This was a fun ride today! A long 88 miles but mostly downhill from Yellowstone National Park to Ennis Montana. We had some tailwind so I averaged 17.2 mph. We ran into drizzly rain after exiting Yellowstone Park at the West entrance and it continued for around 30 miles then the rest of the ride was dry. Started off really cool at Yellowstone, around 39 degrees, but warmed up to the low 70s by the time we finished the ride. We passed by Quake lake, a beautiful lake formed by an earthquake in 1959 which caused an 80 million ton landslide that blocked the Madison River. There was a fascinating visitor center that explains what happened and provides an awesome view of the landslide dam and the lake below. Was a beautiful ride along the lake for quite a ways, and again mostly downhill so effortless! Most of us were in camp at Ennis by 2 PM. And just in time, an ugly thunderstorm was brewing to the South. It hit just as we were putting our tents up. Some ferocious wind and rain, but most got their tents up and belongings inside the tents safe and dry before the serious rain started. It lasted only 40 minutes or so and then it cleared up just in time for dinner! Terence and I prepared the meal- toasted cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and rotisserie chicken. Delicious meal after a thunderstorm! Mel, Tom, Dan, Simona and I went into town after dinner to the Bar Grill in town for a beer and to listen to some live music. A woman and two guys were playing country music on guitars- they were quite good! Ennis is a really nice little town. They do a lot of fly fishing in these parts so it attracts some rich clientele. It’s only a small town, 1000 heads total! Then, Montana doesn’t have many people. Their capital town of Helena has only 30,000! The total population of the state is only 1 million!!
Here are the RidewithGPS stats:
Biking across the USA with Mike 
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