Montana, The Treasure State

Glascow, MT
54 miles

I've decided that Montana is aptly nicknamed "The Treasure State". Our rides the last couple of days have been some of the most picture-esque and incredible yet. The rides have been a bit shorter, allowing more time to stop along the way and enjoy the scenery around us. I love being able to look out for miles and see nothing around me but big sky and endless fields of gold. The variation in lighting during today's ride was especially breathtaking- beautiful sunrise, stormy skies and sunshine. I wish I could be more poetic, but there's no other way to put it- It's simply beautiful.

Today was another mail drop and I'm overwhelmed with how many cards and packages I received. Turning 22 is awesome! Seriously, you guys are the best at keeping me well-fed and in the best of spirits! I now have the challenge of fitting all sorts of goodies into my ever-expanding backpack.

During our rides, we have something called the "sanity mile", which is the point of our ride in which we know we're going to make it and survive. Typically, riders' sanity miles occur when there's 10-20 miles left in the ride. Suddenly, a daunting day of riding feels like an easy, casual ride. I'm realizing that I hit the "sanity day" of the trip. My birthday marked day 50 of the trip, and today means we've only got 19 days left. Less than 20 days feels entirely manageable. It's the home stretch of my ride, but we've still got another 1,000 miles to go....