Day 15. Essex

We have arrived in Essex, MT. We went 57 miles. It was much easier than yesterday. We really thought today would be tougher. Alicia was real strong today. I had a slow start but warmed up to the ride by about 4pm. (Yes, that means the first 5 hours or so I was dragging my behind...) Alicia thought this picture captured my feelings...



We are staying at the Izaak Walton Inn. It is an old boarding house for railroad workers. It's been fixed up nicely and is decorated with many fine old railway pictures particularily of the Great Northern Railway. There is a lot for the railroad buff.

The weather today was again very cool. After 10 miles I had to stop just to warm up again. We were fine after that. We started in Whitefish, went over to Columbia Falls, then the road took us through some really nice country on MT 486 toward West Glacier. This routing was to get us off highway 2 which with no shoulders and crazy fast Montana drvers is quite scary to ride on. Every Montanan has a pickup with extra wide mirrors and more than half are hauling a trailer. Speed limits are at least 70.

On the way into Columbia Falls on 2, we had our first near flat experience. I heard a ffft, ffft, ffft with each rotation of my tire and knew I had picked something up. I pulled into a parking lot and looked and found a wire sticking out of my tire. It was hitting the fender with each rotation of the tire causing the ffft sound. Well, I've had occasions before where a flat did not occur until I pulled out the offending object, so I knew it had to come out, but wasn't sure whether I'd end up with a flat or not. So, I pulled it. It was in a good ways. Too far I feared. I repeatedly touched the area with my glove and at first thought the sound of my glove was the escaping sound of air. The tire never went flat. We continued on.

Not 2 minutes later Alica calls out that she has a serious problem. We look at her tire and same thing! a wire was sticking out of it. Again we pulled it out. Again it seemed to be far enough in to cause a flat. We think the wires were from a car tire that came apart. The roads here are littered with debris like this.

Anyway, no flats for either of us. We thank God. It's not a huge thing to deal with and we have the equipment and spares, but it would put a crimp in the day.

Approach to West Glacier



We had a real nice fast ride into West Glacier and lunched there. Then it was on to Essex. 30 miles before lunch, 27 after.

There is not much more here in Essex than summer homes and the Inn. Here are a couple of pictures...





An Active train yard next door. Several trains have already gone by including Amtrak.



We saw a lot of really nice scenery today. We have been to Glacier National Park before and know the "Going to the Sun Road" we would have traveled to be very narrow, busy, and dangerous. We opted to take the shorter routing over Marias Pass on Highway 2. It saves about 90 miles over the other route. I'm kind of glad we did. We have seen some different moutains and the Flathead river here has been nice as well. Here are a couple of pictures.









I hope you all are faring well. I know Larry my cousin just got married this weekend to Kathleen (sic). Congratulations Larry and Kathleen!! Wish we could have been there!

Cheers!

Pete