Math and the Missouri.

Street signage on U.S. roads can be unnecessarily distracting. They are on the whole informative, it's just that sometimes the information isn't always required. For example, every time you cross a bridge (and there are lots of bridges) you will be informed via White lettering on a Green background that you have just crossed Prickly Pear Creek or Six Mile Creek or Dry Canyon Gulch. A little earlier today another such sign was spotted. This one said 'Missouri River'.

You may have heard of the Missouri River, if so, congratulations and the following may bore you but please, read on. If you haven't heard of the Missouri, here's a brief synopsis. It rises here in Three Forks, Montana, (the Headweaters are pictured above) and spills out into the Gulf of Mexico just below New Orleans, Louisiana. That's 1,567 miles as the crow flies. The River Missouri does not flow as the crow flies. It crosses 2,341 miles in doing so, making it the longest river in the United States (Maybe, the argument with the Mississippi still rages). It is fed by the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers, at it's source, and goes on to drain one sixth of the United States, flowing through Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri (where it joins the Mississippi), Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

In short, it's a river worth the name. Another vital point about the Missouri River is a very personal one. It flows East. All the rivers I've mentioned to date have been on their way West to the Pacific. With the Great Divide now behind me (although I'll flirt with it again in Yellowstone), I will meet no more rivers that run to the Pacific. It's not all downhill from here but, unless by choice, there will be no more Mountains.

May 22 6:24.50 Helena -Three Forks 70.26 miles

May 21 5:40.16 Lincoln - Helena 54.99 miles

May 20 9:54.52 Missoula - Lincoln 79.18 miles

May 18 7:40.53 Powell - Missoula 57.29 miles

May 17 7:57.49 Lowell - Powell 66.28 miles