Day 20. Havre

"...where the Beer and the antelope play.." Our ride today started
cool and clear. We saw a lot of antelope in the fields today. It was
a perfect cycling day and Pete was in hyper-drive due to the "magic
3": tailwind, fairly flat terrain, and a can of Starbucks Double
Shot! We rode 65 miles and arrived in Havre around 1:30 pm. Pete
bought a new tire at the bike shop, we had lunch, got groceries,
registered to camp in the city park, then went to the park to set up
camp and make our bicycle repairs. Our cohorts (other cyclists we
camped with the night before) arrived here also. We were all happy
that we could end the day with a warm shower for free at the community
pool. Ah, the simple things we take for granted on a daily basis can
be a real luxury to someone else.

~ Alicia (iPhone)

Day 19 Prairie Dogs and Trains

The morning dawned cold and clear. After getting packed up we headed for Chester, Mt. It was a day of racing prairie dogs and trains. As we rode by, the prairie dogs would be startled and they would either run along beside us or run into the weeds along the roadside. Sad to say there was a lot of prairie dog roadkill along the road. As I approached two prairie dogs, one darted across the road and the other got confused and stopped right beside my tire(I had just stopped to take a break) and he just sat there a few seconds looking at my wheel.

The road and the railroad tracks pretty much ran parallel most of the day. So we would try and outrun the trains! Not really! But, we did catch up to one that had passed us as it waited for another train to go by. The first twenty miles of the ride was fairly flat and we made good time, but then the hills started again and that slowed us up a bit. We will probably stop here in Chester for the night, we arrived around lunch time, after doing 46 miles, and did a bunch of work here in the library, and now it is after 5 o'clock, so, I think we will just find a place to camp and stop for the night. Pete's rear tire is getting precariously thin as we can see the under layers of it. We are hoping it will make it to Havre tomorrow, another 62 miles or so, because that is the where nearest bike shop is located. We will then change out his tire. - Alicia

This morning - The Road Behind

This morning - The Road Ahead

Day 18. Shelby, MT

We rode 63 miles today. The ride on the "flats" is faster but no less
taxing. Flats - well not exactly. There are rises and hills the
whole way. It is supposed to be generally downhill and I guess it is,
we do end up with greater speed but there are definitely hills as well.

We started on the Blackfeet Indian reservation from Browning in the
high plains of Montana. It was cold, probably 34 and it had rained
all night - hard. By 6am the rain had stopped and we bundled up and
headed out around 7:30.

Bundled up: cycling shoes, socks, cyclying pants, shorts, long sleeve
wool shirt, rain jacket, leggings (cover socks to shorts), skull cap,
helmet, long fingered neoprene gloves. This is still light for these
temps. We rely on the cycling activity to generate needed warmth.
This works, almost immediately we are considering what to strip and or
add. When climbing hills we are hot, descending cold. It really was
a frosty morning. 3 hours into the ride I was wondering if it would
ever warm up!

We stopped for a warm up break in Cut Bank. Everyone is a cowboy
here. A lot of older fellas running errands with their cowboy hats
firmly in place. We had coffee at 10:30 and caught up with most of
you. For the first time in days we had good cell signal. Yea!? We
are so dependent on our tech these days. I do like to be in touch.

Here is our camp in Shelby city park.

From Izaak Walton Inn

Note the snow on the left side mountain. It had not yet melted off
the trees. This was this morning at 8 am. By 10 it had melted. The
pass was far higher than this hill. The pass was clear when we
crested around 12:30.

View at Marias Pass

Blackfeet Nation

Another Great View from the East

B'bye Great Divide

This the view looking back from the east side of the Rockies. Very
nice. The country we passed through today was very pretty along the
middle fork of the Flathead River.

Marias Pass 5236 ft

We have crossed the final western mountain pass! Yea!

We have arrived after a 43 mile ride in Browning. This is on the
Blackfeet Indian reservation.

It was a cold ride today with rain spitting at us the last 5 miles.

