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- - - - DAY 12 - FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008 - - - -

  Today's Distance: 29 Miles
  Today's Route: Ryegate to Harlowton, MT
  Today's Weather: Cloudy, some rain, LOTS OF WIND!
  Current Elevation: 4,196 Feet (544' More Than Yesterday)
  Total Distance Traveled: 311 Miles
  Total Distance Remaining: 309 Miles

Paul's Thoughts For Today:

My day started out with a wonderful time at Ryegate School where I got an opportunity to speak with the children there about P.A.C.E. - and to answer many good questions that they had. Ryegate School has a team that is participating in P.A.C.E. Trek and by what I saw on their Montana map for the event it appears that they are ahead of me! They're doing great and I'm so happy that they're enjoying being able to follow my progress and learn some new things. After speaking to them and answering questions, I got on the road heading to Harlowton. I got a later start than I typically do and knew that I would get in a little later than usual for a 29-mile day. However, meeting the students was well worth it!

The first 12 miles went very smoothly and my left foot felt pretty good. However, the road's shoulder eventually disappeared and by the time I got to Shawmut, which was about half-way to Harlowton, the winds picked up considerably and were right into my face (as usual). The combination of very strong headwinds and no shoulder made the middle 13 miles quite long. Highway 12 had a lot of traffic today between Ryegate and Harlowton, including a lot of semi trucks. Since I had no shoulder on the road for Bob to roll easily on, I was in the rough ditch much of the day... which had grass, weeds and gravel. The headwinds west of Shawmut were the strongest I've encountered on this trek. I was talking to my father after the day was completed and he said that he saw a weather report noting a high wind advisory for the area I was going through. In fact, the wind was so strong that I had to push Bob DOWNHILL! It was a very exhausting 17 miles from Shawmut to my hotel in Harlowton. My body is pretty drained this evening and I am relaxing with my feet up after treating my legs and fee to ice. Pushing Bob in very strong headwinds is very strenuous. It requires a lot of hard pushing, and when combined with the wind drafts from the large trucks that seemed to constantly pass me today, it was tough!

Today I had the closest encounter with a car on this trek. I'm always very good about watching oncoming traffic (which I'm facing). However, I can't always watch every car that's coming up behind me in the other lane - although I do have a rearview mirror. Well, at around 20 miles into the day I was on a stretch of road that had no shoulder and where I was on a slant trying to push Bob through the rough edge of weeds and gravel. A car suddenly went by Bob extremely close (Bob was closest to the white line on the outside edge of the lane). The guy in the car was passing another car and apparently did not even see me there. I would say that Bob was about a foot from the white line when the car whizzed by... and the driver's left wheels touched the white line. He was going about 75 miles per hour and the draft of air created by his car nearly blew Bob over. It was a very close call and I'm so glad that I wasn't any closer to the white line of the roadway. The driver was in quite a hurry... and most of the driver's were today. I couldn't believe the number of near head-on collisions I saw today due to people passing other cars and trucks. It is truly a dangerous stretch of road between Shawmut and to about 7 miles from Harlowton. I had no choice but to walk most of the day due to the lack of road shoulder and incredibly strong winds. I also endured one rain storm earlier in the day, but then most of the other rain storms moved pass me to the south. As the day progressed, it definitely got cooler. In fact, I'm watching the local weather right now and they're saying that we could get some snow this evening! However, it's supposed to warm up to 60 degrees tomorrow with only a 30% chance of precipitation. The winds are supposedly going to be less (about 10 to 15 miles per hour). We'll see. I truly need a break from the wind. It is exhausting me. In the past 36 hours I've logged 70 miles and much of that has been done with a headwind. I'm not exaggerating when I say that in the past 36 hours I've exerted the amount of energy that I would typically expend to log 100 miles. Pushing your body and a 80-pound jogging stroller against very strong headwinds takes much more power than moving forward in calm conditions.

I also saw several farmers today preparing their fields. The picture to the right shows one of the tractors I saw near the end of my day.

So, today marked my 10th day on the pavement and I am now halfway across Montana (I've logged 311 miles so far). It's good to know that beginning tomorrow I'll have more miles behind me than in front of me!

Tomorrow will be a 26-mile day to Martinsdale where I'll stay at the Crazy Mountain Inn. I'm sure I won't have an Internet connection and I'll try to get a voice mail message to Rob so that he can post an update. I'll also try to get a high-speed connection soon so that I can post pictures and videos from the past couple of days. I really need a high-speed connection in order to upload the pictures and videos. So, please be patient!

I hope that everyone had a terrific week of running and walking! Thanks to those who sent notes of encouragement to me this week. You really don't know how much I appreciate receiving those.

Today's Montana "Did You Know?"...
Montana's nickname is the "Treasure State." Other nicknames include "Land of Shining Mountains," "Big Sky Country," and "Last Best Place." It officially became a state on November 8, 1889.

Today's Native Americans "Did You Know?"...
Montana has many annual Indian events, such as: Battle of Little Bighorn Reenactment (June in Hardin); Annual Red Bottom Celebration (June in Frazer); North American Indian Days (July in Browning); Northern Cheyenne Annual Fourth of July Celebration (July in Lame Deer); Annual Arlee Fourth of July Pow Wow (July in Arlee); Annual Wahcinca Dakota Oyate Celebration (July in Poplar); Annual Milk River Indian Days Pow Wow (July in Harlem); Crow Fair and Rodeo (August at Crow Agency); Annual North American Indian Alliance Pow Wow (September in Butte); and, Last Chance Community Pow Wow (September in Helena).

Today's Fitness "Did You Know?"...
Children often learn from adults and follow in a similar path. In 32 of the U.S. states, 60 percent of the population is either overweight or obese. West Virginia ranks highest in the combined statistic, with nearly two-thirds of its adults obese or overweight. Mississippi, where almost one in three adults are obese, also ranks highest in adult hypertension and physical inactivity. It's tied with the District of Columbia in poverty and ranks second-highest in adult diabetes. West Virginia came in second in the obesity ranking, followed by Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina and Tennessee. Nationwide, more than 25 percent of adults in 19 states are obese, up from 14 states last year. This information, reported by CNN, is according to a recent report by the Trust for America's Health.

Your Turn! Share Your Thoughts With Paul...
Click here to sign the official P.A.C.E. Trek 2008 guestbook!

Thanks for stopping by this milepost update. Run back here tomorrow!

Keeping on PACE,

Along The Way...

I passed through SHAWMUT, Montana today. Shawmut, once a station for the Milwaukee Railroad was named for a local rancher. It is located along the Musselshell River near Deadman's Basin Reservoir. The Avaceratops lammersi dinosaur was discovered in the Shawmut area and it is now housed in the Upper Musselshell Museum in Harlowton. Shawmut Elementary School has a total of 7 students.

Paul's Current Position In Montana