Sandpoint, Idaho to Hingham, Montana
Thursday, June 18, 1998 - Day 7 - 90.21 miles - to Sandpoint, ID.
We left Washington State by riding along the Pend Oreille River with a lunch stop in Usk. Continuing east, we had rain showers over our right shoulders. Tom S. would later tell us he was in those showers. We rode around Newport looking for a "Welcome to Idaho" sign. I wanted a picture as I entered each state. The only states that I missed were, Washington, Illinois and Massachusetts. That is the problem with traveling on the "famous back roads" of the Adventure Cycling maps. We followed wooded and mountain-lined valleys on a beautiful clear and cool day to an RV campground on US 95 just outside of Sandpoint. We selected a site as far off the highway as possible. This reduced the car and truck noise but I could hear trains all night, an omen for the riding across Montana.
Friday, June 19, 1998 - Day 8 - 93.03 miles - to Troy, MT.
As we left the RV park we rode the bike path into Sandpoint for breakfast. This bike path used an old highway bridge across scenic Lake Pend Oreille and then the route continued along the lake towards Montana. Low, threatening clouds were disquieting but tail winds lightened the riding. In the Bull River Valley, the showers caught us and we spent short periods hiding in the trees and a long period (90 minutes) in a cowboy bar, P.J. Montana on hwy 56. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the people who were already in the bar as we entered the bar in our riding clothes. I had thoughts of the movie "Deliverance." But, they turned out to be really nice people and were very friendly to us. We sipped our soft drinks next to the window and waited out the rain. After a while, we waited outside on their covered porch and counted pickup trucks. When the rain stopped, we made a successful dash for Troy, where we found the RV campground and a restaurant 30 minutes from closing. David, while riding around later, after dinner, to add to the day's 93 miles, encountered the first Youths in Cars who seemed threatening. He was Ok but you wonder what they really wanted. We did our first laundry load and hit the matt kinda late.
My left hip, the one that I had surgery on 4 years ago, gave me some problem today. It started as I left Sandpoint and continued all day. I could still ride but I wondered what I would do if it kept getting worse, it didn't. The next day it was back to normal.
Saturday, June 20, 1998 - Day 9 - 94.03 miles - to Eureka, MT.
"They are 10 minutes ahead of you" responded the rock climbers to David's question "have you seen any other bikers?" and David started to spinning faster to catch them. Most of the day's ride was on a scenic hilly road past Libby Dan and along Lake Koocanusa. He quickly caught up with two guys and a girl from East Lansing, MI. One was on a Bike Friday. David asked them what happened to the other guy and they said there wasn't another. Is this the group we had heard about or is there another slightly larger group somewhere still ahead? We never found out. The next thing asked was if one had lost a water bottle which was in plain view under a bungee on top of David's stuff. The man on the Bike Friday said he had and was astounded that it caught up to him. David surrendered the well-traveled prize.
David fell in love with Karen, who was ringer for a special friend he had a few lifetimes back. He fell in love in the only way you can for someone you will never see again. He remind me that perhaps we will catch this group in New York or so, but we never did. While they stopped for the night at Rexford we continued on to Eureka, to shorten the next day's approach to Glacier National Park. Eureka was in the shadow of the Rockies and suggested the excitement to come and the work too. We camped on some very nice green grass just outside of town in a RV park.
Sunday, June 21, 1998 - Day 10 - 98.39 miles - to Glacier National Park, MT.
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Today was Father's Day and after breakfast David wanted to call his kids. My family and given me my Father's and as well as my birthday before I left. I rode on as David made his phone calls. The road to Whitefish, US 93, was busy, narrow, and with head winds. As I was checking my rear-view mirror I saw four riders pull out of a side road behind me. Soon one of them caught and blew right me. Soon another one caught up but he pulled along side and we began to talk. This was a family from Bainbridge, WA, Scott and Ann and their daughters Sarah (15) and Lisa (13). Soon David, and the others, was there and we all stopped to take a break, talk and exchange information. Scott and the girls were crossing the country, while Ann could only ride for one week and was to take the train home from Whitefish. We took pictures of them and wished them good luck as we did not expect to see them again, we were far wrong on that.
After lunch in Whitefish, we made our worst highway choice until much later in Boston. The Adventure Cycling map showed two choices for the approach to West Glacier, one paved all the way (US 2) and one with 5 miles of gravel. We choose the paved one and were lucky to have survived the trucks, RV's and trailers on the narrow, curvy and very fast road on a Sunday afternoon. I was told later, on the train home, that the gravel stretch wasn't bad. On the good side I did find a dollar bill along side the road, after we got through scary stretch. If you ever do this route take the gravel route as it was not worth a dollar to take the scary route. We entered Glacier National Park and proceeded to McDonald Lodge for a great turkey dinner. After dinner, we rode seven miles to Avalanche campground. Our strategy, it was a good one, was based on the prohibition of bikes on Logan Pass Going-To-The-Sun-Highway between 11 AM and 4 PM. We wanted to be as close as possible to the climb the next morning so as to ensure we would summit before 11.
