Day 482 – US – Montana [Elliston to Helena]


30/07/21

35km

  From Elliston (Montana) to Helena (Montana)

North America


High altitude running, through the highest point of the world run so far and into Helena, Capital of Montana

MacDonald Pass 1928m+ (6325 ft)

I have been gradually running uphill over the past 10 days, in a very smooth way. I was surprised to be staying at over 1500m+ altitude yesterday in Elliston. And today as I ran uphill to MacDonald Pass in the first 10km, I reached 1928m (6325 feet) altitude, the highest I have run so far in the world run. I did not notice any ill-health signs of high altitude. I guess it is due to how progressive the elevation gain has been (I’m already thinking how the Andes crossing will be a whole different affair!).

Splendid all the way

I passed a “historic point” near the MacDonald Pass, that of the “Frenchwoman’s Road”. Madame Guyot (back in 1867) used to run a motel and restaurant near to where her husband had set up a toll road across the Continental divide. She was found murdered, her murderer was never caught but her husband was always suspected. Her ghost is thought to have haunted the place till long after she died. Poor Madame Guyot. The Pass is named after Alexander “Red” MacDonald who was later hired to manage the toll road. I think it would have only been fair to name it the Mme Guyot Pass. Just my two cents.

And then that…

I then ran all the way downhill towards Helena, dropping 700m+ elevation towards 1200m+. An easy downhill run. And there I got near the county of Broadwater, where Trump got over 77% of votes in the last election. And it showed. All the road-side signs were all about “Jesus Loves You”, “Abortion is Evil” and “Guns are awesome”. I tried to ignore it but it was literally everywhere. I just read that Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology is from Helena.

Tomorrow is a rest day, before I go on a long stretch of (lonely) running towards Billings, the most populated city of Montana. Looking forward to it!

Check out today’s flyover video: https://www.relive.cc/view/v7O9Dwk5BQv



Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: