Today's ride was a little easier than the last couple of days despite having a bit of a cough and a little sinus congestion. I attribute the easier ride to cooler daytime temperatures, more interesting geography, and the fact that tomorrow is a scheduled rest day!

I started out from the town of Vaughn, which is just a few miles west of Great Falls, Montana. It was cool enough that I needed my windbreaker for a bit. There was also a nice tail wind until I got into Great Falls. Through Great Falls, the route followed the River's Edge Trail along the Missouri River. The second half of the day I was riding within sight of the Little Belt Mountains. So I had small mountains to look at and there were some trees throughout the day. And the temps only climbed to about 80F this afternoon, which is much more tolerable. It was my eighth consecutive day of riding and I logged another 76.5 miles. All in all, it was a good day.

The Western Livestock Auction grounds near Vaughn.

The Rainbow Trout Bison sculpture on the River's Edge Trail in Great Falls.


The Little Park in Belt, where I took a little break and had some snacks. We visited Belt in 2021 during our Montana road trip and discovered the Harvest Moon Brewery there, which was a fun little brewery with good, inexpensive beer. We're planning to visit the brewery again tomorrow.

After I thought I might be done with trees for a bit, I encountered a fair number of trees today, like these river bottom cottonwoods near Armington.

Red barn near Geyser with the Little Belt Mountains in the distance.

Another farm with some pine trees on the nearby hillside.

A windfarm near Geyser.

Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day. We'll stay in Great Falls for two more nights, which will be nice to stay put for a couple days. I'll start riding again on Saturday and things get quite sparse for the remainder of eastern Montana.

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