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Glacier N. P. near and east of Avalanche campground is awesome with snow-tipped mountains towering close and high above us. David was too energized to sit around camp and rode off to explore and get in more miles. I stayed in camp and talk to the ranger who told me to be sure to put all our food and any gear that might smell like food in the metal lockers, as bears are possible. There were also other bike tourists in camp. Dave and Julia are teachers from San Francisco riding to Vermont to get married. A Hawaiian (man) who was rocketing to New Jersey and one strangely decorated bike and tent went unspoken for. We would meet this guy later. David returned with 112 miles for the day. This would be the only night that I would feel cool while in my sleeping bag. There was no showers or even any water, we could not even wash up.
Monday, June 22, 1998 - Day 11 - 42.68 miles - to Babb, MT.
The climb up the garden wall of Logan Pass was a trip highlight. We twiddled up in our granny gears and David used up about 36 pictures. During the first day or so of this tour I noticed that almost very time I was posed to take a picture David was posed to take the same picture. So, since David was out in front and had more time, I let him take the bulk of the photos. I shot 6 rolls of film (36, 36, 24, 24, 24, 24) and David shot around 40 rolls of film. We climbed higher and higher above the valley and past the snow piles which had closed the road only a few days earlier. We reach the summit at 10:15 AM. It took us 2:56 hours, not bad for TOB (tired old biker.) At the summit we met up with the Hawaiian who had left before us and a cranky ranger who wanted us to park our bikes too far from where we could watch them. We snacked in the parking lot next to our bikes and then proceeded down the less spectacular eastern slope.
After lunch in St. Mary, we rode on to Babb and the Leanin' Tree Cafe & Campground on the Black Feet Reservation where we spent the night. For dinner, I had the largest, handmade and tasty hamburger steak of my life and by which all others thereafter will be compared. I gave this meal my vote for the best of the tour. Just a note, while eating dinner we received all kinds of advice about out route and how to change it. We were very reluctant to take any of it.
Tuesday, June 23, 1998 - Day 12 - 104.4 miles - to Cut Bank, MT.
We headed north, riding along side the Rockies and into Canada. Then it was southeast, back in to the USA, to Cut Bank. The road was so lightly traveled by motor vehicles that I counted only 14 motor vehicle in 32 miles of riding. Light traffic along with a tail wind made it a perfect day. We camped in the windy draw of Cut Bank on the edge of the prairie and enjoyed our last views of serious mountains until the Alleghenies. The wind was very strong and kept wiping at David's tent, flapping it all night. He did not sleep very good. My tent was a REI half dome and was very taught, I sleep fine.
Wednesday, June 24, 1998 - Day 13 - 100.1 miles - to Hingham, MT.
We are now in Big Sky country. Will it be as boring as others have told me? Will I find mile after mile of endless roads with nothing to see but cattle, dry fields and very hot temperatures? I will tell you right here and now that I did not find Montana or North Dakota that way. They were very interesting states with nice rolling hills, lots of cattle (who would run along side us, inside their fence) and fields which were on the green side. The temperatures were not the hot scorching kind that we might have had any other year. We had a good tail wind and cruised easily through Shelby, Chester, and some highway seal-coating in process to Hingham. The seal-coating was 16 miles long with about 6 miles being fresh oil and gravel, not much fun to ride on, and the remaining 10 miles, which had been swept, was not that bad. I give them credit for knowing how to put the oil down, at no time did I see oil coming up through the chip. There have been times, here in Oregon, that my bike got covered with oil because it was coming through the chip.
The town of Hingham is about 4 blocks square and without a paved streets, but had sidewalks. But, right in the middle of the town was a very beautify city park with wonderful grass, restrooms and a covered area, our campsite for the night. After a while, Scott and his daughters showed up and also Dave and Julia. Scott and the girls had taken US 2 through Glacier N.P. which was shorter and easier than Logan Pass. It was nice to have others around the camp. Showers were available across the highway at the RV park for $2. Today I rode with David to get in 100 miles.
Summary
Another week behind us and the mountains are history. While this week we were riding in very beautiful country I am looking forward to some flat lands. We rode 627.84 miles with an average of 88.8 miles per day. I would call this week "The land of high mountains and long valleys." There were no new lessons to learn and all is going good.
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