Day 488 – US – Montana [Livingston to Big Timber]

05/08/21

55.3km

  From Livingston (Montana) to Big Timber (Montana)

North America

A beautiful and fragrant run in the amazing state of Montana

Loving the Montana sunrises

Montana, as I have hinted before is amongst the 4 biggest states of the US and also amongst the 4 least densely populated states. And I still have over 2 weeks of running across it before I reach North Dakota (another low density state!). One thing that struck me today was the fragrance of the cottonwood tree. Deliciously sweet smell. It’s the smell that alerted me, before I could identify where it came from (not too complicated since nothing was growing except for the said tree in the region I ran through!).

Running by the Yellowstone River, what else…!

The first 32km of the run were on a rough road, dirt and rocky road that was mostly deserted. Beautiful, silent, I must have met only 4 cars throughout. I had my bear spray can handy, ready to fire! I don’t wear my glasses when I run and it only bothers me in the distance as I see shapes but cannot make out what they are. Many black cows today were easily mistaken for possible black bears! (I didn’t spray any of them, thankfully!)

Meeting Bob Robbins at Big Timber Bar

The last 23km were on the frontage road, running parallel to the Interstate 90 road. Again it was very quiet. It’s another two weeks until I have to run big days of 55km+ distance again. I will sure enjoy my normal running days so to speak in the meantime! As I headed for a late lunch in Big Timber, I met many people at the Saloon, especially bikers who saw me on the road earlier that day. I also met Bob, who thought (because of my pink outfit) that I was running for Breast Cancer awareness. We chatted for a while, I had a great time at the Big Timber Bar & Burgers!

Tonight the weather has turned thundery. Not necessarily a good thing as most wildfires in the region are triggered by lightning. I am a quarter of the way through my US crossing (25% yes!), very happy about how the journey is going, and still waking up every day before the alarm clock 🙂

Check out today’s flyover video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vMv8yQVA8PO

(there is a technical glitch with Relive videos over the past 2 days, the track-line does not seem to display properly. I don’t know yet if it is due to my low/bad connectivity or the software itself. We’ll find out soon.)

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: