Day 22 Monday 7/27/09 Cut Bank to Chester, MT

Day 22 Monday 7/27/09 Cut Bank to Chester, MT 70 Miles 895 total miles After some free mocha Monday samples at the local McDonalds and some fresh fruit for breakfast, Gary and I rode out of town towards Chester, the next stop for us on the Hi-Line. The day went quite well, this being the second farthest in absolute distance that I have traveled during this trip. Gray was anxious to go ahead and thought that he might even push on to a town farther down the line. There hwere some pretty significant headwinds in the last third of the day and by the time I reached Chester, there was Gary, in the shade of a roadside rest-stop awning. We considered camping in this spot, right next to the tracks, but after the previous night's cacophony near the tracks thought better of it. Using a local map, I scouted out the city park and much to my pleasant surprise found a lush, green park where tenters are welcome to stay for free. Simple accommodations next to a picnic pavilion in a city park, but with running water and toilets , so all was good. We even had a watering schedule and location to set up the tents so we knew where to situate so as to stay dry-- a quick trip to the local grocery for a six pack and we were established for the night. Just before dusk another cyclist rolled, in-, "JP" from Deerfield, NH, who has been on the road since June 11 and is making the brave westward-ho trip to the coast pushing his Trek 520 into the wind. Oh to be 22 again! JP was able to share all kinds of road wisdom our way and we learned of a particularly beneficial stop-off in upcoming town of Havre, the next day's journey, as well as general information about crossing Ontario, a route fraught with challenges, as well as scenic beauty.

Day 21 Sunday 7/26/09 St. Mary to Cut Bank,MT

Day 21 Sunday 7/26/09 St. Mary to Cut Bank, MT 63 Miles 825 total miles The plan to leave St. Mary campground at 8 was delayed by neither my new riding partner, Gary Evans , nor I being ready dto leave at the agreed upon time. We took a little longer, getting over to the St. Mary Lodge and grabbing a cup of coffee, getting connected with wireless and then finally got underway around 9:45 ... Making the initial ascent on US 87 out of the St. Mary area in a light drizzle, up St. Mary Ridge, which is a massive moraine through burned out lodgepole pine forests, the aftermath of pine bark beetle infestations. At the top of that first ridge, there was a great overlook back towards the park and out towards the plains that were our inevitable destination that day. We climbed a second ridge and then descended it down towards the Cut Bank Creek drainage where we turned east, headed down the drainage into the Blackfeet Reservation. The first 10 miles or so of that gradual descent were euphoric, with the plains ahead beckoning us, the mountains getting smaller in our mirrors and our sapeed sometimes exceeding 25 mph, which is a pretty good clip. Then the reality of the reservation roads hit us-- lots more trash and especially broken glass on the roadsides. Unfortunate, but with a little bit of aware riding we managed to get through there without a flat. We arrived in Browning around lunchtime where we stopped for a drink, some WIFI and a visit to the local IGA where we spit the ingredients for a veritable sidewalk banquet and answered questions of curious passers-by. "How far you going? " "Where you coming from?" "How many miles can you do in a day?" After lunch, we set our sights on Cut Bank, another 30 or so miles away where we would spend the night. The Montana camping guide I obtained from he chamber of commerce Libby showed that Cut Bank had public camping, and when we got to town we commenced to look for it to no avail, so we stopped at a local casino to ask directions. We discovered that the said campground had been closed for several years and the lady at the bar, Liz, offered for us to camp in her yard, after clearing it, of course, with her husband, Pat, with a quick phone call. She let us know that her 4 year old, Vladimir, would be there to greet us and be full of questions and directions, it being his back yard and all... It was a very welcome place to stay and after clearing some of young Vladimir's toys out of the way to make room for our tents, we set up for the night, did some laundry, went out to a big dinner at the Cut Bank Café and returned for showers and a solid night's sleep-- except for the 6 or so trains that thundered through town all night long, whistles blaring, as we are on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Hi-Line, one of the most frequented tracks in the country with 35 to 40 trains a day rolling through every little town out here.

Day 20 Saturday 7/25/09 Sprague Creek via Logan Pass to St. Mary, MT

Day 20 Saturday 7/25/09 Sprague Creek via Logan Pass to St. Mary, MT 40 Miles762 total miles Rose early and hit the road at 6:15 to make the ascent over Logan Pass via the Going to the Sun Road, 18 miles to the pass and about a 3400 foot climb. Park rules require that all bike traffic past Logan Creek must complete the last 12 mile journey before 11 a.m. Not a problem if you aren't too loaded down, or if you get an early start. Today, though, we had Matthew and Eleanor's 6 month old Olive in tow in the chariot behind Eleanor's bike. Matthew, for his part , has decided to give himself a bit of a workout and carry some of his camping gear, extra food, and some other rocks, bricks and lead bars in his pack, just for the sake of being a mountain man. I, for my part, have deferred to the gracious Manita and her Subaru to carry all but the essential food, water and foul weather gear. The pass ride was beautiful-- we made it with a little time to spare as we stopped frequently for nursing stops, diaper changes and Olive activities! Spent lunchtime at Logan Pass talking with a Dutch couple, Stella and Joris, who are on an extended tour of the US after spending the past 9 months touring Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. If that's not enough, they completed a 14 month trip from Holland to China on those very same bikes-- truly a testament to their perseverance as well as interpersonal compatibility. The ride down from the pass was thrilling with incredible views of the (receding) glaciers , followed by a chilling dip in St. Mary Lake at the bottom. Matthew and I found our way to St. Mary Lodge on a hot afternoon, for a couple of cold beers and relaxation in the leather lounge chairs while we waited for the rest of the gang to join us for a great dinner-- then off to the campsite for some end of day relaxation and a good night's rest before heading south and east out onto the great plains.

Day 19 Friday 7/24/09 Whitefish to Sprague Creek, MT

Day 19 Friday 7/24/09

Whitefish to Sprague Creek, MT

40 Miles

722 total miles

Rode with Matthew Smeltzer via backroads from Whitefish 2 West Glacier Park.

Day 14 Monday 7/20/09
Libby, MT to Logan State Park
45 Miles
622 total miles

My body did not cooperate after yesterday's push in the heat. To make matters worse, today was even hotter. I told myself going into this experience that I would pay attention to my body's needs and respond appropriately. The first sign of that came at 7 a.m. When my alarm rang and I turned it off to get some more sleep. I awoke surprised to find it was past 9 a.m.-- too late to avail myself of the 7 to 9 am $2.99 breakfast special, but more importantly, a sure sign that I wasn't going to even try to make it all the way to Kalispell today. Today was even hotter than yesterday, so I decided to take my time this morning, have a leisurely breakfast, and spent some time at the local internet/networking company's office posting my blog before setting out onto the road eastward. Did I already say it was HOT?! IO don't know how hot, but the forecast when I left Libby was for 95 + and the bank signboard read 87 as I rolled out of town at 2 p.m. Not an auspicious start!

Crosses across Montana: as one journeys across this state one finds roadside crosses placed by the American Legion in memory of the departed travellers along Montana's highways. A sobering reminder of the tenuous hold we have on this life as we thunder along at unnatural speeds-- certainly unnatural to what the body can sustain in sudden deceleration. Although I haven't kept count, I can pretty much count on seeing at least on every couple of miles and some are multiples. True to the immortal Lenny Bruce, I still haven't seen any Stars of David (or any other faiths) represented! One of these markers I passed around US 2 mile marker #65 showed 17 crosses for one site. Just a few miles east of Libby the shoulder all but disappeared. I was left with a 6 inch or less margin of pavement from the white line and there were some mighty big trucks rolling through here , loaded with lumber and you name it. On coming traffic too? ! Do you think that the narrowness of the road or speed limit for that matter would slow any of them down? You already know the answer. 15 miles of that treachery, all the while climbing in heat for the most part, took away the fascination (or the ability) to gaze at the picturesque Cabinet mountains to the south of me. Finally, the shoulder returned and I was able to relax a little and enjoy the ride-- although the new hazard was rumble strips which eliminated 1/2 of the usable space on the shoulder and pushed me closer to the guard rails. Rumble strips, while a good idea for the dozing trucker, are a bad idea for the touring cyclist, especially on downhill, where one might encounter an itinerant hazard and need to swerve to avoid it.

I stopped to cooldown in the chilling Fisher River and then rode through an area called Houghton Creek, where there had been a big forest fire in 1984, and even 25 years later, the mountainsides show the recovery still taking place very slowly. What does Smokey Bear say kids?

By the time I reached Happy Inn (yes, it's on the map!) I was out of water and getting very thirsty and a COLD beer, in this case 2, was in order. Talked a bit with the local barflies, bought some more beverages, and left the station (it's the halfway point between Libby and Kalispell) and headed down the road 5 more miles to the Logan State Park Campground , which turns out is a very convenient, modern and recommended facility: complete with hot a cold running water, showers and cleanup sinks for dishes. Monday night made selection of a lakeside campsite no problem at all. A great swim in the clean water and the song of loons on the lake cap this day off quite nicely.