I slept really well last night, maybe even more than I should have but I felt great when I got up right around sunrise. There were a few scattered clouds but nothing to be worried about. The forecast had said it was supposed to be sunny today. I ate a quick breakfast of dried fruit and nuts and a bar, and got going. Temperature was nice, low fifties. The paved state highway was pretty deserted. The terrain got much hillier as I rode on, and I noticed a small storm gathering just ahead of me. It was definitely raining a few miles away. But it appeared to be the only storm in the sky. I was surrounded by high, dispersed clouds all around me. So much for a sunny day. It quickly became apparent that the storm was moving in the same direction that I was. So I stopped a few times to give it a head start. I certainly didn't want to catch up to it. And I was moving fast with another good tailwind. I arrived at Horse Creek road which was a gravel shortcut to Circle that saved at least 10 miles over the highway route. I had already ridden through some wet roads behind the storm on the highway. The road looked like it had enough gravel to take some water but I was unsure. I decided to proceed. The scenery was incredible, badlands, bare hills exposing many layers of geologic time and the road was really hilly. This made me very happy as I was getting tired of all the flat terrain. The storm kept getting bigger and bigger as I rode on and seemed like I was right on it. I eventually passed through some wet roads, and it was rideable to my great relief. But after a few miles I reached a point where it was very saturated and it began to stick a bit. I considered my situation. I was only about 25 miles to Circle but if I turned around and took the highway there I was looking at at least another 40 and probably more. I decided to at least try to make it to the top of the hill and see how it goes from there. That was the last bit of trouble with mud I had, everywhere else had enough gravel or didn't get enough rain to matter. I had a blast on the rest of the ride into Circle, tailwind and fun rolling hills. I picked up pavement the last 8 miles or so and I was flying. I got water at a First Baptist church built out of logs, and refueled with probably way too much food at the cute little grocery store there in town. For a tiny town it was fantastic. I bought two gigantic homemade looking cookies and they were superb. I went ahead and got going quickly and after a little gravel cut thru I turned onto Montana state road 200 S. Back when I lived in my hometown of Rochelle, Georgia, most of the time when I went for a ride I rode out in the direction of the wind so could have a tailwind on the way back. Wind blows pretty hard in places down there. So I've experienced some incredible tailwinds during all the cold seasons riding there. Well the tailwind I had today from Circle to Glendive was one of the finest. It was over 25mph most of the time and directly behind me and the road was as smooth as butter. I climbed a gradual hill for a few miles after Circle but even that was really fast. I topped out a little over 3k feet, and then gradually descended 800 feet all the way to Glendive with zero interruptions, and with a wild tailwind. So it was a no brainer to just keep going and ride to Makoshika State Park. The traffic was very light and I saw way more out of state tags than Montana ones. Three different Oregon cars, one Idaho, one California, one Colorado, a couple North Dakota, one Virginia, one Wisconsin and a bunch of Minnesota. Everyone, including big trucks and locals were very courteous. Nobody attempted an unsafe pass. It was wonderful. I rode through town the back way on a nearly 100 year old truss bridge closed to cars over the Yellowstone river. The road through the state park was stunning. People were running and walking everywhere. It being so close to town probably brings a lot of locals. I rode through to the primitive tent area thinking I had an envelope pay box here but that was not the case. I took the first site I saw upon cresting the super steep hill to get here. I have decided to take the chance that no one will notice i haven't paid yet and will pay when I leave tomorrow morning. I really don't want to ride all that way back to the entrance and then do that climb again.