A long ride in 90 degree heat brought me into Montana's largest city - Billings - and into the final third of my cross-country journey. Riding in the floodplain of the Yellowstone River to avoid the hills, net elevation increased gradually and steadily to from 2200 feet to 3000 feet above sea level. After some 800 miles from Minneapolis, I have now crossed the Great Plains and tomorrow should bring me within sight of the Rockies.
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| Pompey's Pillar National Monument |
Just outside of Billings on the banks of the Yellowstone lies Pompey's Pillar - a sandstone outcropping and prominent landmark for generations of settlers and Indians traversing the Plains. When William Clark passed through in 1806, he named the tower from the youngest member of the expedition - the child of Sacajawea - Jean Baptiste - born two winters earlier. Nicknamed Pomp and later raised and educated by Clark, Jean Baptiste survived the expedition's toughest days bordering on starvation as they ascended the Bitterroot Mountains in 1805 and making it all the way to the Pacific and back. The presence of a child and a woman on the expedition signaled the peaceful intentions of the Corps of Discovery to the Native American tribes they encountered through the West.
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| Captain William Clark's signature |
On Pompey's Pillar lies the only physical evidence of left by the Corps of Discovery - William Clark's name etched into the side of the stone and clearly visible today. In the coming decades, settlers heading westward added their names to the stone. This early version of graffiti was designated a national monument in 2001, preventing me from adding my name to this landmark. Though this area of the country is expansive and picturesque, it bears little resemblance to the region that the Lewis and Clark expedition encountered 200 years ago. Once teeming with bison and grizzly bears, it is now home to cattle ranches and beet farms.
Starting Point - Forsyth, MT
Ending Point - Billings, MTDistance - 106.0 miles
Cumulative Distance - 2225.7 miles
Vertical Elevation - 2248 feet
Counties - Rosebud, Treasure, Yellowstone, MT
Wind - variable crosswind
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