Day 123

Miles 41 Total for trip 4706.28 (I put my tire on backwards so my speedometer did not work today oops) I woke up to some nice weather so I got out of camp fast to take advantage. I decided to stay on HWY 83 until I get to Whitefish Mt. It was a real pretty ride along the Swan River. I made it almost to Swan Lake with not trouble. Around 1/4 mile out of town I had another flat. I walked it into town and found a nice store with a picnic table out front. I got a paper, took a little break, The clouds moved in fast. I was in town for no more then 30 minutes when the lightning and thunder started. It was raining hard for about 45 minutes, then slowed enough for me to fix my tire. A couple of bikers pulled into town soaked, they were on their way to Glacier Park. It was still raining a little when I left. I got 15-20 miles out of Swan Lake when I was offered a ride to Kalispell. I was wet and tired of riding in the rain so took him up on the ride. He was a nice guy. His name was Roscoe, he was on his way to do a show called Sam Singleton. It is a one-man comedy show based out of New York. He does the show all over the country and in a few months he will be going to Canada for some shows.

I decided to get a hotel in Kalispell, do some laundry, shower, and dry off from the last couple days of rain.

Day 122

Miles 53.77 Total for trip 4668.28
Avg spd 9.65
Max spd 29.22
Climb 1891
Alt chng --567 I woke up to rain today. By the look of the sky it seemed like it would be raining for some time. I passed a couple bikers from Louisiana. They were going to get to Silver City NM then take a train back home. The rain continued all day so the trail was getting muddy. I was going to get of the mud in Seeley Lake and get on HWY 83. I stopped by the ranger station and was told it was supposed to rain for the next few days. I decided to get get to Lake Inez, eat an early dinner, and set up camp. I was in my tent getting dry, and reading when I saw some sunshine. I* got out of the tent, took a few pictures of the lake, and decided to pack up my tent. I wanted to try to get in a few more hours of riding since the sun looked like it was going to be out for the rest of the night. I was going to try to make it to mile marker 46 which would be about 22 miles from Lake Inez. It was a real nice ride, not a whole lot of traffic and there was a nice slow loss of altitude so I was able to keep a nice average for the 22 miles. I didn't think I would find a nice place to camp since it was private land, but a little after mile marker 46 I was back in the forest. I went down the first dirt road and found a nice little meadow to camp in for the night.

Day 121

Miles 38.89 Total for trip 4614.51
Avg spd 8.29
Max spd 27.48
Climb 2136
Alt chng --528 I got out of camp after a small breakfast of dried mangos, a kashi bar, and a power bar. I was really looking forward to picking some huckleberries. I am sure the road had more traffic then usual since the hucks were ripe. I saw a couple who looked like they knew what they were doing and asked them what the plants look like. I got a quick course on huck picking and continued my climb armed with enough knowledge to know what to look for. I was almost to the top of the pass and saw a nice spot to park my bike and try my had at picking hucks. I was told not to eat too many or I could be in trouble later in the day. I picked a few hand fulls of hucks and decided that was enough for now. I went another half mile to the top of the pass, took a break and had another couple hand fulls.

It was a nice downhill into the town of Orvando. I stopped for a while, fixed another flat tire(I have to remember to get new tubes at the next big city, all my tubes have patches on them now and do not work very well), and decided to make it to the Monture Campground for the night.

I got to the campground and was happy to see it was a full service campground for free. I still do not kn ow how the Forest Service decides which campgrounds are free and which are fee based. The site was on a nice little creek. I though it would have been nice to have a fishing pole, the brook trout limit was 20. 20 brook trout would have made a nice dinner.

Day 120

Miles 33.64 Total for trip 4575.62
Avg spd 7.62
Max spd 28.64
Climb 2398
Alt chng --65 I was surprised to see my food bags were still hanging this morning. I will admit I am not very good at fortifying my campsite against grizzly bears. The sign said it had to be over 10 feet high, I think mine was around 6ft high. Oh well, I don't think bears will be after my wheat macaroni, almonds, or dried mangos.

