Elkhorn Ranch

The cabins and other buildings of the ranch are visible at the end of the valley. One of the longest all-day rides goes to the inverted-v-shaped dark area in the snow-capped mountain in the distance. If you click on the picture you can see a larger version.

I was so hopeful that I had stretched out the tendon that gave me such trouble when we went to the ranch 5 years ago, and I would be able to ride comfortably. I didn't have the same sharp pain on the outside of my knees, but when I tried to do an all day ride (7 hours total, 5 hours in the saddle) I came back in tears from the pain in my legs. Nothing I've done in triathlons has hurt that much. After that I stuck to half day rides and enjoyed the views enough to outweigh the minor pain. I'm sure if I rode once or twice a week for a year I could build my legs up to it, but I'm not that interested in riding.

We got home early Sunday morning--our 7 pm Saturday flight to from Cinncinnati to Greenville-Spartanburg was cancelled and they put us on a 11:10 pm flight. Early Sunday afternoon we took the kids to North Carolina for two weeks of sleepaway camp. So I'm just settling in to being home. It was hot (80s) in the afternoons in Montana, though where we were at 6800 feet it went down to the 40s at night. The biggest shock coming home is the humidity--at that altitude the air is very dry.