenever I waved at him. It’s probably more likely that the door-gunner was using the two of us in some sort of virtual target practice.
Rolling hills today, although the Little Belt Mountains grew larger and larger as the day wore on. We called it quits fairly early, and spent the afternoon relaxing in the warm sun at the Al Buck Memorial Park / Rest Area just past Armington after turning on to Highway 89. Amanda said that she enjoyed stopping early and getting the chance to do some bike maintenance, and practice playing guitar.