I wasn't sure how far I was going today. I was going to update the blog in Lincoln and did not know how long it would take. The library had a fast internet so it did not take a whole lot of time to update so I was able to make it out of Lincoln around 5.30pm.

Not much going on today. I was able to make it about 4 miles up Huckleberry Pass after Lincoln, and look forward to fresh huckleberries tomorrow.

Day 119

Miles 34.16 Total for trip 4541.98
Avg spd 5.94
Max spd 25.74
Climb 3767
Alt chng ++547 This morning I left my great campsite near Hwy 12 knowing that there would be a lot of climbing today. The first climb of the day was called Priest Pass. It was about 1600 ft up followed by another pass that was another 500 ft. I got a flat tire about a mile before the top of Priest Pass. I told myself a couple days ago the next flat tired I would rotate my tires to get more life out of them, and also change my brakes. I was happy where the flat tire happened. There were many trees so I had some shade, and big rocks so I could relax while I took care of everything.

It was slow going today as you can see with the avg spd of 5.94. I was trying to get a little outside of Lincoln today, but with all the climbing and bike work I still have around 2o miles to go. I ran into a biker going South. His name was Eric. He gave me some valuable information about Canada. I was going to cross the boarder right near Glacier Park on my way back into the states. He took the same trails I was going to take and found out you have to go back to Roosville MT to cross back into the U.S. It looks like I will be going to Glacier on my way to Canada since I go right by there on my way out of Whitefish MT.

Day 118

Miles 45.10 Total for trip 4507.82
Avg spd 7.44
Max spd 35.58
Climb 3410
Alt chng --659 I didn't know what to expect after getting out of camp today. It was going to be a tough climb to start, around 1300 ft. I passed a couple huge mushrooms along the path today. They would have made a great dinner, but I do not know anything about wild mushrooms.

After around 1200 ft I started to think Randy exaggerated a little bit about how tough the roads were. After a turn onto a less traveled road I decided he was not. I was happy I was almost to the top of the hill. The trail turned into a single track that had large rocks, and many tree roots crossing the trail. It was about a 3 mile downhill, but with all the rocks and roots I was still only at around a 4.5 mph avg. It was as trough as any road in New Mexico, but it was not a very long trail.

After the downhill I had to decide if I wanted to go to Helena or take a shortcut around it. I decided to check out Helena. I rode around the town a couple miles then hit the local Mcds. I ate dinner and got out of town. I rode out on Hwy 12 for around 8 miles. I was close to my turn off, but it looked like there was just private property. I saw a spot up 10 feet along the 12 were I would be out of sight so I decided to stay there for the night.

Day 117

Miles 38.10 Total for trip 4462.72
Avg spd 8.19
Max spd 20.54
Climb 2247
Alt chng ++806 Finally out of Butte, and dry!!! I made one more pit stop on the way out of town to get another chain, just in case.

The morning ride took me on the I15 for a few miles. It was nice to get back on the dirt after riding the frontage roads for a few days. The bike trouble may have been a blessing in disguise. When I got on the dirt roads there was still a lot of water. Most of the mud bogs were ride able. I saw a whole bunch of bike tracks in the mud and wondered if they were going up or down. I got to the bottom of the hill and it turned out the tracks went up and down. There was a group of 4 who parked their truck at the bottom of the hill and rode it up and down.

I had planned on getting up to Chessman Reservoir today, but I remembered Randy's tale of some tough roads ahead. I saw a great little place to camp right on a creek and decided I had gone enough for the day. I met Randy at the KOA camp. He got stuck on top of one of the passes during the epic hail storm(golf ball size hail). He was lucky enough to have a couple of trucks to sit under for most of the hail. He told me about some of the tough roads, it sounds like Montana will try to take the worst road trophy from New Mexico.

The camp spot I found is on my short list for favorite spots. The creek it is by was going really good after 3 heavy days of rain, and you can see an old mine on the other side of the creek. I tried to find a spot to cross, but with the high flow decided against it.

The tunnel was not very long, but was a little spooky with my not so bright headlight.