We've now ridden ~400 miles in 8 days. All is still going well.
We are spending the night with our friends Haydi and David. David grew up near here, and is in the area for his 50th high school reunion - and we are staying at the wonderful cabin that his father built 60 years ago, right on the Flathead River less than a mile north of the Flathead Lake. It's wonderful, and full of birds. We're lucky that they happen to be in the area.
Of the 8 days of riding, roughly four have been in beautiful wild backcountry gravel roads - and the other four have been riding through the Elk River Valley in Canada and now the Flathead River Valley in MT. Montana seems to be taken over by ranchette sprawl - anything ouitside of public property is subdivided and developed and is not very attractive. But soon we will be back on public land.
Bikes are still serving us well, no mechanical problems and no flats.
Somebody asked about cooking and water treatment. We use Aqua Mira to treat water. And we don't cook. We get hot meals at cafes or deli counters at grocery stores when we can. And when we pack meals - crackers, cheese, carrots, red peppers, chips, deli lunch meat, tuna, apples, hummus, chocolate, cookies. For breakfast, muffins, fruit, yoghurt, cliff/power bars. For us, that tastes better than the Mac&Cheese type dinners, so there it is no sacriifce for us to not carry a stove, pot, and fuel. Some people like the aesthetics of a hot meal so for those folks a stove makes sense - but it isn't needed in terms of nutrition.
Wildlife report: one bear (probably black bear) on the road across the Whitefish divide, three moose, a marmot, many small rodents, and many birds (too numerous to list).
We continue to be lucky with weather. Temps from 29 to 85. It looks like we have hot weather coming later this week, which will be unfortunate.
When we crossed the pass into the Flathead Valley we hit the smoke from the intense fires burning in NW Montana. So far we have not had to change our route. We'll stop a the Ranger Station tomorrow to get current information on the next 100 miles. This is a very bad fire year here.
Our next post will probably be next Sunday (Aug 19) from Helena.
- Rickson, Amy, Jim
2 comments:
Thanks for the updates. We are keeping track of your trek on our maps. As a rather committed couch potato, it is amazing to look at those mountains and picture the three of you riding your bicycles over them.
Hi Amy and Jim
The Orchid plant on the stand has a new flower spike on it. The plant may dissapear between now and when you get back.
Ron
Post a Comment