We spent a great weekend enjoying the company and hospitality of Bill and Anita in Sandpoint, a great town in a beautiful setting on Lake Pend Oreille. We ate way too much and were treated to the maiden voyage of Jim and Laurie Armbruster's (Anita's daughter) pontoon boat. I told that old joke about the two happiest days in a boat owner's life...you know, the day they get their boat and the day they get rid of it. That turned out to be oddly prophetic as the engine died in the middle of the lake and we had to be towed back in by the marine police. Spirits remained high and we're sure the boat will be up and running in no time.
We decided to spend an extra day in Sandpoint because of bad weather and I got the chance to hone my tiling skills by working on the grout and caulking in the shower. It worked out great for all as I was getting antsy with our third day off the bikes.
Finally back on our bikes again, we took off under grey skies toward Montana. WOW, almost immediately we started with some eye popping scenery. Our map took us on a detour from the main route which followed a broad valley with steep walled hills looming over beautiful green meadows. We ran into a couple of young fellows bike touring the same way as we are. It was 1:00 by this time and they were planning on going another 70 miles that day...Oh to be young again! They had left from Seattle and told us how they'd had eight dog attacks in two miles going through the indian reservation in Washington...yikes! We opted for a more modest 45mile day and ended up riding under clearing skies to a very pleasant RV park on the Clark Fork River. We've met so many wonderful people on this trip and spoke to a nice woman at the park who had done a similar trip years ago and offered us anything we need while we were camped there.
In the morning we were escorted up the Bull River by puffy white clouds in a deep blue sky. The air here, after a few days of rain, seems unnaturally clear. It seems as if the hills and trees are magnified and all our senses feel hyper sensitive. We're not even to Glacier Park yet and already feel overwhelmed by the scenic overkill of this area. In the afternoon we took a break and hiked down to Kootenai Falls on the river of the same name. This is where they filmed the gnarly river scenes for the movie The River Wild. Very impressive. I have never seen hydraulics like this and the power of the water was truly amazing.
Our morning ride took us up the Kootenai River, past the Libby Dam and along Lake Kookanusa. We enjoyed a perfect day of riding with beautiful sunny skies, little traffic and wonderful scenery. We spent the night at a nearly deserted USFS campground and enjoyed a (very) brief bath in the snowmelt lake and a glass of wine on the fishing dock. However, no place is perfect and we spent a somewhat nervous night after reading the numerous signs warning of bears in the area...and yes, we were in Grizzly country. The camp host helped by informing us that MOST of the grizzles were on the other side of the lake...very comforting. We strung our food up and spent a rather uneasy night but all was quiet and we woke with all body parts still attached.
The weather turned on us a bit the next day and we started our ride under threatening skies. After a good lunch in the cute town of Eureka, Kelly suggested that we make a "real" ride of it and go all the way to Whitefish...the next place with a shower (and no grizzlies). We'd already ridden 35miles of hills and it was now 2:00 but what the heck. We rode up and down more hills like crazy for another 48 miles and finished out with some very sore bodies for a 7:30 finish at a Whitefish motel...what a day! Whitefish has been somewhat over run with the super rich and late in the day we took a very pleasant detour which took us off the highway along a nicely kept, winding road past "designer ranches" with ornate iron gates and animatronic deer prancing across perfect green meadows.
Before leaving town we sat at a sidewalk cafe having a bite when we were surprised to run into Mark and Sally Cheney, friends from Siskiyou County...what a small world. We finished up this leg of our trip with a blessedly short ride of 30miles into West Glacier where we will be taking a couple of welcome days off to rest our legs and explore Glacier National Park.
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