Day 34 — Malta to Glasgow

July 16, 2021. Detours inside of detours. Soon after leaving Glasgow, I took Old Highway 2 that parallels the new highway. It was a gorgeous road.

But then something even cooler happened. As I rode into the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge, there was another detour that paralleled the old highway — an “auto tour” through the refuge. So what the heck, I took it, and was rewarded with a lovely morning ride through the refuge. The seasonal floods from spring snow melt created excellent habitat for migratory and nesting waterfowl as well as raptors such as the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. Lake Bowdoin is on both the Central and Pacific Flyways used by migratory birds and was well known by locals and naturalists as having the largest numbers of migratory birds in Montana.

Then it was back and forth between new and old Highway 2 to Glasgow, MT. I got a campsite in the shade and hid away from the afternoon heat. Dinner was cold baked chicken and potato salad from Albertsons. You can see that now that I’m bikepacking I’ve had to go with less spacious shelter.