We will go to Shelby tomorrow. Our strategy will me to ride early and
hopefully avoid afternoon rains. Looking at weather profiles for the
next 600 miles, June is the rainiest month in this region.

Day 16. Resting in Essex

The rain pinging off the metal roof. Rain. We woke up groggy and late. Debating when or if we should head out into the weather. We are at 3800 feet. The pass 5600. We decide to breakfast and then decide. Concerned about snow and ice we decide to rest today. It has been 5 days since our last - the longest yet. We lay down and zonk out again - hard for more than 2 hours. We are more tired than we thought. Good choice resting.

Some folks came over the pass by car and commented on the mess. It is in fact snowing, semi's jack knifed. Really bad. We are not equipped to ride in snow and are even more concerned with other traffic with these narrow shoulders and too fast traffic.

Tomorrow we hope will dawn brighter. We will still probably make a late start to allow things to warm up on the pass in case there is snow up there. We can't afford to stay a third night but will if the weather remains bad. It will pass. It is summer right? Two days ago some places not too distant got up to 8 inches of snow. And, "Going to the Sun Road" is still not open. It usually is by now but there is a 7 mile stretch still closed due to this late weather.

They have these cool cabooses made up into apartments for rent. Here are some pictures.







Inside Views

Housekeeping

Just a note. We love your comments. We really would like to know who you are. If it is not a problem for you, please add some text to your comment with your initials or first name so we know who is commenting. If you want to stay anonymous, we understand.

I also want to mention that any contributions are appreciated. To protect your privacy I am looking into ways of contributing where you can remain anonymous. However, Ashley has made up a bumper sticker that looks like the heading of this blog which will be sent to any contributors if we know who you are. Family members will be receiving one as well.

Cheers!

~Pete

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

Day 14. Whitefish

We have arrived in Whitefish. We thought it would be an easy 56
miles. It was tough. We are still trying to figure out why. It
seemed like we were moving along well, but progress was slow. A
watched mile never clicks over...

The weather was very cool, windy, and cloudy; threatening rain most of
the day. We ended up putting on additional gear to stay warm. I am
always on the look out to prevent hypothermic conditions.

Yesterday in Eureka, we set up the tent just in time to get out of the
rain. It is interesting being in a lightening storm in a tent.
Initially I thought the storm would pass quickly, but this was one of
those that just continued growing overhead.

It ended up raining all night. The tent held up well.

Whitefish is nice. Very touristy, but fun.

~ Pete (iPhone)

Day 13. Wild Montana!!

Yesterday, Alicia saw a very large dog like critter. We figure it was a wolf. It was alone. We have seen a number of different wildlife. Today there were Mule Deer and White Tail Deer. Lots of bear scat but thankfully no bear. Eagles, Turkey Vultures, Osprey, Pileated Woodpeckers and lots of other interesting birds. The squirrels here are smaller and black. We will be riding along and suddenly a half dozen giant birds will be flying around and away. These are the Turkey Vultures and then we look around and see the carrion (In these cases Deer carcasses) they were feasting on.

The Pileated Woodpecker at Dorr Skeels



Today

We completed the length of Lake Koocanusa and made it to Eureka. The Lake is about 50 miles long. It is a joint creation of Canada and the USA on the Kootenai River. That is how the name was created KOOtenaiCANadaUSA - KOOCANUSA. The dam that creates the lake is Libby Dam.

Koocanusa Resort.



Cabinet Mountains



Big Sky Pantry - Pete, Butch, and Dick

Dick and Butch met on the road and are traveling together. They plan to split in North Dakota. Butch is headed to Maine like us. He lives there took the train West and started in Anacortes. Dick is headed to Iowa.

Big Sky was another fun find. A Deli in the midst of nothing. Literally. There is nothing else for 20 miles. We had a good sandwich and ice cream. Yum!!



Today, we once again have no cell signal. I'm at the library on their WiFi. I can still make and receive calls on the iPhone by connecting to the library WiFi network and using Skype.



