Hardin, MT to Ashland, MT -- 80 miles

This day didn't start off all that well, as I managed to slam my index finger in the door of the support vehicle. Just another event in the Klutzy Judy competition and I am winning hands down...well, actually, I would say my digits are suffering more than anything else. At this rate I could only imagine what will be in store for me in the month of July!

Shortly after leaving Hardin, MT the riders traveled through Crow Agency and some took a detour to Garyowen, MT which is the site of the the Battle of Little Big Horn, also called Custer's Last Stand. It took place on June 25, 1876, as part of the Indian Wars. It was a victory for a large force of Lakota Sioux and their allies, including the Cheyenne, over the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army, who attacked their village. We were there 135 years +4 days after the fact.

The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Park memorializes the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indian's last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, and Cheyenne warriors.

Last Stand Hill at Little Bighorn Battlefield. In July 1881, First Lt. Charles F. Roe Supervised the erection of an 18-ton granite shaft bearing the names of the fallen U.S. 7th Cavalry soldiers.

The riders then travelled through Busby and Lame Deer, Montana on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Lame Deer is also home to Chief Dull Knife College. Lame Deer, MT is also the start of the the 1989 movie 'Powwow Highway' a road movie based on a novel by David Seals.  The plot is that the tribe is suffering and greedy developers try to talk the council into voting in favor of a strip mining contract and one character is trying to find himself and they end up on a road trip down the Powwow Highway and they come to realize the realities and dreams of being Cheyenne in modern-day U.S..

Then it was on to Ashland which is home of the St. Labre Indian School which began in 1884 with the construction of a log cabin school operated by four Ursuline Sisters. Today the school has expanded to include many buildings including a chapel, inspired by the teepee of the Plains Indians. 

Due to a hotel issue...The State of Montana Department of Transportation bought out all of the rooms in the Western 8 Motel in Ashland because of an 18 month road project so we (one night reservation) had to find alternative housing. We did, but it is in Broadus, Montana -- 44 miles away on a day of riding that was already 80 miles!

So what we did was shuttle the riders who didn't want to ride anymore than the allotted 80 miles were picked up at the Western 8 Motel in Ashland, Montana and shuttled to the Broadus Motel, in Broadus, MT.

Informational Sign - The White Man Settler in Eastern Montana

The Broadus Motel where we are staying for two nights.

Marnie R arriving in Broadus, MT after a very long, long day in the saddle!

Marnie R and Dan K pose for a picture to commemorate their accomplishment of riding 122 miles from Hardin, MT to Broadus, MT.