Day 3 - Simms to Hardy, 67 miles... 1200 ft elevation gain, a nice easy day!

Today, we left the roads we'd travelled last year, heading southwest toward the Missouri River. This is an area where the Corps of Discovery split up to explore different areas, then regrouped again later. We skipped it last year because we didn't have time. We spent the past two days traveling roads we were on last year, although our stopping points are different.

Today was pretty flat, so we made pretty good time and had a pretty easy day.

Of course it didn't hurt that they rebuilt a highway for us..

Nice folks around here!

It turned out that the flag woman for this stretch of road was the ex wife of the RV park owner where we stayed last night... Hmmm, small state?

At Great Falls we started our new maps... This is our first view of the Missouri River.

Or,

Or,

Soon, the terrain changed dramatically...

Tonight, we're staying at a fishing, rafting, outdoor sports place with showers, laundry and a store... Very nice owners...

They let us stay for free!

As we were checking our maps, a rain storm came through. We were sitting at a picnic table in a sheltered area, so getting wet  wasn't a problem... Good thing! The rain came straight down at first, then it blew horizontally one direction, then from the other direction.

Hmmm? So, we set the tent up under the shelter...

As I'm writing this, there's a deer grazing ten yards away. Earlier, a couple of young bucks were practicing sparring.