Tomorrow we plan to go to either Whitefish or Columbia Falls. The following day we want to end in Essex which is between West Glacier and East Glacier on the edge of Glacier National Park and partway up our last Western pass. The day after that, we finish the pass and start the long zoom downhill into the Eastern Montana plains. We expect to at least make Cut Bank which will finish Section 2 of our journey: Sandpoint to Cut Bank. Then onto the next Section: Cut Bank to Minot, ND.

~ Pete

Day 12. Koocanusa Resort

We finished the day here riding 56 miles. The afternoon was hot.
Just 80, but on the pavement with no wind while climbing it just baked.

We will bike at least to Eureka today maybe a bit further. That
should be 48 miles.

-Pete

Day 11. Dorr Skeels

We rode 69 miles to this campground. Dorr Skeels is between Sandpoint
and Libby, MT. Here is a picture.

Currently, it is noon, day 12, and we are lunching in Libby MT.

Random Thoughts

I am getting antsy--enough rest already--time to hit the road!!(Before I wax philosophical) Ooops, too late. It has finally dawned on me just how out of control we are on this trip, because something comes up each day that we had no idea would or could happen and then you just handle it as it comes. Kind of a mini metaphor for life. We encounter a road condition that is terrible, thinking this is as bad as it can get, and then the next day there is a road condition that is even worse. Conversely, we can ride around a corner and there is some beautiful vista awaiting us, and then around another corner an even more breathtaking view. So, we start each ride with prayer and give control over to God for the day.

We really enjoy reading the comments, I especially like the one of how I am shrinking from not enough calories! Thanks for all of your well wishes, and to Robert I say, "you can eat all the grizzly bear steaks you want, just leave the other creatures alone." - Alicia

Day 10. Rest Day in Sandpoint

So we just completed a whopping tough ride of 0 miles. Yes! Zero!! It was a nice break. Legs still a bit stiff if I stretch them just right (or wrong). But nothing that is a problem. We have been busy food loading today. One more delicious meal to go so that tomorrow we will tear up the pavement! (We hope.)

The next few days we are in the heart of Grizzly Bear country as it exists in the lower 48. Many of you know I have no love for these unpredictable creatures and that I think it is high crime to reintroduce them in places like Cabinet mountain range which we will be riding through for at least a day. Why do we think our forefathers had the good sense to remove them from this area in the first place. It was not just for sport.

We heard another good Grizzly story about how fast they are. There was a guy in Alaska who on his ORV (off road vehicle) was able to follow a Grizzly that was running all out down a gravel road. He matched his speed and found he was going 45 miles per hour. That a bit tough to swallow. I can't ride my bike that fast except down a steep hill. Top human speed running is somewhere around 12 mph and that is not for long.

Well, this is some of the prettiest country we've ever been in. We have visited here before. There is a variety of diverse wildlife (and Grizzlies :( ). We estimate 5 more days of mountains before emerging on the high Montana plains near Cut Bank. Tomorrow we will leave Idaho.

Check out this photo of the bike trail we were to take into Sandpoint.



Note the unique Idaho engineering with the self leveling dirt surface. We did try the path further on where I was reminded of another Idaho feature: frost heaves. It gets cold enough here for winter permafrost and during spring thaw it can cause pavement to buckle into peaked little ridges that are fabulous to run across in the tree shadows when bombing down the hill at 20+ mph. YeHawww!!!!

Sandpoint is a nice little town with a lot of promise. It looks like it has tried to become a tourist mecca for skiing and other outdoor activities. The poor economy does seem to be taking its toll. There is this nice little bridge mall, Cedar Street Mall, that is built on a bridge. Years ago (about 20) this was full of fun little shops and restaurants. Now it is completely empty but for one expresso/gelato store. It is still a nice structure and setting. We are hoping things pick up soon.

Here is a picture of Crystal Falls from yesterday.



Later!!

-Pete